There are some serious problems at the heart of English
football. Debt, despite what Scudamore thinks, is not a good thing.
How can there be anything good about millions of pounds in interest
vanishing from the game?
Everything is staked on the hope that revenues will continue to
rise, but they can’t keep going up forever. Sooner or later, people
run out of money. Ticket prices go too high, cable subscriptions
become too expensive, replica shirts become an unnecessary expense.
Football clubs have been ripping off fans for years. It will not
last forever and when it ends, we’re going to see some fireworks.
Leeds will not be the last team to collapse under the weight of
their own stupidity.
Debts isn't purely confine to only English clubs my dear
friend... The majority of European clubs have it... Even Real
Madrid... So its not as what you perceived it to be "serious
problems at the heart of English football"
Valencia, one of the better Spanish club
also have huge debt problems... If you compare them
to Arsenal and Liverpool then you will know that Pool and
Arsenal's problems are not as serious despite having debts of
around $300m. Reason being, they are much more profitable
to Valencia.
And not everything is just pin on revenues will continue to
rise... Just maintaining current levels is more than enough. Which
is not something very difficult to do in the present state for
these clubs as sponsorship deals have been signed for the next few
years...
We have seen that even during the financial crises or the
economic tsunami, they remain strong. If anything, we are seeing
new high in Tv deals being set, new transfer record fees being
broken... Bigger sponsorship fees from shirts to other
areas being closed... These are all signs of much better days
ahead.
As a businessman, these are good opportunities to get into the
game. Cos the future looks bright. And unless something very
drastic happens, and I mean very drastic... Example like a war
breaks out, and I don't just mean a war like the Iraq one
which was already very big, but it still doesn't really effect
Europe... So maybe one like a WW3 type, which I
belief is still very remote so there shouldn't be too much
worry there.
My personal belief is tickets will continue to raise over the
next 5 to 10 years... Even if not for other reasons, inflation
alone will make it happen.
In United's case, it shouldn't be too serious... Like someone
mentioned here, if the Glazers cannot pay up, the most they will
have to sell it off to someone else at whatever price they can get
or the banks will do it for them. And there shouldn't be any lack
of takers too, only the price to accept that's all. The
reason being due to the proper management over the last 2 decades,
it is the most profitable club.
One thing you must understand is... The current debts isn't
incur due to operation but rather due to the owner's purchase of
it. So the club being in debts wouldn't frighten serious investors.
The worse case if they can't get a single investor, they can always
re-list on the stock market or have a few different private
shareholders...
The picture you painted is too gloomy, probably too extreme I
would say... Leeds is no longer a good example to be used with
United... They live in a different time, Tv deals and revenue was
not as it is today, they hardly had a marketing plan back then, or
huge sponsorship deals to help support the club and of course a
rich owner... Income mainly depended on getting into champions
league as gate collection then was very little. And Leeds
probably didn't had a proper plan, buying a few very expensive
players with high salaries at the same time was the killer blow for
them.
And lastly, and very unfortunately... I think cable
subscriptions will continue to go up in the years to come, new
design or colours replica shirts will still sell just like they
have been increasing this last few years... Thats just the way it
looks to me at least for the next 10 years if no WW3 breaks
out.