Couple of questions based on this answer.
An October - July season is just as long as an August - May one so why would it involve squashing games?
What evidence is there that people would not like a season that does not run August - May?
All civil discussion, mate. I've enjoyed the debate and agree with some of your points, disagree with others.
For what it's worth, I didn't at any point argue that Russia or the Scandinavian leagues were as popular as the Premier League.
The onus is surely on you to substantiate the point that changing the schedule would be just as popular. I don't see any evidence for this whatsoever. I've never heard a single fan say they wanted it. When it's been mooted for the World Cup it has been roundly unpopular. No academic study has shown it would be beneficial. No market engagement tests have shown it yo be popular. In fact the leagues that have adopted that schedule are demonstrably less popular than the leagues that operate to our schedule, and each year that goes by they become more unpopular too.
I would say, as far as I can get it, that it is overwhelming evidence that people like the season as it is, and that we don't want to change.
I do accept that cancelling the season is not ideal. I also accept, we are in the lesser of two evils territory, and can completely understand someone saying the principle of cancelling a season is a greater evil than the evil of restructuring seasons. However what I can't have is that we paint any of the above as a net neutral, or even a positive. Thats a disingenuous framing of the debate. Just as me going "there's no evidence to say that cancel the season would be a bad thing" would be laughed out of town.
I'd also add, I accept that in an abstract sense maybe moving the season works. However there needs to be a proper consultation process done on this, academic study, fan engagement, questions about suitability of stadium, physical studies on athletes etc. There needs to be engagements with sponsors, with TV companies, with other stakeholders to see what they want. This process takes a lot of time.
To me it's dangerous just bouncing into this without doing any of the necessary engagement, especially at a time of a pandemic and also a time where we will be facing an acute financial crisis in the game. It will distort results.
I appreciate the discussion has been civil. However I think using phraseology such as "unreasonable" or making needless moral judgements about answers that have been provided to you, when you have asked for answers is not a great way to hold a debate. Whatever your personal opinion of the points raised, there has to be an acceptance that objectively there are problems that exist in (for example) moving seasons.