I agree, problem is it has happened and if it disappears it would end up destroying far more then helping.
Whilst I have some sympathy with the OP, the issue is one of expectation. I loved our success in L1 and the Championship, but I expected Saints to be in the Premiership eventually with the resources we have. Had we still not gotten up from L1 I might be enjoying better results but I wouldn't really be happy with our continued residence.
Money will still trickle down. The premier league and the premier league clubs will remain disproportionately wealthy within this country, and without being able to attract players from abroad anymore they might spend more money on players from lower league clubs, which may even benefit them. In addition without being able to attract big players from abroad or pay for big transfer fees, there would be more value in producing players from academies, so in the longer term it would probably benefit the England team as more attention is paid to coaching young players and then more of them becoming regular first-team players. Money from merchandising, ticket sales, etc would likely remain unaffected, especially for lower profile clubs. There would still be demand for TV coverage of all leagues, and a lot of broadcasters interested in supplying it. Without Sky TV revenue would of course decrease, perhaps dramatically, but there would still be considerable income from that area. You say that 'at least half the clubs would disappear', I just don't see it.
Good post H20 - having supported Saints for well over 45 years and seen how the game has changed I pondered before the start of the season how I would feel on match days this season. The last couple of years I have enjoyed the trip to St Marys quietly confident that we would get a positive result each and every time and to have that self-belief proven correct on most occasions. There was also something to strive for other than what would as now could be best described as 'survival' each week until the seasons close and somehow try to take solace that we had, for example, achieved mid-table mediocrity. And, on the back of this, look forward to a hopeful ‘top 10’ finish in years to come with the outside chance of Europa League (sorry - do not realistically see us as a top-four team). I have also realised that I hardly ever looked at the Premiership Table those last two seasons, but I do find myself checking the results and tables for the old Leagues 2 & 3 and taking an interest in articles in the press and on the Web. I freely admit I am not enjoying the cost an expense of EPL matches and seeing my team get beaten – no matter how glorious some of those defeats have been… so I conclude that, for myself, I do not care what league we are in – I am Eastleigh-borne and I have been going to Saints matches since the mid 1960’s and they will always be my team – no matter what league we are in.
It's the cost that I don't like the higher up the football pyramid the teams goes. Of course it's nice to be challenging for something a cup, a title, survival etc and having success at some of those objectives. The one thing I'm looking forward to is seeing young players develop at Saints. The club have stated a need to be self sufficient and that requires the club to bring young players through. To watch them grow, learn and play as a team which hopefully should help breed some success will be great if we can keep hold of them but that means staying in the Premier League.
We have got into the Premier rather more quickly than I expected and to be honest we weren't ready for it when the Season started, and it is no surprise to me that we haven't excelled so far, but I look at the teams around us, and there are a few that are no better than us, I see a three tier league at the moment and we are in the third level, but there isnt much in it between second and third echelon, we haven't a hope of catching the top eight or nine without some kind of miracle. I too don't like the stop, start nature of the Season, there is no way to get into a rhythm and it seems ages between games. I don't really mind which League that we are in as long as we still exist, but now we are in the Premier I hope we make the most of it, consolidate this season if possible and seek higher things next time. If we suffer the ignomy of relegation it wouldn't be a disaster if we can make use of the parachute payments to ensure a chance of promotion again.
Must admit i have been thinking about this a lot recently. When we were in the prem i knew no different. It was the be all and end all. Now I'm not so sure. I have not really enjoyed this season so far. Watching our team getting turned over more often than not, more expensive tickets and fewer games. I desperately wanted to get back to the prem last season, now? Nah it's ****
Since we have been promoted I feel that I have lost something. A little bit of the old spirit has gone as has great deal of the enjoyment. I feel there is a feeling of honesty with the FL and the fans of the clubs. It could also be that the attitude and the behaviour of so many PL footballers is so obnoxious and at odds with the moral standards of most fans that any pleasure in watching the game at the highest level has been lost. Just listen to the whingeing of the managers and the cheating of the players and you get a flavour of the total lack of sportsmanship. It is becoming a little hackneyed now I know but the Olympics did set the standard for decent honourable sportsmanship but that set a benchmark and the PL footballers have fallen well short of it.
