No, come back. This is about football- honest. There's supposed to be a global economic recession, our government are cutting essential services all the time (while still lining their own pockets, of course) and everybody's supposed to be cutting back, yet football seems oblivious to this. Transfer fees and wages have been insane for years, and they just keep getting more so, to the point where it seems you can't even get yourself a promising young English player for less than £20mil. Some players earn more in a week than the supporters who give them their livelihood are likely to see in ten years. People say "Oh that's how it is these days" but for how long can football sustain this level of spending, and what happens when it hits the wall? Rant over.. For now.. Sorry people.
I think a majority of the population are not cutting back at all, they are in secure jobs and their mortgage is now cheap as chips. Football probably falls into the same group whereby they have a secure multi-billion pound deal and if anything more people are staying home to watch TV so there is a prospect of growth.
The recession as in here in Ireland is only impacting the lower brackets of pay and small businesses People will still watch footy, maybe even more so now Broadband the same noone will give up internet.
I think people genuinly forget how much football is worth in this country. Rooney's wages, for example, of 6-8 million a year do not begin to cover the profits that he makes them on and off the field. Mainly through shirt money. Furthermore, it's all one big 'happy family' and money just gets recycled, our 20 million for Henderson will go to Sunderland who will then buy some other English talent which will give other teams a share of the cash (which is why I prefer buying British as the money stays in our economy). Furthermore, this serves to reward teams for building up their acadamy and pushing through youth to reap the rewards.
BBf I had an exhibition space in the Kilkenny Arts Festival up until a few years ago. When I first went there were huge building programmes all over the place. The last time I went, 2009 I think, they'd all just stopped part way through. I haven't been over since because a thriving festival of over 30 years was dead in the water. Have things improved? Hope so.
Things are as in the UK, the low income brackets are getting shafted. Lots of empty houses ect, fkn joke All retail fast food coffee shop ect jobs gone forever, the foreign workers have family or freinds take over a job they leave and rarely go back into the jobs market for a school leaver to apply for never mind get the job. Its physically impossible for every school leaver to go to college I am moving to Finland, have a 4 month old son, edu is actually free there as is university. Education was cut here by 25% last year heaping even more cost on to parents like school winter heating bills ect. Outa here big time, even though there are plenty of IT jobs, place is going to sheite, water charges when over 50% is lost through leaks and hte money goes ot the imf not into better water as the quality is not good, been drinking bottled for 2 years
Some actors earn more for a movie than footballers make in a year. Some musicians make more money from ten minutes of songwriting than an actor makes for a movie. It's already hit the wall. In the season just gone clubs stopped spending and started trimming budgets. Wages are what was crippling clubs, not transfer fees. Even Utd and Chelsea have had to address the issue. But we've increased our sponsorship and have owners who aren't crippled by debt. Why shouldn't we spend a bit more if we can afford it? Do you want to pay for success or get a really cheap season ticket for the relegation zone?
I know that there are plenty of other overpaid professions but I didn't want to bore people even more with my opinions on them. I'm not blaming football for the ills of society- on the contrary, I love football and I don't want to see it implode. I think there's too much complacency about the way clubs are run. My point was that in a so called recession, governments always dump on the people who can afford it the least. If football makes money from gate receipts and merchandising, a significant number of people who provide that money are going to find it increasingly difficult to keep dipping into their pockets. Money poured in from outside the game is not really a workable business model and only serves to make the rich clubs richer. Lesser clubs run the risk of bankrupting themselves in order to compete, or simply give up trying to.
In all fairness, it's only the bigger clubs that have more expensive tickets. You could fairly easily get a Blackburn season ticket for around £270 which is a bargain. Unfortunately, the poorer fans of bigger clubs pay more, the upside is they are treated (normally) to a better display when they can afford to go to matches. Money for the expensive transfers we all want has to come from somewhere.
