Meadow Lane Visit Rearranged

Last updated : 16 January 2010 By Bournemouth Co-ordinator

The Cherries date with Notts County at Meadow Lane has been moved to accommodate the Sky Sports cameras. This comes as a slap in the face after Notts County refused to consider the postponed match at Dean Court to be played, scheduled for mid-February, in front of the live TV cameras.

Speaking in the Bournemouth Evening Echo about the switch, Eddie Mitchell is quoted as saying: "It makes you wonder whether they knew this was on the cards when they declined the chance to come here. They said they didn’t want to play two games in three days. Their excuse was that they had a tough match against Rochdale on the Saturday and didn’t want to travel here on the Monday night. We were more than prepared to go to Dagenham on the Saturday and play again on the Monday. It all seems a bit of a fudge to me. They decided to decline our offer of half of the television money and now they are going to cop the lion’s share".

Since the decision to switch the game at Meadow Lane for the TV camera's, it has been revealed that Notts County will share the TV fee, so that both clubs will now receive £20,000. Mitchell is quoted as saying: "It’s very good of them. We offered it to them and they offered it back. It’s great and I think that’s how it should be. It was well received and we are very appreciative. It’s a great gesture".

For their part, Gary Townsend, Chief Exec of Notts County is quoted as saying: "Sky had indicated they would like to televise our rearranged away fixture at Bournemouth in February but the proposed date would have come 48 hours after a game with league leaders Rochdale, and this would not have been suitable for us. Subsequently, Sky approached us to televise the home fixture, to which we have agreed. Bournemouth had offered to split the facility fee on a 50-50 basis if we had been able to accommodate the date for the rearranged game in Bournemouth in February. Therefore, we feel it fair and appropriate under the circumstances to offer them the same gesture".