Post by QPR Report on Feb 4, 2009 7:34:38 GMT
The Times - Matt Dic kinson
Clubs bank on boom as world goes bust
"A Big Thank You” is how Tottenham Hotspur trumpet the season-ticket offer on their website, which is intended “to slightly ease the financial burden that many people are currently experiencing”. It is the mention of “slightly” that should have you worried. That and “subject to the terms and conditions outlined”.
The offer is a freeze of season-ticket prices for the next two seasons for existing members (who, incidentally, can “also benefit from the current lower 15 per cent VAT rate” — although isn’t that their right, rather than a bonus?). The small print? Ah yes, you have to sign up by April 17. That’s this April 17, in case you wondered.
So to embrace this “Big Thank You”, a Spurs fan must commit between £1,300 and £3,000 to watching Spurs until May 2011 — not knowing which division they will be playing in next season, never mind the one after.
By May 2011, Spurs could have gone through a couple of managers, several football directors and bought and sold Jermain Defoe for the seventh time — all in the Championship — but at least you will have been spared the price hikes that everyone else must suffer.
This is what they call a “Big Thank You”, Premier League-style.
This offer is worth bearing in mind today of all days as the 20 Premier League clubs wait to learn whether the domestic broadcasters will continue to prop up their business to the tune of £1.7 billion.
In a ceremony not unlike Christmas morning, envelopes will arrive by courier at the Premier League’s legal offices and be borne into a room containing Richard Scudamore, the chief executive, and a team of independent monitors.
A hush will descend as the packages are ripped open and the figures revealed. The expectation among nervous club executives is that the yield will at least match the existing £1.7 billion deal and, perhaps, climb a little higher.
Then makers of Baby Bentleys can rejoice, bottlers of Cristal champagne can continue to count their profits and agents can look forward to more profitable transfer windows like this one, when almost £30 million has been spent on two forwards — Craig Bellamy and Robbie Keane — so worth hanging on to that they have represented 14 clubs between them.
Among the reasons for football’s quiet optimism in a world deep in recession is that ESPN, the Disney-owned sports giant, looks certain to make a serious run for at least one of the six packages, having only dipped its toes in the water last time. That is the fervent hope of the Premier League, who confidently expect that third-party interest will force Sky, who paid £1.314 billion for four packages in the 2007-10 rights, and Setanta, who paid £392 million for two, to bid strongly to protect their own positions for 2010-13.
ESPN has been making all the right noises although it is not yet clear whether missing out recently on the German TV rights has lessened its ardour or made it double its resolve. The threat alone of an ESPN bid will have done much of the work for Scudamore who, in renewing the BBC’s Match of the Day highlights recently for the same £171 million as the previous three-year deal, set down a marker that he also expects the live rights to hold their price.
A deal of that magnitude will be hailed as a personal triumph by Scudamore, after an unusually bumpy 18 months because of the Tévez affair and the “39th game”.
And it will be greeted as proof that the English game truly is the best league in the world. There will be much talk of a great product and strong competition, with Aston Villa gatecrashing the top four and half the division in fear of relegation.
The deal will come as an almighty relief to the clubs who asked Scudamore to drive through the process now rather than wait until June because they are noticing a drop-off in corporate packages and, in some cases, in gates because of the economic downturn. To have bucked the global recession is a great triumph.
Hooray, hurrah — and yet, something nags. And it is the sense that all this wealth pouring in from the broadcasters will spare football from a reckoning that may yet be necessary if it is not to alienate its core of fans.
With the main revenue stream secure, will the chief executives examine the needs, the feelings, the trends among paying supporters alarmed, and in many cases, put off by the mounting costs of watching football? Will they think how they might use this money to ease the burden on spectators or will they still be consumed in the frenzy of competition, the need to cut deals, to offer huge salaries, to hire and fire managers? I suspect we know the answer.
The Premier League is a hugely successful franchise, a great show which is watched in most continents and envied in our own. But as it rolls around on a bed of cash today, you just wish that the game might take a deep breath before the next tranche of money goes through it like a dose of salts.
“The Club is acutely aware of the current economic climate and the uncertainty and concern this has created for many of our supporters,” Spurs proclaim. If another couple of billion is in the bank by this afternoon, they could actually do something meaningful about it.
