Post by rjdgull on Jul 3, 2011 8:14:37 GMT
I let this run for an extra week, partly as I was away last weekend and partly because at this time there were only a few single votes floating around. However, I'm glad I waited as a relatively new member came up with a cracking and well thought out post that has certainly added to the debate. A high vote count as well for what is a quiet time of year for the forum.
Well done to JamesB on joining the gold club for the first time and I suspect it won't be the last.
Here is his post:
I'm not convinced all that much has changed, to be honest. Maybe it's because I'm looking at it as a youngster and thus in a way I'm looking more at the bigger picture, but teams have always gone through cycles. We've always been a stepping stone club passing on talent - in the past, it's because we produced them ourselves but now it's buying and selling at a profit, turning rough diamonds into polished players like David Graham, Bayo and Zebroski, or discovering hidden gems like Rodney Jack and Eifion Williams
The pecking order of teams in terms of size and capability has barely changed over the last 40-50 years. You've always had the same big teams at the top, the same small teams at the bottom, and the majority of teams who tend to float up and down the various divisions. I'm not convinced that Sky and co have had as big a negative impact as some say - sure, the attendances have dropped off a bit, but I'm not sure that we are any worse off financially, and the same goes for most of the other clubs in the league
In fact, the clubs that have done "badly" out of it are often the ones who have been in the Premier League - the likes of Bradford and the Sheffield clubs. And they've still ended up with bigger, more modern stadia out of it so they have the infrastructure and fanbase to bounce back eventually. Same goes for those that have gone as high as the Championship and come back down to our level, of which there are quite a few now. And usually, in the course of history, these are the same clubs that have always gone up and down
The reason clubs are/were in the financial excrement is/was not down to Sky or ITV Digital or any of that - and I hate Murdoch as much as the next person. It's down to the chairmen and owners of these clubs mismanaging them, as demonstrated by the fact that we did rather well out of it thanks to our much-maligned chairman at the time
Football has never been about the long-term success unless you're at the very top. You don't see teams climb through the leagues and then stay at the top, because they're too small to sustain that - what goes up must come down. Wigan are the exception because they are a relatively modern club and they've been bankrolled by Dave Whelan. I think Arsenal are still the only team in the top 4 tiers not to be relegated. Just because clubs are more inclined to sack managers and change players now doesn't necessarily mean they think in the short-term any more than back in the "good old days"
What has perhaps changed for the smallest teams, the likes of us, is that the aims of such short-term success are perhaps a bit more limited - the aim is now to get promoted to League 1 and survive a season or 2, as opposed to establishing ourselves in League 1 permanently. League 1 has become much stronger in recent years as a result of the Premier League (and in turn the boost that's had to the Championship, which is now effectively Premier League Lite), because there are some big clubs in that division (PNE, the Sheffield clubs, Charlton etc) and we couldn't compete with that. Plus we've also some quite professional clubs that have come up from non-league with possibly more to come. So I think the money is gradually filtering down (and up) to League 2 - people just don't like to admit it because we've not done so well out of it. That doesn't mean everyone else hasn't
The problem is I think our future may well be as a non-league club in the near future, because of our small size and because there are bigger teams below us that will eventually get their act together and come up. No shame in that, though, as the 5th tier is effectively Football League 3 anyway. That's the difference for us - there are just more good teams than ever before and being traditionally one of the smallest clubs in the Football League, we are going to get squeezed out. And that's got nothing to do with Sky Sports - unless you count all the money they've ploughed into covering the Conference
----------------------
Anyway, the question I want to ask is where the hell have Bristol Rovers got £150,000 from?
Well done to JamesB on joining the gold club for the first time and I suspect it won't be the last.
Here is his post:The pecking order of teams in terms of size and capability has barely changed over the last 40-50 years. You've always had the same big teams at the top, the same small teams at the bottom, and the majority of teams who tend to float up and down the various divisions. I'm not convinced that Sky and co have had as big a negative impact as some say - sure, the attendances have dropped off a bit, but I'm not sure that we are any worse off financially, and the same goes for most of the other clubs in the league
In fact, the clubs that have done "badly" out of it are often the ones who have been in the Premier League - the likes of Bradford and the Sheffield clubs. And they've still ended up with bigger, more modern stadia out of it so they have the infrastructure and fanbase to bounce back eventually. Same goes for those that have gone as high as the Championship and come back down to our level, of which there are quite a few now. And usually, in the course of history, these are the same clubs that have always gone up and down
The reason clubs are/were in the financial excrement is/was not down to Sky or ITV Digital or any of that - and I hate Murdoch as much as the next person. It's down to the chairmen and owners of these clubs mismanaging them, as demonstrated by the fact that we did rather well out of it thanks to our much-maligned chairman at the time
Football has never been about the long-term success unless you're at the very top. You don't see teams climb through the leagues and then stay at the top, because they're too small to sustain that - what goes up must come down. Wigan are the exception because they are a relatively modern club and they've been bankrolled by Dave Whelan. I think Arsenal are still the only team in the top 4 tiers not to be relegated. Just because clubs are more inclined to sack managers and change players now doesn't necessarily mean they think in the short-term any more than back in the "good old days"
What has perhaps changed for the smallest teams, the likes of us, is that the aims of such short-term success are perhaps a bit more limited - the aim is now to get promoted to League 1 and survive a season or 2, as opposed to establishing ourselves in League 1 permanently. League 1 has become much stronger in recent years as a result of the Premier League (and in turn the boost that's had to the Championship, which is now effectively Premier League Lite), because there are some big clubs in that division (PNE, the Sheffield clubs, Charlton etc) and we couldn't compete with that. Plus we've also some quite professional clubs that have come up from non-league with possibly more to come. So I think the money is gradually filtering down (and up) to League 2 - people just don't like to admit it because we've not done so well out of it. That doesn't mean everyone else hasn't
The problem is I think our future may well be as a non-league club in the near future, because of our small size and because there are bigger teams below us that will eventually get their act together and come up. No shame in that, though, as the 5th tier is effectively Football League 3 anyway. That's the difference for us - there are just more good teams than ever before and being traditionally one of the smallest clubs in the Football League, we are going to get squeezed out. And that's got nothing to do with Sky Sports - unless you count all the money they've ploughed into covering the Conference
----------------------
Anyway, the question I want to ask is where the hell have Bristol Rovers got £150,000 from?
