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Millers Banter: Unofficial Rotherham United Fans Forum / Message Board → Football / Sport / RUFC Related → About the club owners
 

Topic: About the club owners

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Exetermiller
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About the club owners
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Strange coincidence after my rant the other night about the state of the clubs finances

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/48412747



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GlennMiller
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It's a timely reminder about the precarious nature of football outside the top flight. All Millers fans should have this article blue-tacked on the wall next to their beds to remind themselves each time they feel like having a rant about the lack of investment in our club. I take Ex's earlier points about the need for other income streams to be pursued (G&C, empty trading units etc). However, just taking G&C as an example, and assuming that TS' plans are for some kind of hotel/recreational/entertainment facility, there is still a massive up front investment required which would presumably come mainly from TS' pocket plus any other interested parties (Rotherham Council?). However, the risk is monumental. Much would depend on RUFC being a successful club attracting large crowds which the facility could service. To be fair, apart from NYS, there's nothing much to attract visitors to Rotherham at present and until there is more to entice visitors to the town, TS will be dependent on Rotherham as a football venue. But there lies the rub. For the Millers to be successful, investment in the club is required. To afford investment in the club, TS needs to generate income from so far untapped sources but these require high risk investment based on Rotherham being a successful football club. It's a financial plate-balancing act that the majority of us will never have to contend with and we should appreciate someone who is willing to do it on our behalf and not be quick to criticise him if, when it is hopefully successful, he personally reaps the financial reward for the risk he has taken.

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TH MILLER
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The last 10 years have been brilliant under our chairman I will continue to support the millers in my small way always mindful we can very easy come a cropper the main problem is when he goes I do know he is going to carry on running the club it is a pity there is not more people supporting the club.

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Exetermiller
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I wasn't having a go by the way at TS and the board, I think they're pretty shrewd and I don't think anyone would take risks beyond what they have done...even us as fans. We can't even fill an 11,000 capacity ground week in week out in the Champ. While our core season tickets may have doubled I would think our overall support has dwindled a lot! I remember Millmoor against Newcastle, Man Utd, Blackpool & Mansfield and I'm sure there's loads more in the 80s and earlier before my time where you were crammed like sardines and absolutely no chance for a pee...if we scored you ended up 25 yards from where you were stood!

I think what's most sad is I spent years dreaming of being in the Champ, getting to be like Huddersfield or Hull City. We've now done it 3 times and each time has been in the end deflating and a horrible realisation that it's too much for us. I hope that can change because I never thought I'd see RUFC at the absolutely top of where they can realistically expect to be. (And that's not really the chairman and boards fault).

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NewYorkshire
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I agree but the reason we never filled the NYS in the championship is because we never competed in there, the majority of us would go in L2 or Championship, but we never kicked on and offered something exciting in the Championship that would engage the casual fan. Unfortunately success does attract more fans and our Championship seasons have been dismal apart from the Warnock survival - but that was to survive not make PO. On the main point its a rich mans pastime for sure and getting worse - the FL needs more of the Sky money to help the clubs out or it becomes too hard to progress unless you are owned by a billionaire.

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WorcesterMiller
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The more money that Sky pump in the championship the more the wages go up , we are never going to be able to afford or compete.

But if we have a plan of selling on and re-investing into the playing squad, then this hopefully will mean we are able to on the next time we join the championship not go straight back down.


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Royston Vasey
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Football needs "to look at how it treats the owners at some of its clubs" as without them, fans "wouldn't have a club", says departing English Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey.

 

Mmm? Really? That’s rich coming from a fat cat of a football governing body. So the big challenge is going to be around player wage inflation? No sh it Sherlock! As the (ex) chief executive of the EFL and (ex) managing director of a Premier League club would he like to cast his mind back to how we got into this situation in the first place? Was it not a small bunch of greedy club owners who met over dinner with the intention of breaking away from the Football League and keeping almost all broadcasting revenue to themselves? Was it not the incompetence of both the Football Association and Football League to overcome their personal animosity and prevent this happening?

You can’t hold back change and the massive influx of broadcasting money into football would have happened anyway. But what is criminal is that all the billions pumped into football has mostly gone to paying, at times, obscene wages. The very grass roots of football - the local pitches and training facilities which could have been improved so much with a decent share of the pot and to the benefit of the game as a whole, have been overlooked. That has happened because the Football Association and Football League relinquished control completely to the Premier League. 

As for the dilemma club owners in the lower leagues have with inflated player wages. It is down to incredible parachute payments given to relegated clubs from the Premier League that the Championship has become unsustainable to any club without an ambitious billionaire in charge. That pressure then filters down the football pyramid. 

No, Mr Harvey! It is not fans who you should criticise. It is the ineffective governing bodies in English football, one of which you no doubt received a handsome salary from, who you should look at. 

Last season, without investment, our relegation was an inevitable outcome. Without some interjection and thinking outside the box by the governing bodies the situation is only going to get worse. The Championship is turning into a mini Premier League 2. 

I don’t know what the real answer is. For me, cut the Premier League adrift completely. Then take the heat out of the Championship by sharing whatever broadcasting rights it gets throughout the whole football pyramid. After that the only incentive for even being in the Championship would be personal pride and not money. 

Yes, I know, it ain’t gonna happen.

 



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GlennMiller
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Good post RV! It is difficult to imagine how it will all end. It won't be pretty for the smaller clubs unless they're fortunate enough to have Salford's buying power. However, if the Premier League is cut adrift, just think how tedious it would be. It would be possible for anyone with any semblance of footballing knowledge to predict the order that every club would finish, give or take a few surprises each season. I wonder how long it would maintain its appeal? Oh for the days when a club could achieve promotion through a few clever acquisitions, quality management and a team working for each other towards a common goal.

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Exetermiller
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That's the grand plan and the future of English football?

2 elite divisions comprising the 40 biggest teams of England, while the rest are forced into part time existence, that will happen over the next 20 years. And all those property owners or company owners of new stadia outside these 2 elite divisions? .....oh dear.

In 30 years 5-6 of those will break off to form a European super league. Welcome to Capitalist football.

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ian
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I have a question.

Is the football hierarchy that much different than its been over the last 70 years (post war) ?

It seems to me that the top dogs and also-rans have remained more stable than the high street and the FTSE 100 ; Roughly 30 % remain since its inception and with a few exceptions the rest have simply been bought and are now international companies in every way.

Perhaps Football is the most enduring of all Sports too? Look at the changes in the two Rugby codes, cricket, athletics. Everything has been revolutionised by TV , gambling and the huge rise in Billionaires and conglomerates or investment partnerships.

All considered when I think about the history of RUFC I wonder if we arent pretty much where we have always been with several significant dips and several highs along the way. The premiership may have huge amounts of cash and we may lament terrible the wages people earn and the overall greed everywhere but in terms of historic sustainability Im not sure its too much different. One could argue that it might be more proletarian...take the reelection to the league farce that took place every year as an example...

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