I don't think I agree with that rather pessimistic analysis. There are a few players in the premier league who get a lot of attention for trying to con the officials or generally being morally sub-standard, but there's nothing to suggest that the vast majority of players in the premier league are any less honest than those in the championship.
Clubs survived before sky and they will survive if we did not have sky.....you pay to your means or like all clubs do...Borrow....
It's a good point you make about being not ready for the PL. Last season there were a few of us [me included] who were asking whether it might be better to consolidate the Championship season, before pushing on, into the PL. We were roundly beaten down by even making the suggestion, but it is possible that Saints could have been better served by staying in the Championship an extra season. The problem is, you can't altogether plan these things out to the nth degree. An injury here, a little out-of-form there, and the season can go bang on you, so I'll take the two promotions quite gladly and rightly celebrate it for the achievement it was. And I'm not in any way depressed about how the current season is going. Plenty of newly promoted side start with the momentum of the previous season, having a half decent set of fixtures to feel their way in [WHU, for example..?], only to start to slide down the league once the tougher games kick in. The smile goes off the manager's face, the doubts creep in, and the confidence goes out of the play. Well Saints got a big chunk of that out of the way from the start. If they've retained their confidence [and with Nigel around there's no real reason why they shouldn't have], the Lads can go on to get that safe end of season position. Then it will be time to progress. And yes, that's another thing I don't like about the PL - only 38 games and too many International breaks. And before anyone mentions it, please don't tell me the players are tired. All players are tired, even ones from San Marino. I'm tired. But I don't get paid 50K and upward, per week for the privilege of being tired.
I don't understand your disdain at SKY. They've changed the way that football is played in this country, indirectly, in many ways they've changed it in a positive way. The way that clubs handle SKY's prize money is up to them, it's not SKY's fault that some clubs can't handle their finances. The Premier League is one of the most equal top tier leagues in Europe in terms of redistribuition of wealth, there is little disparity between the team finishing in 1st and 20th. I understand your point of view when it comes to the competitive nature of the league, or should I say, the lack of it. What should be done in the Premier League is the implementation of a salary and transfer cap, in other words, we need to impose a cap on salaries, I'd suggest we calculate the average salary of all the clubs in the Premier League and that number would be the maximum salary that clubs can reach and let's say that we impose a maximum allowance on the money that a respective club can spend in the transfer window, let's say, for example, that no club can spend more than £30m on players in the transfer window, but we need to introduce these measures in every top European league, otherwise all the good players will leave to play in other leagues. It's easy to blame to SKY, just like its easy to blame fast food joints for making people fat, and we know that this isn't the case. We should be proud of the Premier League, it's the envy of every country in the world, it's a sublime product that really shows Britains' talent for free enterprise and trade and thinking out of the box, something that we've done so well over the last 100 years, we invent great things. I don't mind which league the saints are playing in to be honest, even though I prefer it when we're playing in the Premier League, as its the best league in the world. I've supported them since they were in the Premier League in 2002-2005 right up to now and it's all good really.
Well, let's see. I remember well, what it was like before the Premier League. Football was played, no really it was. It wasn't over-hyped. You could take it or leave it. You went to watch your club for pence or small pounds, and the players were approachable people, who appreciated the support they got. They weren't instructed or coached to appreciate it, they just did, because they were part of the people. They were modest, and they didn't realise quite why they were so lauded. They played the game realising that although, they had a relatively short career in an age of life-long careers [that ended in the 1960's actually] with one company, or altogether on the one skill they possessed, they played it reasonably fairly and within the rules of the game. But the important part of the game was that you could afford to go. There wasn't the distraction of the alternative on TV, apart from MOTD, which started in the 1960's. It meant that you tended to support YOUR team. You didn't support Barcelona or Bayern Munich as a B team, you put everything into supporting yours - Saints, in fact. The Premier League isn't the best league in the World, in my opinion. Pundits and people will tell you it's the best league in the world, but they say it because they are sheep and it keeps money in their pocket. Of the leagues I know about well, I would say that the Championship is the best league in the UK. It is easily the most competitive, high quality football in the UK. Easily more competitive than the PL. There is relatively little hype, and the football is of a pretty high standard. It is competitive because the elite stars of football aren't there to turn a game on its head. But that makes for fantastic games of football and a league where any team can beat another. Surely, that's what it's all about..? Because of the money involved in the PL, it means that 4 to 6 teams might have a chance of winning the league. Actually, it's more like a maximum of 4, of course, and the same 4, year after boring year. In the Championship, you really can't put a decent bet on who'll win. The Championship, League One and Two, excites me as a football supporter, something which has long died under the hype and money of the PL. As I mentioned before, sadly the SKY genie is out of the bottle. The money that SKY pumped into football for its own gain [there's nothing philanthropic about that company] has effectively killed competition in the PL. Something to be proud of..?
