[Archived] Credit Crunch To Hit Football?

[PAFELL]

I can tell you without a scintilla of doubt that you can totally discount that speculation.

The Trustees see Rovers as self-sustainable in the Prem- why do you think they took a break in making contributions?

I doubt they see any model as sustainable outside the Premier League.

If that is the case why have they not stepped in with regards to Ince. It is obvious to all around that rovers are going down with this clown in charge.

The Trustees have failed to put in proper, needful investment into the club for awhile - because of that the club may well be relagated. Personally I do not believe Rovers will be relegated - unless they refuse to get rid of Ince.

The trustees appear to have imposed a credit crunch upon Rovers well before the current world financial troubles.

[thenodrog]

West Ham & Pompey feeling the pinch.

West Ham striker Dean Ashton will be sold in the January transfer window, with the Hammers desperate to raise funds in light of the Carlos Tevez saga. (Daily Mirror)

West Ham suffer new Tevez setback

Other players set to be shown the door at Upton Park include Nigel Quashie, Lee Bowyer, Luis Boa Morte, Calum Davenport, Danny Gabbidon and Jonathan Spector. (Mirror)

Portsmouth are the latest club to be affected by the credit crunch after the flight company the club use went bust. The south-coast side were forced to charter a 70-seater aircraft to Germany and arrived in Braunschweig late ahead of Thursday's Uefa Cup game against Wolfsburg. (Daily Mirror)

Portsmouth themselves are also feeling the pinch and can only afford to book their players into a £65-a-night Premier Inn for their trip to Germany. (Daily Star)

Bowyer would be exceelent for us ... if we could keep him fit.

The trustees appear to have imposed a credit crunch upon Rovers well before the current world financial troubles.

There is a wise old truism from before the days of 'plastic'. 'Money is only spent once'.

[thenodrog]

The current mutterings around football suggest that a few clubs will be forced into a fire sale of their players. Problem is that very very few clubs after City are in a position to spend money, so its obvious that supply will seriously exceed demand and valuations of players will fall faster than a second hand high mileage Porsche Cayenne.

I think there will be lots of head scratching in boardrooms between football directors and bank managers come Feb 1st with more than a few 'suprise' and unpalatable decisions having to be made. The chickens will be coming home to roost big time.

[neekoy]

The current mutterings around football suggest that a few clubs will be forced into a fire sale of their players. Problem is that very very few clubs after City are in a position to spend money, so its obvious that supply will seriously exceed demand and valuations of players will fall faster than a second hand high mileage Porsche Cayenne.

I think there will be lots of head scratching in boardrooms between football directors and bank managers come Feb 1st with more than a few 'suprise' and unpalatable decisions having to be made. The chickens will be coming home to roost big time.

So you say this all a plan from the trustees to take advantage of the fire sale in January? AWESOME *block ears will not hear anything more about it*

[philipl]

The 'drog is correct BUT

the decline of the £ against the Euro means that European players which are the traditional "cheap" option are possibly going to be 40% more expensive by January compared with last July.

That means that the clubs with budgets will be looking to buy from within the PL far more than they have in the past.

[yoda]

The 'drog is correct BUT

the decline of the £ against the Euro means that European players which are the traditional "cheap" option are possibly going to be 40% more expensive by January compared with last July.

That means that the clubs with budgets will be looking to buy from within the PL far more than they have in the past.

The credit situation will also bring down prices in Europe as well though

[philipl]

The credit situation will also bring down prices in Europe as well though

There are clubs in Europe teetering on the edge all over the place and there will be firesales, particularly in Spain.

But it still doesn't hide the fact that Grella cost under £4m when we signed him and if we only put 25% down and did not forward buy the rest of the Euros, he is going to end up costing the thick end of £5m when we've paid for him.

That E1m bargain costs £1m, not £750K he did in the summer.

[philipl]

A lot of talking up of the value of the Premier League TV rights going on.

Crazy that we allowed Ince to jeopardise our participation in all this.

[BlueWhiteDynamite]

Im sure that article is the exact opposite of what I heard this morning. I cant remember when or where i heard it as i was kind of asleep but it said even the premier league will struggle with the new TV rights, People like sky pay big money because a lot of people watch it therefore bringing in higher revenue from advertising, because they can. However in the current economy, these large companies that are cutting staff levels are unlikey to pay the higher prices knowing that everyone is struggling for cash, this forces sky, setanta etc to bid lower levels. The talk was also that one of the options could be to create Premierleague TV.

[philipl]

With the advance of bandwidth availability and other technologies, Premier League TV has to be a realistic possibility but how MUTV, LTV and CTV would react is an interesting one.

[American]

Believe it or not, it might work. In the US, we have a lot of pro sports leagues starting their own networks, but having teams in the league which own their own networks (or a slice of them). It ends up being where people who are interested in the local team watch the local network and people interested in the sport watch the team network and some watch both.

[philipl]

The issue for PLTV would be how to attract the subscription base at a high enough price at breakneck speed.

Boro have already cut back plus a salient warning from serie A.

Rovers would be in a very good position relative to most Premier League clubs if our league position hadn't been Inced.

Putting things in context, Everton yesterday reported a 50% jump in turnover to £74m and a near break-even bottom line. That will be the norm for PL clubs reporting their 07/8 results in the coming weeks- the few with minimal debts will be in great shape IF they can keep on the PL gravy train.

