Time to map out a plan for Villa's future
- Says blogger Matthew Turvey
Blog: Credit crunch on football?
Friday 20th June 2008, 7:17AM BST.
Another week with no news coming out of the Hawthorns I now find myself with another opportunity to discuss another fundamental issue that now faces the world of football, writes blogger Jarrod Hill.
I was seriously facing the prospect of not being able to think of a blog subject worthy of your time until I had an interesting conversation last night with a good friend (Simon Worth) who is not only a very successful businessman but also an Albion fan to boot (and no before you ask he cannot afford Jeremy Peaces shares).
The conversation centred on the financial credit crunch now affecting every aspect of our lives, and with us both being Baggies fans we soon began focusing on how football could soon be affected.
Everything from a loaf of bread to filling up your car is rising in price, inflation is higher than salary increases and people are starting to tighten their collective belts. In my opinion it is inevitable that the credit crunch will soon affect football in a critical way.
Firstly, attendances will drop, we are all aware of how expensive it is to support our teams and when money is tight or you are out of work it is always the non essentials that we have to do without. Jeremy Peace seems to have had the foresight to offer fantastic ticket deals for the forth coming season and when combined with our promotion to the Premier League and Mowbray’s brand of entertaining football we have bucked the trend.
However, others may not be so lucky, with fuel prices going up everything associated with watching football will become more expensive, your drive, bus ride or train fare will increase, the price of your beer and food will go up, and it will have even more of an affect for those of us who attend away games.
Many people will choose to stay at home and watch the beautiful game on TV, this will only serve to strengthen SKY TVs grip on the world of football and help the Premiership get richer and richer. You may feel this is fine while we are in the Premiere League but what about the effect it will have as a whole?
The polarisation of the Premier League from the rest of the divisions will become more apparent, I know it is hard to imagine but the gulf in wealth will probably widen further, but in an age where the Premiership has become king, until the golden goose is affected nothing will be done.
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Why does the price of beer have to go up!!
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I expect Albion will use that as an excuse for not dipping heavily into the transfer market? Then again who are we actually attracting.
Overall Jarrod some good thoughts but I think it will always end up with the Prem clubs wealthier and the lower leagues offering kids for a quid similar to what we had to do last season and that being without the fuel prices soaring to what they are now.
The bottom line though if the football quality dips then fans will walk.
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boneswba
Anything that has to be transported will go up due to the cost of fuel, unless that wasnt a question and more of a sinking to your knees and shouting to the heavens why oh why does beer have to go up, then yes i have done the same my friend!!!
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apart from the credit crunch what if the same 3 teams get relegated as got promoted ,it then makes a mockery of the championship!! some of the teams have wealthy owners but what happpens if one of those gets hit by the credit crunch riches to rags because the wages are not generated by the club!! any way once the saeson starts the credit crunch will be forgotten and the uefa cup will beckon!!!
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To be honest I don’t think it will strengthen sky’s position. I would have thought that most people would cancel sky in hard times.
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Unfortunatly football is at an unsustainable level at the moment. The top clubs being used as a toy for the billionaires the rest trying to survive.
I really hope one day this sky deal falls apart and we can oncemore have a level playing field but I’m afraid it’ll never happen.
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Nice one Jarrod !! Your last paragraph sums up the whole thing superbly. The problem is though nothing will be allowed to affect the Golden Goose – there’s far too much at stake with the likes of Sky etc.
Unfortunately there is a mucher bleaker scenario that if we’re not careful will sound the death nell for ‘English’ football at grass roots level. The more this polarisation happens then the more liklihood there is of clubs in the lower divisions going out of business. Although the ‘bigger’ clubs perhaps do not rely on using the lower leagues as ‘market places’ as much as they used to the smaller clubs still have a vital role to play in the future of our national game.
How do we get round this ? I don’t know. Perhaps the larger and richer clubs should take other clubs ‘under their wing’ ? However there aren’t enough big clubs to look after all the small clubs. Perhaps there is no answer. Something has to be done though by the rich boys to keep the poor ones going.
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Too much money for the Premier League teams and not enough finding its way down the ladder.
I have a suggestion for you:
Instead of driving to away matches – which as you point out is getting much more expensive – why not turn up to another of the local sides that’s playing at home that night?
