Yahoo News How Stoke City season will look different due to massive new Sky Sports deal
There are a few important days in the diary coming up for Stoke City and supporters.
It's fixture release day on Wednesday at 9am. The Carabao Cup draw will take place on Thursday. Players report back for pre-season training on Monday, July 1. It's the first friendly on July 11 and a training camp in Ireland from July 13. But there will be another significant announcement coming over the hill and that regards which matches are to be selected for live coverage on Sky Sports.
More Stoke games than ever before will be shown live in 2024/25 - at least 24, including the opening day, final day, all mid-week fixtures and all games on bank holidays as part of a £935 million deal that covers the next five years.
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But only games on the opening weekend will be allowed to broadcast on Saturday afternoons - so that means at least 23 Stoke matches not on a Saturday afternoon. There will be games on Friday evenings and Saturday and Sunday lunchtimes as well as selections on Thursday and Monday evenings.
The campaign will run from the weekend of August 10 until May 3. There will be 46 rounds of league matches, held over 33 weekends, nine mid-weeks and four Bank Holidays in the Championship. Leagues One and Two will play on 36 weekends and six mid-weeks. The League Cup and Football League Trophy will continue with the same formats from last season. The Carabao Cup will launch in mid-August. The play-off finals, meanwhile, will take place over the 2025 May Bank Holiday weekend.
Television selections for all matches to be played before the end of September will be confirmed by July 1, within seven days of the fixtures being announced.
Selection of all other matches scheduled to be played before the FA Cup third round, in January 2024, will be confirmed before the start of the season. Selection of all matches to be played between the FA Cup third round and the first weekend of March will be confirmed by November 1. Selection of all matches scheduled after the first weekend of March will be made on a four-week rolling basis starting from February 1.
Sky use the example that a match picked for TV coverage in the first weekend of April will be announced by the first weekend of March. It adds: "This is almost six month’s notice provided to fans and clubs, a significant increase on the current deal, which sees five weeks' notice given across the majority of the season. By selecting TV picks early and giving much more notice, fans will be able to plan with certainty when making travel and hotel arrangements."
Key dates for Stoke City diaries
Wednesday, June 26: Fixture release date (9am)
Monday, July 1: Players return to Clayton Wood for pre-season training
Thursday, July 11: Chester FC vs Stoke City (7.45pm kick-off)
Saturday, July 13 to Friday, July 19: First team training camp in Cork
Wednesday, July 17: Cork City vs Stoke City (kick-off time TBC)
Tuesday, July 23: Crewe Alexandra v Stoke City (7.30pm kick-off)
Saturday, July 27: Stockport County vs Stoke City (2pm kick-off*)
Tuesday, July 30: Bolton Wanderers v Stoke City (7.30pm kick-off)
Saturday, August 3: Stoke City vs AZ Alkmaar (3pm kick-off)
Saturday, August 10: EFL Championship starts
August 13-14: Carabao Cup first round
Saturday, May 3, 2025: season end
May 24-26, 2025: play-off final weekend
