Thursday, Jul 17, 2008
The next victim of the credit crunch football
MoneyWeek: The next victim of the credit crunch football
At last, it seems, one of the last bastions of economic unreality is about to get a cold shower. If ever you needed proof that the 'crunch' is going to bite a lot harder, this is it and surely not before time
Posted by damien @ 11:16 AM (1391 views) Add Comment
26 Comments
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1. Cheekie Charlie said...
This has stolen my thunder! I have been telling my colleagues and friends to abandon shares in football for a few months. All you need to look at is the history of the premiership, its fortunes almost mirror the business cycle and its so highly geared its business model makes Northern Rock look almost respectable.
2. japanese uncle said...
Soon you will be able to buy football tickets for a few quids.
3. montesquieu said...
Time these pampered tos*sers got a gold shower. Hugely enjoyed this piece.
4. Steve99 said...
Good. hopefully another frivolous, egotistical centre of over hyped self worth has to deal with reality. Devalue a football clubs assets by 80% and pay its stars 5% of todays rates and they will still be overpaid primadonnas, so what if todays stars wont get out of bed for that money, who cares? we can recruit local players and have real football again with ticket prices for real people, not overpaid chavs who think that £30+ a game is money well spent. Todays set up with football is in line with, pay-for ring tones, £40 false nails, £2.50 starbucks coffee, bonuses for people who trick other people into taking out loans and £200K average houseprices
5. montesquieu said...
er, that would be cold shower. A golden one is probably a bit more F1 than football ...
6. nooneo said...
I'm just praying for financial meltdown beforeMan U secure enough finance to entice Dimitar Berbatov away from spurs!
7. drewster said...
Football revenues aren't just ticket sales; I think they actually earn more from advertising and sponsorship. So how is advertising holding up? According to Monday's Telegraph: Advertising spend slashed by most since 9/11 terror attacks.
Magazines are in trouble, in particular a title called (try not to laugh) Mortgage Adviser. Marketing budgets across the board are suffering. According to the Telegraph, "Marketing spend grew by only 2.8% in 2007, after a bumper 2006 when spend was up over 18%." Although the figures aren't broken down by month or by quarter, it seems likely that Q1 and Q2 2007 continued at the same pace as 2006, whereas Q3 onwards was when the proverbial hit the fan. The article continues: "The media sectors most severely hit were, predictably, television, print, outdoor, cinema and radio." Yup, MoneyWeek looks like they've called it right again!
8. little professor said...
JJB/Sports Direct have reported massive drops in sales of replica kit etc. Add to this a reduction in the number of people prepared to hand over £££ for season tickets and a droop in Sky Sports subscribers, due to the chaotic fracturing of football coverage with Setanta and it looks like the Premiership is in big trouble.
9. plato said...
Used to love football.
Now a great sport has been turned into a fashion parade for twerps,ponces,plonkers, over-rated/over-paid talent (who could not lick George Best's boots and many other players), cheats, crybabies,cowards .......................................... OK ! I've probably missed out a lot of bad remarks, but I don't want to be too critical as they have so many young fans who know no better.
Before anyone starts : G.Best was a great talent-- a footbal genius --------- so anything he did was down to him and not to pretend. It was part of his real character and therefore forgivable.That was THE George Best.
10. Whostolemyendowment said...
When the premiership was created I lost all interest in football....this was cemented by the ludicrous money being thrown around by sat and cable companies, and the clubs themselves....so the players and managers could live the life of kings. Money from dubious sources has also poured in to the game. This while the foundation of the game in the lower leagues struggled....
It is about time this corrupt top tier crashed, but unfortunately the beautiful game will suffer.
11. Sobers said...
I think the best thing that could come out of the current economic crisis would be the end of the pampered primadonnas that currently grace the Premier league. If UEFA manage to reduce the amount of foreign players that would be the icing on the cake. I might even start going to watch my local club again.....
12. musn't grumble said...
I got bored of football when they started importing so many foreigners and any empathy I had with the local team evaporated.
