I guess it was inevitable. Football, like other aspects of life, has been hit by the credit crunch. In the case of Southampton, a team that once graced the top flight of the English league and has boasted some notable cup wins – famously winning the FA Cup in the 1970s – it has suffered terribly. It is now in danger of extinction. My own team, Ipswich Town FC, was in administration a few years ago although it has been since taken over by Marcus Evans, the man who owns the eponymous conference organising company. Ipswich also has appointed former Manchester Utd and Ireland international player Roy Keane as its manager (gulp, nervous laughter).
Henry Winter, one of the main football scribes in the print press, believes Southampton’s local council should buy the team. He argues that the council and the lucky taxpayers of the south coast will be getting a bargain. Maybe. But it is not the business of councils to be spending money on what has been the money pit of professional sports, particularly when a place such as Southampton has many competing demands for public funds, such as policing, garbage collection, road maintenance and so on. As I said, when my club was in financial dire circumstances, no doubt some people would have been happy to see the Suffolk taxpayer foot the bill to put The Blues back on top. But wiser heads prevailed.
The sad fact is that football clubs can die if the finances run out. We have seen teams like Leeds Utd hit by unsustaintable debts in far happier economic conditions. Even mighty Man Utd has heavy debts stemming from the leveraged buyout by the Glazers, while Chelsea is kept in the lifestyle to which it is accustomed due to Abramovich’s huge Russian oil wealth. The economics of sports clubs are a murky affair at the best of times. So my message to Southampton fans is that it is better for a hard-nosed private investor to sort out the club than a bunch of politicians. If Southampton really is a bargain, why are public funds needed – surely a canny entrepreneur will spot the opportunity? I hope someone does.
I sometimes wonder why as, a football fan, I put myself through all this heartache. My wife shakes her head in wonderment.
I’m in the delightful position of supporting a team which used to be run like a spendthrift council (to the extent that we only survived financially by selling our best player) which is now run well and at a steady profit.
I speak of course of the mighty Tottenham Hotspur. No public funds for us thanks. Enjoy your new Roy Keane experience – he might do better now as it’s easier to lure players to Suffolk than it is to lure them to the North East. (Can’t think why no one would want to live in a drab part of the country where the state represents 70% of all employment).
Oh and please turn Dos Santos into the sort of player he can be rather than the player he is.
Daft idea using public money for the business of paying big wages to poor players. Plenty of teams have been stung as a consequence of chucking cash around like water when they thought they were heading for the top. Tough titties, as they say ‘cos that’s the way it goes.
But maybe if councils ran the team they could discuss team selection at weekly meetings. Should guarantee the public gallery is full, at least. And the players can all wear useful social messages on their shirts such as “Don’t get fined for having your wheelie bin lid open” and more of those trite council messages, like “Working together for better social cohesion.”
Johnathan
Yes good points. I too support ITFC thro good times and bad and sadly think if it were not for Marcus Evans our great club would now be virtually defunct (like our friends up the road lol=). In my view public funds should never be used to support what is essentially an entertainment business.
Johnathan,
I admire your principled commitment to free-market economics, even when it’s your local football team that’s at stake.
Robert.
The only remotely related situation I can think of would be the Green Bay Packers of the NFL – here’s their wiki explanation (with apologies for the length):
Note that no government entity is involved in ownership, revenues, or decisionmaking. The model here is much more like the organic growth of English football clubs many years ago than your newer NFL franchises. Again, this is one of the original teams of the NFL.
Best of luck to your Tractor Boys.
Everton for FA Cup titleists in ’09! COYB!! In Moyes we Trust!
There is an automatic assumption that the local team actually has majority local support. Here in Tottenham the vast majority of the supporters come from outside. A lot of local kids wear either Arsenal or Chelsea or ManU etc shirts. so whether Spurs sink or swim wouldn’t bother the majority of residents in Tottenham and would definitely be of no interest to the rest of the Borough of Haringey. Football appears to be a majority interest because it gathers a relatively large number of people in a confined place but I suspect that a proper statistical analysis could be quite revealing. Also, just as the banks have come a cropper for “silly money” its probably only a matter of time before football discovers that it is unviable to carry on spending in this extravagant manner. I suspect that many people might secretly think “good riddance”.