It has been great the last couple of seasons expecting to win pretty much every game and performing so well. As with a number of others I haven't really taken much notice of the Premier League as we weren't in it. This season however I am back watching MOTD, goals on Sunday and all the other bits that come along with being back in this some what elitist group. Its where everyone one directly involved in football wants to be. Players, managers, coaches, owners. The revenue a Premier League clubs brings into the city its all good and is somewhat the holy grail of a football club. As a fan though, when a result on a Saturday sets up your mood, it is more difficult in the top tier as the depressing losses occur more regularly (or at the moment pretty much every week). In the lower leagues we had another game in a couple of days to put right dropped points or take another win. Now the defeat stays in the system for a week. I want us to be in the top league, trying to cause an upset against the top teams, reaching that 40 point mark and then pushing on the next season but if we don't, if we get relegated. Then so be it, I would hope we went down fighting and playing attractive football but would be ok with playing in the Championship again. Why? Because we would be winning games and challenging for promotion again. In the hope that we could get back up and go one better next time around.
Dre I normally agree with you but I can not on this mate , the Premiership in envied by poorer chairman but not probably clubs , the Bundesliga is the best League in Europe by some distance Home grown players Cheap tickets Safe standing New stadiums More open competition We are told the premiership is the best but that does not mean it is by any stretch , the championship anyday of the week for its openess and more "British" style .
You make some good points when you refer to the financial aspect of the game and the fact that tickets were much cheaper back then than they are now, I don't know which decade you are refering to, if it's the 1960's, 70's or 80's, the truth is that in the 70's and 80's football was dominated, largely by hooligans this presence at football grounds put off a lot of people, the regular, fair minded supporters, football was viewed as a poor man's game consumed by thugs, so naturally football ticket prices were lower. Now, things are so different, there is hardly any hooliganism in English football. I don't agree with you when you say that the standard of football in the championship is of "high quality", it is of average quality in my opinion, you do get some good games, but on the whole it is pretty average. The championship is very competitive though and that in itself makes the league exciting. People say that the Premier League is over hyped, maybe it is to some people, but for me, it's a fantastic product. The passion, the excitement, the high quality of football it's what makes it such a great league. The only other league that comes close is the Bundesliga, now that is a proper league, for me it is better than La Liga that is supposed to be the 2nd best league in the world.
You've definitely got a case there, it is certainly one of the best leagues in the world, maybe the best.
No as long as it's Saints it don't matter I remember the Imps being the first team relegated to the conference a couple of decades ago. We were part of an average 4k crowd in the old D4. Relagated to the conference, out of the league all doom and gloom? Crowds were double the leagyue ones pretty quickly and promotion at the first attempt was still one of Lincoln fans greatest moments. HOWEVER different story this time round. That was a different generation of supporter. Not sure this generation are as 'into the team' so much as 'into the idea' these days. More kind of the prestige of something rather than the heartfelt link. I personaly enjoyed Saints in L1 and NPC. Not because they were wining but because the whole thing felt better, there was more of a feelgood factor. The forums were friendlier before those 'premiership fans' returned.
When we were in League One I mingled with the Huddsrsfield fans, got directions to Hillsbrough from some Owls & shared a taxi with some Leeds fans on the way to the station after the game at Elland road.Good away days out with amiable opposition & no angst.Something that is sadly missing fromthe Premiership,there is still excitement, but there is also vitriol & hate.
I never understood why fans from different clubs can't get along, I mean apart from the odd heated encounters with rival fans like Pompey fans, for example, I know pompey fans, and I get along really well with them, I know one or two 'crazy one's', but I mean, people shouldn't take football that seriously. I don't understand why there is need for hate with fans from Southampton and Fulham or any other Premier League club,for example, it is so stupid, I just see them as a football club, nothing else.