[BlueWhiteDynamite]

At the end of the article is exactly why teams wont have the rights to their own games. Only about 5/6 teams would be able to sell the rights for a large fee.

Also with PLTV i really cant see it working. Sky needs the Premier league football, its probably its biggest selling point. Setanta are up and coming and its unlikely they will want to lose their share, however i dont expect their bids to be greater than last times. and if you include PLTV thats 3 different subsriptions for fans to pay. Sky say £50 a month, Setanta £12 and PLTV probably similar to £10 thats over £70 quid a month paid on tv and people at the moment, and proabably i the near future, just don thave that sort of money to pay out just to watch TV.

[philipl]

The PLTV idea is a shot across the bows of Sky and Setanta (and Disney possibly) to keep the bids high.

There is no question of selling the rights by individual club but that hasn't stopped MUTV streaming 24 x 7 Manc greatest hits, Manc interviews, Manc Manc Manc with no live games other than on a sell-through basis from Sky/Setanta if you subscribe to the top package.

[thenodrog]

The 'drog is correct BUT

the decline of the £ against the Euro means that European players which are the traditional "cheap" option are possibly going to be 40% more expensive by January compared with last July.

That means that the clubs with budgets will be looking to buy from within the PL far more than they have in the past.

I'll accept that and I guess that will make players from Africa, Asia and South America more attractive financially or are they valued in euro's?

[ace]

Barclays about to review their expenditure on sponsorships. Probably find that they have more pressing need for funds elsewhere than football.

[BlueWhiteDynamite]

Barclays about to review their expenditure on sponsorships. Probably find that they have more pressing need for funds elsewhere than football.

exactly the reason why money in football or at least the premier league will fall in the near future. Not just through sponsorship of league names, but small compaines sponsoring players. Chairmen are advised to pull the plug as they now have no were near as much cash. The winners of all this will probably be City. They do have enough money to spend.

[Billy Castell]

Perhaps this is why we have been so tight with our transfers. Holding on until the recession kicks the likes of Sunderland, Portsmouth, West Ham and co. in the knackers, and then taking advantage.

Surely Spuds will be affected, however many fans they have. They throw money around like loons.

[philipl]

Eggert Magnusson sueing West Ham because £1.2m has not been paid to him.

OK, here's my prediction; West Ham will go bust this season.

Close your eyes and think of it as a normal business-

-Wage costs are out of control

-Your parent company is in administration and you owe it the equivalent of nearly three years turnover

-The administrators of the parent company have set a deadline just eleven weeks from now (which includes Christmas/New Year) for you to get offloaded

-You have the opportunity in January to cut costs and raise capital by selling off your only productive assets

-If you get the balance of sales wrong you could see your revenues plunge by over 60% next year

-You have 18 public law suits filed against you, one of which has been determined and could cost you as much as nearly one year's turnover and is unlikely to be settled for much less than 50% of a year's turnover.

-Settling that will cause you to lose 17 out of the other 18 cases against you.

-Now your former Executive Chairman and minority shareholder who has intimate inside knowlege of everything that got you into trouble is now sueing you because you could not afford to pay his amicable departure settlement

Seriously, no business is going to survive that little litany. I find it hard to believe that even one sitting in the gilded cage of the Premier League can.

Yes there are "interested bidders". I can think of many ostensibly glamorous opportunities that have drawn tens of interested parties but not one serious bid at the end of the day.

The sheer uncertainty caused by the multiplying law suits (plus frankly the falling price of other PL clubs for sale with nothing like the complications of West Ham) means there is no way on earth that West Ham is worth the £150m that is being bandied about- coincidentally the same number as the indebtedness to the parent in administration.

At some point the administration of the parent could calculate that West Ham cannot pay its bills as they fall due (mainly to themselves) and that they are more likely to extract greater value from an administered break-up than they would from a sale. That decision will have to be taken whilst the transfer window is open.

[tcj_jones]

Apparently John Williams has been talking to the Guardian about how relegation could make Rovers go bust. It's in today's paper, but I cannot find a link to it as yet. Can anybody find it?

[wisweller]

Apparently John Williams has been talking to the Guardian about how relegation could make Rovers go bust. It's in today's paper, but I cannot find a link to it as yet. Can anybody find it?

A bit of a worry

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/foo...icle5372357.ece

[Parsonblue]

The interview with John Williams in today's Lancashire Telegraph - and many of the nationals - paints a bleak picture for the club should we be relegated. There would be no major funding of the club as there was by Jack Walker the last time we went down. If we were to bounce back straight away it would have to be done on a shoestring budget. Yet another good reason for appointing Big Sam. Surely, if the worst was to happen, he would offer us our only chance of an immediate promotion.

However, looking at these figures it would appear that finishing fourth bottom this season is going to be vital for the future well being of the club. These are desperate times for all concerned at Ewood Park.

[thenodrog]

I suggest JW should have potted him much sooner if that is the case. Once he was identified as a cluless twot he should have been out the door pdq, young, English and black of bloody not! That article suggests that the price of the dithering could be terminal.

BUT..... We keep circling the future issue and eyeing it with suspiscioun. It's like knowing there's a fabulous diamond at the bottom of a cess pool and plucking up the courage to dive in. But long term there IS only one solution.

[John]

Premier League clubs dicing with debt

[dingles staying down 4ever]

Premier League clubs dicing with debt

The Rovers pieces of the article vary quite a bit from the club's point of view ie Big Sam will have to sell and that

Roque has a release clause.