Relegation: Great entertainment and good business
Roar Rookie By alxjones, 21 May 2012 alxjones is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- A-League, a-league relegation, FFA, football, Frank Lowy, Nathan Tinkler
Football in Australia is apparently as good as it has ever been. The national team has played in the past two World Cups, the national league is by many accounts getting stronger and Australian teams are making an impact in the Asian Champions League.
Despite this, Nathan Tinkler wanted a refund on the Newcastle Jets he bought and crazy Clive bailed on his Gold Coast. Unfortunately not all of Australia’s billionaires share Frank Lowy’s altruistic enthusiasm.
How can football attract more investors with greater commitment? Australia has only so many billionaires. Unfortunately for football fans, most of them got rich by making solid investments. Perhaps a way to do this would be for the A-League to adopt a relegation system.
I am certainly not the first person to suggest a relegation system for the A-League. Apart from making good theatre for lowly teams at the end of a season, it also makes football more attractive for individuals or groups that are a little short of buying an A-League license but keen to watch an investment grow.
Let’s begin with a look at Manchester City. Imagine how much the club was worth 10 years ago when it was outside the Premier League and compare that with its value right now. Yes hundreds of millions of pounds were spent on buying players, but in the long-run there must be a reasonable return on investment. In a relegation system, savvy and committed investors can by a lower team and slowly build towards the top flight, increasing the value of that investment.
Just as a number of AFL teams follow the idea of a three-year premiership plan, smaller teams from second or third tier football competitions can make similar style plans for promotion to the top league.
Another team from the English system that helps my argument is AFC Wimbledon. Established with funds from FC Wimbledon supporters after the decision to relocate and rebrand as MK Dons. It has used money from supporters to build a club from scratch and starting in the ninth tier in 2002 to now being in the fourth division – only one below MK Dons.
Cheaper entry points for football club ownership can encourage community investment in clubs and young players. Turning fans into shareholders builds loyalty and provides another revenue stream.
Regional cities can work towards having national level teams – an opportunity much less possible in rugby league or AFL. For young developing players, instead of waiting for contracts from one of the big teams, they can enter the top flight with their old club. Transfer payments then reward smaller clubs for developing players and redistribute the wealth of the bigger clubs.
There are a number of drawbacks; the emergence of a few big clubs dominating the top of the table, logistical challenges such as stadiums and most importantly the issue of corporate governance. Any framework would have to be considerate of the Australian football environment, not just copied from overseas.
However, in order to attract committed investors, be they millionaires, supporters or regional cities, there needs to be more than the occasional opportunity to bid for a license when another team goes bust.
The Crowd Says (8) | Page 1 of Comments
Have Your Say
- Explore:
- A-League, a-league relegation, FFA, football, Frank Lowy, Nathan Tinkler
May 21st 2012 @ 8:34am
nordster said | May 21st 2012 @ 8:34am | Report comment
A free market football system, bring it on! Does open the whole league up. Much more dynamic and exciting… Unique in oz too. It seems like the powers that be do genuinely like the idea, game just needs to be in a strong enough position to do it.
The salary cap is also not compatible with this open market system IMO. There needs to be an acceptance of the idea of small, medium and large size clubs. Much more sustainable for the smaller ones to not be forced to compete with the big guys on financial terms. There is after all more than one way to climb up the football ladder, as we see with smart development clubs like CCM.
May 21st 2012 @ 3:09pm
Gavin H said | May 21st 2012 @ 3:09pm | Report comment
Before we can have the glitz and glamour of a promotion to A1 legaue play-off, There is a lot of work to be done. There needs to be a good spread of local community clubs that promote to appropriate state league levels. Get promotion happening fully and property between existing local and state levels, then you will have the foundation for the National 2nd division and promotion/releation from state leagues
May 21st 2012 @ 5:56pm
Cappuccino said | May 21st 2012 @ 5:56pm | Report comment
Promotion/Relegation is a long way off. At this stage, relegation for any club to the 2nd tier would spell disaster for that club- no A-League team would pull decent crowds, sponsorship or investors if it was relegated to the 2nd Division.
May 22nd 2012 @ 10:06am
Gavin H said | May 22nd 2012 @ 10:06am | Report comment
The trouble with the P/R Debate is that it becomes too focused on the most critical point in the system: relegation from the top teir and the promotion from the 2nd division. its here where the glory lies and where the stakes are the highest and with a weak football pryamid, where it will be the most prone to failure. What there needs to be is an attitude of looking at the big picture, of planing the pyramid from the top down and building it from the bottom up. It only be when a functioning, complete and established 2nd division which promotes & relegates between the top six state league, can we have promotion/relegation to/from the A-league.
May 23rd 2012 @ 11:51am
apaway said | May 23rd 2012 @ 11:51am | Report comment
The comparison with the English leagues is skewed by the fact England has 92 virtually fully professional football clubs across their 4 divisions. It has a population almost 3 times that of Australia in an area two-thirds the size of NSW. That makes running national competitons substantially more cost-effective.
May 23rd 2012 @ 11:25pm
Gavin H said | May 23rd 2012 @ 11:25pm | Report comment
If you told a high school maths student to build a pryamid with sand on a 30cm sqare base with as much sand as possible they could do it. If you then told them to use have the amount of sand and make a pryamid with a 1m square base they could also do it.
Yes it wont look the same but it will still be a pryamid.
The trouble is the doubters seem to have forgotten basic maths principals, just because it has a large base (physical size of the country) and not much volume to it (population/players/market) dosen’t mean it is not a pryamid.
May 23rd 2012 @ 10:22pm
zacbrygel said | May 23rd 2012 @ 10:22pm | Report comment
I think relegation and promotion is a fantastic idea however if it was introduced today into Australian football, the league wouldnt
survive. At the moment the second division clubs wouldnt get enough support to be able to sustain themselves and would
likely go bankrupt. Wait 10-15 years, then reconsider.
May 23rd 2012 @ 11:34pm
Gavin H said | May 23rd 2012 @ 11:34pm | Report comment
But if we wait and do nothing we will be still at the same point in 10-15 years. What we dont do is throw $$$ at national 2nd division with out laying the groundwork and firming up the support for the state leagues first.
Now that the NCR is out, it has demonstrated an intention to unify the State leagues so that run and adhere to the same rules across all states. Once this is beded down, I can see the proposed state champions league developing into the national 2nd Teir over time.
The next thing is for each of the states Federations to conduct similar competition reviews that aim at the top local level clubs, we need to get P/R happening in local to state level first.