not much football news from the southwest except the gulls copmplaining that both they and stevenage lost money after playing their final at man utd. the capacity at old trafford is 76000 and there was an attendance of 11484, 7000 of which were gulls fans. torquays annual results instead of the hoped for 6 figure profit was reduced to about 35k net gate and sky receipts from the semi finals is shared between all 24 clubs but a bit more goes to the 4 semi finalists. torquays share is expected to be 20k. revenue from the the two finals at man utd is likewise shared amongst 48 clubs and is not a pot of gold. in these days of cash strapped clubs, future L2 play off finals are better played at ashton gate, luton town or the vauxhall meadow amongst others. it is high time L2 benefits were kept within the lower leagues.
They need to get some more fans then! I just can't be too sympathetic about that. It was an embarrassingly low attendance. Yes Old Trafford was the wrong venue for those clubs but it was far too late to change it by the time the finalists were known. If we'd been against Port Vale at OT, there'd have been 40-60,000 and a great atmosphere. Sorry, but too bad.
I wonder what compensation was due to the Football League from the FA (Wembley Stadium)as a result of them breaking their contract with the former.
oxford took 35,000 to wembley last year! and i bet they would of took 25,000+ to OT this year if they got there! at the end of the day it was just poor support from both clubs!
