Blackpool Fc - The Business

AstonMartin

I read in a couple of places that blackpool made £40m profit this season. They have the lowest wage bill so can adjust back into the championship and smaller revenues easily. They are going to cash in on adam and possibly campbell and vaughn. They will get a parachute payment from the FA and will be able to build a team capable of pushing for promotion next season.

Is it now a better business model to try to get 1 season in 3 in the PL with an all out attacking team that will get tv revenue and people in the stands that try to compete with the likes of city for title winning players or flirt with profitability to finish mid table like villa?

pickarooney

The major flaws with this are the relative strength of the Championship - it's hard to guess who'll go up or down in any given year - and the impossibility of keeping a solid core of players together. You can't realistically expect to rebuild a team every season and be in with a promotion chance. As a fan I'd prefer my team to play good football and experience the highs and lows of relegation and promotion rather than the soul-destroying monotony of being a perpetual mid-table side, but most fans differ.

bohsfan

I'm a Reading fan and we experienced a similar process to Blackpool a few years back. We were promoted with a good, committed team. We played out of our skins the first year up but had a similar season to Blackpools the second time.

Reading didnt go mad buying players. They even managed to raise the profile of some of to their own that they were able to sell them on. We were then there or thereabouts the following season in the Champo but fell away and lost in the play-offs. Another OK season followed. This season at the third attempt it is a case of win or bust. If we don't go up I feel the nucleus of the team (Long, Mills, Karacan, Kebe etc.) will move on. Championship mediocrity will abound.

So- while I see the merit of what you are saying, the Champo is such a competitive league that there are no guarantees about getting back up and establishing yourself as a yo-yo team.

The last few years have been more entertaining from a supporters standpoint than settling for 15th in the Premier year after year though!

AstonMartin

BBC quoting deloitte

promotion worth £90m to swansea.

further £42m potenially if imediately relegated.

that money if mostly used wisely could go a long way in the championship if relegated.

Paully D

Vaughan's leaving for free, Campbell will leave for less than £1.5m and Adam has one year left on his contract so will probably leave for less than £5m.

Blackpool had a seriously low wage budget that's why they made so much money as most clubs are spending 80% of their turnover on wages - sad, but that's the way it is these days.

If you go down you lose your better players, so it's difficult to keep coming back time after time. Also, the parachute payments (or at least the amount of them decrease) next season or the season after next IIRC?

Put it simply - the Premier League is the place to be and I doubt Blackpool will back within the next 3 seasons either.

I really can't get why supporters would rather their clubs in the leagues below just because it's ''exciting'' either. I'd rather finish mid-table season after season than say win a domestic cup and get relegated, simply because it benefits the club so much more being in the Premier League.

parker kent

Paully D wrote: »

I really can't get why supporters would rather their clubs in the leagues below just because it's ''exciting'' either. I'd rather finish mid-table season after season than say win a domestic cup and get relegated, simply because it benefits the club so much more being in the Premier League.

I can't understand preferring finishing mid table to winning a cup. Who'll remember who finished 10th in 30 years time? But winning a trophy is always remembered. Do Sunderland fans get more out of beating Leeds in the FA Cup final or the last few seasons of being mid-table in the Premiership?

Kiwi_knock

As a Birmingham City I would have chosen winning the Carling Cup over staying in the Premier League. The best a club like ours can do is face another relegation battle next season. The Championship gives us the chance to see our team win more regularly, and in my opinion the Championship is a more exciting League because simply anyone of the teams could win it or get promoted.

PHB

I think that once you are in Blackpool's position, you should throw a ****load of money into youth. Youth systems that produce players are incredibly profitable, even United's. The problem with United's though is that the pressures of the first team football mean that you can't afford to give youngsters a chance by inlarge without giving up your chance to win trophies. However, if you are like Blackpool, going up and down etc., you can afford to blood the best youngsters in your area in the championship for a season, then get promoted the following season, then let them develop in the PL, and sell them on. Over time, the squad will improve year on year, until you get to the level of a decent PL club and are able to stay up.

West Ham's youth team produced so many top quality players as a result of them getting relegated.