One thing I can’t quite work out

The PL will never want to lose its flagship teams, however what I can see happening is a restructure with the PL splitting into 2 leagues PL1 & PL2 to reduce the teams to around 10/12 in PL 1 to allow them to compete in some sort of super league, having less games.
By having 2 leagues the PL brand will be able to increase games under a new broadcast deal and generate more funds, the below model is an increase in 88 games but reduces matches for each club, the big teams wouldn't be bothered that they weren't playing teams like Bournemouth, Brighton and Brentford anymore, and from a marketing point they probably be able to increase subscription costs.
The trickle down of money would also be greater, stop parachute payments to champ level but keep in PL2 only and redistribute funds, ultimately though without a curb on wages any increase will see wages swallow up additional monies.

PL 1 = 10 Teams
PL 2 = 18 Teams
Champ= 20 Teams
EFL 1 = 22 Teams
EFL 2 = 22 Teams

 

Surely all that would do is make the PL2 the new Championship etc so the issue of parachute payments would still be there?
Theres almost an argument to say the only way to manage the chasing the riches dream is to make the PL1 a secure league with no relegation and no promotion to.
That way the big money would go there meaning clubs & players would gradually bring their expectations down as you would only get the big riches in the top league.

Not a fan of the principal of no relegation/promotion but it could work in terms of managing the finances of clubs.
Personally still think EFL/PL should set budgets for each club that they have to stick to, clubs can yearly apply to change the budgets but once set adhered too.
I would add in automated punishments of points and/or relegation for non compliance.
Key of course would be managing it.

 

But if you reduced the funding slightly to PL2 with better redistribution it would mean you could keep parachute payments for PL 1 to PL2 but not from PL2 to champ.
Ultimately the big clubs decide what's happening in the game and i just can't see a situation where they wont want to reduce their games to compete in a super league.
A restructure will happen in some format

 

Our bloated list of club staff as well. Too many cooks spoil the broth springs to mind.

 

Arguably worse thing ever to be allowed to happen was the formation of two entities in the PL & EFL.

 

Yeah Sherlock lol, they are the sort of things that we've been saying for ages now.
Although remember, just in case you've forgot... be careful what you wish for!.

 

Chien Lee and Paul Conway believed, incorrectly, that many European football clubs were dramatically undervalued. They thought they could buy, relatively cheaply, clubs just below the elite level and the market would catch up, and they'd make a lot of money. What they didn't really understand was that although a club like Barnsley has large attendances, averaging anything from 12 to 15 thousand when in the Championship, that doesn't make them a third the size of a club in the Premiership who average 36 to 45 thousand. It doesn't mean we get a third of the revenue. Income from broadcasting is massively skewed towards Premiership teams, so even though we look like we are a similar size to the smaller Premier League clubs, we get a fraction of the income. If we could get in the Premiership we'd be worth something, but we're up against parachute payments and a couple of dozen clubs who have owners pumping in 10s of millions every season. Lee and Conway didn't have the money to compete with buying their way to promotion (whatever you've read on their finances is completely wrong) so the whole initiative was entirely flawed.

Lee and Conway didn't even have the money to buy us themselves (again, what you've read is wrong). They needed investors. A couple of those were Neerav and JAQ's husband (probably on the recommendation of JAQ). Lee and Conway expected silent investors, but Neerav and JAQ invested because they liked the idea of being involved in football. It had piqued their interest and they didn't just want an investment opportunity, they wanted involvement with an English football club. And so they went to games and they liked the idea even more and fell in love with Barnsley FC.

And then, gradually, Neerav and JAQ started to realise that Conway and Lee were a couple of chancers, and it wasn't just their investment that was going tits up, it was their club, their team. And so they began the process of wrestling away control from that pair of tossers. And now they own a club and it's gobbling up their money, but at least it's not in the ownership of people who will kill it. And they don't want it to be going like it is, but football is nuts and they're still finding their feet.

And @Chef Tyke mate, you must relate to their story a bit as you're not from Barnsley, you've never lived here, but they're your team.

 

thanks mate. I think that’s where I was just about with it in terms of how we have got here, but you have eloquently put my thoughts onto paper. I do relate to that for the reasons in your last paragraph (although I did used to live in Barnsley ) but would I endlessly pour millions into it despite being wedded to those red bricks in the west stand?

I guess it’s a matter of fact and degree but if I had the millions to do it, would my plan be to lose say £7m a season then get that down to £5m loss the following season, then £4m loss and bear that loss forever? I’m not sure if that makes sense and this is where I really struggle with it. If you’re prepared to take a loss of that magnitude, wouldn’t it make more sense to take a larger immediate loss to get us out of this league? Maybe that ship has sailed as this league is starting to fill with teams prepared to throw cash at it to get out of it, which is what started happening in the championship a few years ago.

Their strategy can’t be to get us to break even and compete in league one can it? Thats simply not possible looking at the accounts. If it is, I do question where we will end up.

I dunno maybe it just all goes back to your truism that football is nuts. It’s all a little depressing really. Hats off to them but it leaves us in a perilous position.

 

Cheers Acid ,the name fits

 

We don't have a bloated staff.

 

I think that's what they've done for the three seasons prior to the one just about to start. I don't think they were looking to gradually reduce the losses during those seasons. I think they were looking for promotion.

After relegation, a few players made noises that they wanted to leave, so we sold those players for as much as we could, but there wasn't a fire sale, we kept the majority of the squad. And we signed the likes of Connell, Phillips, Cadden, Cundy and McCarthy. We added a few in January too.

Mads decided he wanted to go after the first season and Norwood was sold to a non-league club, but we weren't touting our players around. The enormous fee we received for Kitching is testament to the lengths they'd go to in order to keep our squad in tact.. They'd clearly already rejected offers well above the going rate. More players were signed than were released.

Even last season saw more players signed (Roberts, Gent, Nwakali, Keillor Dunn, Humphrys) than were sold.

It wasn't until half way through last season that noises from the club started to emerge that they couldn't keep doing this, that losses were going to start to be reduced, that the club couldn't continue to be bankrolled as it had been.

Fact is, they did gamble. It got us to Wembley and a last minute defeat, it got us to the play-offs the following season, and it wasn't until we were well into a season where promotion looked less likely that the madness of our finances became top of the agenda and that the strategy going forward would be to tackle those.

We made the huge immediate losses, they've chucked millions in, but it didn't quite work. There are no guarantees. So now the emphasis is on reducing the club's losses.

 

Yes that’s all very fair and true mate.
Who would own a football club, eh…

 

Yeah I was being sarcy lol, but I do agree with some of those comments.
The recruitment has been mostly appalling, and we keep failing to learn from one mistake after another.
I do also wish they would spend a bit more, that "speculate to accumulate" thing. Which could be classed as ambition of course.
We definitely do need to get out of this league, and back into the Championship, everybody knows that.
And let's hope that Conor will make them more competitive again, more regularly. Because they've been missing that badly for a few seasons now.

 

‘The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money’