Clubs bank on boom as world goes bust
"A Big Thank You” is how Tottenham Hotspur trumpet the season-ticket offer on their website, which is intended “to slightly ease the financial burden that many people are currently experiencing”. It is the mention of “slightly” that should have you worried. That and “subject to the terms and conditions outlined”.
The offer is a freeze of season-ticket prices for the next two seasons for existing members (who, incidentally, can “also benefit from the current lower 15 per cent VAT rate” — although isn’t that their right, rather than a bonus?). The small print? Ah yes, you have to sign up by April 17. That’s this April 17, in case you wondered.
So to embrace this “Big Thank You”, a Spurs fan must commit between £1,300 and £3,000 to watching Spurs until May 2011 — not knowing which division they will be playing in next season, never mind the one after.
By May 2011, Spurs could have gone through a couple of managers, several football directors and bought and sold Jermain Defoe for the seventh time — all in the Championship — but at least you will have been spared the price hikes that everyone else must suffer.
This is what they call a “Big Thank You”, Premier League-style.
This offer is worth bearing in mind today of all days as the 20 Premier League clubs wait to learn whether the domestic broadcasters will continue to prop up their business to the tune of £1.7 billion.
In a ceremony not unlike Christmas morning, envelopes will arrive by courier at the Premier League’s legal offices and be borne into a room containing Richard Scudamore, the chief executive, and a team of independent monitors.
A hush will descend as the packages are ripped open and the figures revealed. The expectation among nervous club executives is that the yield will at least match the existing £1.7 billion deal and, perhaps, climb a little higher.
Then makers of Baby Bentleys can rejoice, bottlers of Cristal champagne can continue to count their profits and agents can look forward to more profitable transfer windows like this one, when almost £30 million has been spent on two forwards — Craig Bellamy and Robbie Keane — so worth hanging on to that they have represented 14 clubs between them.
Among the reasons for football’s quiet optimism in a world deep in recession is that ESPN, the Disney-owned sports giant, looks certain to make a serious run for at least one of the six packages, having only dipped its toes in the water last time. That is the fervent hope of the Premier League, who confidently expect that third-party interest will force Sky, who paid £1.314 billion for four packages in the 2007-10 rights, and Setanta, who paid £392 million for two, to bid strongly to protect their own positions for 2010-13.
ESPN has been making all the right noises although it is not yet clear whether missing out recently on the German TV rights has lessened its ardour or made it double its resolve. The threat alone of an ESPN bid will have done much of the work for Scudamore who, in renewing the BBC’s Match of the Day highlights recently for the same £171 million as the previous three-year deal, set down a marker that he also expects the live rights to hold their price.
A deal of that magnitude will be hailed as a personal triumph by Scudamore, after an unusually bumpy 18 months because of the Tévez affair and the “39th game”.
And it will be greeted as proof that the English game truly is the best league in the world. There will be much talk of a great product and strong competition, with Aston Villa gatecrashing the top four and half the division in fear of relegation.
The deal will come as an almighty relief to the clubs who asked Scudamore to drive through the process now rather than wait until June because they are noticing a drop-off in corporate packages and, in some cases, in gates because of the economic downturn. To have bucked the global recession is a great triumph.
Hooray, hurrah — and yet, something nags. And it is the sense that all this wealth pouring in from the broadcasters will spare football from a reckoning that may yet be necessary if it is not to alienate its core of fans.
With the main revenue stream secure, will the chief executives examine the needs, the feelings, the trends among paying supporters alarmed, and in many cases, put off by the mounting costs of watching football? Will they think how they might use this money to ease the burden on spectators or will they still be consumed in the frenzy of competition, the need to cut deals, to offer huge salaries, to hire and fire managers? I suspect we know the answer.
The Premier League is a hugely successful franchise, a great show which is watched in most continents and envied in our own. But as it rolls around on a bed of cash today, you just wish that the game might take a deep breath before the next tranche of money goes through it like a dose of salts.
“The Club is acutely aware of the current economic climate and the uncertainty and concern this has created for many of our supporters,” Spurs proclaim. If another couple of billion is in the bank by this afternoon, they could actually do something meaningful about it.