Also, when the Albion are on SKY and therefore not playing at 3pm on a Saturday, why not do the same?
It’ll be cheaper to watch a lower division side and you’ll get your daily/weekly fix.
It narks me that you hear all these fans shouting “Woe is me having to drive a 400 mile round trip for the next game”.
No you don’t.
If you can’t afford it – don’t do it.
Simple.
There are always alternatives.
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8. Nice in theory but it ain’t going to happen. As much as I hope Walsall do well and look out for their results there is no way I’d miss going to an Albion away game over going to see Walsall at home. If I can’t afford it the most likely outcome will be that I go to no football game that weekend in order to save up enough to go to the next Albion away game. I’d rather attend 1 in 3 Albion away games than see 2 or 3 Walsall home games…….
Albion are the only club for me
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boneswba,
is that you bones, british oak, swindon, etc
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Good article, except you neglect to consider that Sky as well will suffer from reduction in disposable incomes. When far less people choose to subscribe and advertise on Sky Sports, less money for sky, less money for tv rights, the whole thing will fall apart, wolveswolves is right it is unsustainable in it’s current state
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If money is tight in football at the moment, why the hell are we looking at spending £4m on a crap striker like ameobi, from what I’ve heard from all the geordies up here they cant wait to get rid of him.
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HI JARROD,i said the same thing to nicole last night about how much more exspensive it will be going to away games this coming season,so cut backs have to be made so ive told her i,ll have to go on my own, aye boing boing
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As many of you have pointed out the credit crunch could affect SKY aswell and i agree, i havent neglected this as a subject but when i started writing the blog i realised i could have written maybe 2-3000 words and you would have all given up reading it half way through.
What SKY have in their favour is the fact they sell their packages all over the world, and with immerging nations their global brand gets bigger and bigger, maybe more to lose???
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very intersting article mate.
its hitting me hard for sure, cant get a loan to get my motorbike thats my main concern. I was speaking with one of the security guys at my place yday and he said something simliar. How can teams such as Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool etc not get fined or deducted points despite working in hundreds of millions of pounds defecit when teams such as Luton and QPR get fined for being a million in the red???
Thoughts…..
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jarrod…i was actually crying my eyes out at the time of writing that!!
10)Different person i think mate!
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8,maths,can you do your maths and tell me how much cheaper it is to watch lower league sides,wolves,brum,walsall,i think you mite be suprised, aye boing boing
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17. Terry my old friend you’re quite right. For example at Bristol Rovers a season ticket varies from around £200 for standing to over £400 seated – and that’s for (effectively) third division football !!
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boingboing666
A very interesting point, my dad has been banging on for years now that there should be a restriction on trading if you are x amount in debt. The day will never happen though as this is how the majority of clubs are now run.
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You know Jarrod, I thought you were going to write a blog on how the credit crunch could affect the clubs spending power. When does the club get its Sky money ? End of the season ? Phased over the season ? All up front (very unlikely). So does this mean that the Albion have to borrow knowing they will get their revenue streams from TV and other sponsorship to repay the borrowings. Does this inturn mean that if football clubs want to borrow (Albion included) that they might not get what they want on the terms that they want ?
Buying a player late on in August saves a pile of interest compared to a player bought in June. 2 months on £4,000,000 at what 10% = £400,000 divided by 12 months x 2 = just short of £70,000 and thats not compound interest either.
Might help explain in part why no business is being done yet.
I am sure Jeremey has done the sums.
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Jarrod.
I’m probably not so well informed on financial matters as you and your mate but I’ve been considering this myself lately albeit in how we as a club can go forward. I think this is the reason JP has suddenly come out again appealing for financial backers. Before the financial meltdown began, I was thinking that if we can stay up this season then the Board would seriously consider increasing the ground capacity along with some packages to encourage new supporters. I’ve said on here before that there has been a noticable increase in Asian and Afro/Carribean supporters. This section of our community is largely untapped. The problem is that as you have pointed out, crowds are likely to be shrinking throughout football, making any ground improvements a possible white elephant. This in turn places even more importance on keeping TM and his inspired signings, as well as JP’s sound financial handling more important than ever. Clubs will go bust in the next season or two, I don’t want ours to be one of them.
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