As he talks through the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Rochdale, chief executive David Bottomley is aware of how irrelevant discussions around the loss of season ticket money and the lack of games sounds. “People are dying,” Bottomley says, “so in the grand scheme of things professional sport is irrelevant, but we love sport, 19million people went to watch an EFL League One game last season, that’s astonishing.” For now, sport might be on the back burner, but when we get through this living nightmare it is the one thing we’ll flock to again.
Just imagine that first weekend of football, with stadiums open, and the feeling of walking back into Old Trafford, the Etihad, Spotland, Moor Lane or Broadhurst Park.