13. debtfree said...
most games are boring so can't really see what all the fuss is about. got some tickets for an arsenal game once, was yawning by half time and couldn't wait for it to end. stadium was cool but thats about it.
14. letthemfall said...
So recessions do have their benefits after all. Still, I don't suppose we will see the thick-legged and thick-brained players lose out that much. No doubt they will still be sending out their bad passes, showing their ugly mugs in the papers and committing violence and mayhem outside night clubs each weekend - the English ones anyway. And as for the arguments about talent... take a look at the typical England football performance. Not Spain is it? On me 'ed my son!
15. icarus said...
Maybe mini-bubbles, like football and all the inflated numbers associated with it, grow much faster than big bubbles like housing and will go pop that much louder? I believe the first £100k transfer fee was for Jimmy Greaves about 40 years ago. I'd guess that the average wage at that time was £80 a week. Since then wages have gone up by a factor of maybe 6 while top-end transfer fees have gone up by a factor of about 500 !!!
16. renting2 said...
This will spread to music and film takings.
17. icarus said...
Just found out Greaves' £100k transfer was nearly 50 years ago (1961), when average wages were about £30-40 a week. Still there's a big difference between wage inflation and transfer fee inflation since then.
18. layers said...
Great, let them burn! What I hate about football today is it's the epitome of Capitalist sh*t - all glitz and glamour for those false idols which every muppet subscribes too. Eat the Rich
19. Luckyjim said...
I do wonder who on earth is going to lend two americans 400 million to build a new stadium in Liverpool. They are first time buyers after all.
20. afrobaggie said...
It is not transfer fees that are a problem as such, but the money that TV rights generate, but then again £40 million a season for TV rights per club is a drop in the ocean when you are owned by an Oligarch (that lives here tax free) that thinks nothing of sinking £750 million into a club like Chelsea. This is not just an English disease either, with clubs like Real Madrid bankrolled by dodgy dealings involving selling property to the City of Madrid, which was investigated by the European Commission.
Just to put it into perspective the rumours are that Ronaldo is being offer £300k a week (Tax free) to kick a bag of wind about for Real Madrid average wage in UK £500 per week?
21. afrobaggie said...
I meant to add that transfer fees are sometimes how the smaller clubs survive - that and a good FA Cup run - so high transfer fees in themselves are not the issue. But charging the average punter of an average to poor team over £30 (none Premiership) to watch a team of pimped up prima donnas loose week in week out is not on!
22. _woody said...
Hope Liverpool find 20 million (a ridiculous sum for a solid performer) for Robbie Keane before the crunch sets in.
Saw a baseball match in America a couple of years ago and was struck by how commercial the whole spectacle was - it was like going to the theatre for a bit of entertainment rather than a sense of following your team. The sums of money involved nowdays has certainly diluted any pleasure I get from the professional game.
Oh and I wonder who the top 4 sides will be this year?
23. icarus said...
afrobaggie (an African who supports WBA?) - the size of transfer fees is just one metric among others to illustrate the extent of the football bubble. Your point about dodgy money behind some clubs is interesting - dodgy money finding its way into a bubble, where it's easily swished around, cleaned and tumble-dried?
24. afrobaggie said...
icarus@20 (White guy with Afro that supports WBA) Exactly, whether they are Russian, Serbian, American or whatever I don't think too many clubs ask where the money comes from when a sugar daddy offers to take them over.
25. Whostolemyendowment said...
Maybe pepsi, et al, can stop wasting advertising money on the likes of Becham, etc.....
26. Eastleighfan said...
Like a few others on here , I used to live for football , That was until Thatcher decided to kick the working class one more time ,after destroying manafacturing , and bring in all-seater stadiums .
This had nothing to do with safety , and everything to do with turning it into a middle class game ,from which the working classes are excluded .
Ticket prices soared ,and went further out of reach to working class supporters . Now it looks like the chickens may be coming home to roost . If the rich exit football because of falling gates , it will be left to the genuine supporters to "pick up the pieces" . Question is , "are there any left ?"