The difference between Barnsley ....... and clubs like Leeds United

Leeds is a one club city like Newcastle. 30k home fans is about par for the course if you ask me.

 

I think if the west stand was redeveloped, and we somehow reached the prem, we could maybe hit between 22 to 23k I reckon.. It would defo be a sell out each season providing season tickets were kept to an affordable level.

 

As a Leeds United supporter, I can agree with SOME of this but not all of it;

Hecky wasnt at Leeds long enough to introduce much of a system for anything. However, a lot of our supporters would now consider that we invest too MUCH in our youth development system, but I'm not one of them. It's a good earner for the club, having generated significant cash over the years with the sales of the likes of Alan Smith, James Milner, Tom Lees, Jonny Howson, Sam Byram, Ronaldo Viera, Fabian Delph, Lewis Cook etc. Indeed, it could be argued that the club would have gone to the wall without some of these sales. We have managed to hold on to Kalvin Phillips, whose market value is perhaps now in excess of £20 million.

I am confident that players such as Oduor, Halme, Wilks etc, are decent, but inferior to other members of our development squad, so they have been pruned. And a big question mark hangs over Wilks' future if he is sent to prison, which is not beyond the realms of possibility.

A youth development policy tends to be ruthless. If a player looks decent, that is not enough. What is the hit rate of a player from the youth development system making the grade, for any club? Very low, and those falling short of the benchmark, even by relatively narrow margins, will be jettisoned. For LUFC, such players have to be able to demonstrate the ability to match, if not better, the talent of the other top clubs in this Championship, many of who can call on parachute payments, if we are to compete with them. The FFP rules (or whatever they are called now) have teeth, just ask Birmingham City, and the economical madhouse of modern day football means that even Leeds United, recently one of the best supported clubs out side of the Premiership, and certainly the most marketable and the highest revenue earner, have to tread very carefully.

It is rumoured that we turned down bids of £35 million this transfer window for members of our squad, so we aren't skint and I believe that we are run in a sounder manner than we have been for many years. But take way the "exceptions to the rule" that are Huddersfield Town and Sheffield United and you have to recognise that a club without parachute payments is not going to secure promotion without making a loss. The difficulty is keeping that loss within manageable and EFL stipulated limits.

And I assume that the aim of all Championship clubs is to get promoted? Although the Terriers have demonstrated that the Premier League is not necessarily the Promised Land.

 

Welcome to the board mate. It's better to have some input from a supporter rather than having us all guessing.

 

I agree. I have 4 Leeds supporting friends and co-workers. By rights, none of them should be Leeds fans (they should be Barnsley, Bradford, Coventry and Southampton based on where they were brought up), but the success the club had during their influential days lead them to Leeds. They now exhibit terminal depression when discussing Leeds’ fortunes.

Leeds should have a good fan base though with 2.5 million people in West Yorkshire to share amongst Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Halifax and rugby league, plus being the nearest “high profile” club to many of the 600,000 people that live in North Yorkshire. South Yorkshire has 1.5 million people to share amongst Barnsley, the Sheffield clubs, Rotherham and Donny and is also hemmed in by the West Yorkshire/Manchester/Notts/Derby fan base.

We should also factor in the obvious Look North and Calendar bias towards Leeds for assisting their fan recruitment.

Success and exciting football breed fans though. As we hopefully get more success and play attractive football, we will widen our appeal geographically to get new fans, but ultimately get more people from Barnsley and the Dearne Valley to get down t’Well of a match day.

I already noticed an increase in the number of Barnsley shirts worn around Wath during our summer visit. I’ll be proudly wearing mine tomorrow here in Tbilisi!

 

It's an interesting thread this and all points are valid and for once we seem to have a good debate going on... There's time yet for it to descend into name calling lol... Not knowing the specific age group of posters.. Let's take a brief look at the history of support.. Growing up in the 60s and 70s Leeds and the Sheffield clubs were the attraction and the focus of many.. The only way you got to see the big stars of the day were to attend the game its self or you had to make do with the radio and newspapers.. The telly limited in what it offered.. In barnsley and no doubt other towns bus operators saw a revenue stream and opportunity to make money so each week when the 1st division games were on buses would leave the towns like Barnsley and so and run excursions.. Both Sheffield clubs and Leeds prospered at the expense of Barnsley slowly but surely lots of bsly fans who had been attending both Oakwell one week Leeds the next came to the conclusion that for a few quid more they were getting value for money has Barnsley were a club that A was skint B not fashionable and C going no where only down.. The old saying they don't want promotion was born apathy in truck loads swept the terraces of Oakwell dark days yet the big clubs flourished more revenue better players more excitement and for not a lot more cash..those same fans then took others family members and so the exodus started.. Not only in bsly...hence the likes of Wednesday Leeds fan base grew.. I Might add Hull at one time had more whites than tigers roaming the streets..
Unfortunately the likes of little old bsly had little resources and smaller ideas on marketing and suffered too.. Whilst crowds have dwindled other attractions have added to the competition for the Barnsley pound.. Yes in many ways we've seen a steady rise from those dark fourth tier crowds..( I and the other 1200 and less have been there even to the point of flitting between Elland Road and Oakwell ) but that rise hasn't been sufficient to fill Oakwell
Off field activity miss management failure to learn from mistakes made change of direction haven't helped to cover the club in glory or helped them to attain crowds that they ought to be seeing... Give the town success and the crowds at Oakwell will come back one day of that Im sure but it won't happen over night Leeds Wednesday united to some point have had more than 40 years of in bedding their ideals into the thinking where loyalty lies and pinning their colours to the mast.... We've seen 34.000 rocking Oakwell in the 80s we've seen good support at Oakwell South... Success good marketing will see a rise..plus in my eyes an updated ground ie West stand.. These new owners are slowly getting it right on the pitch.. Hopefully another spell in the promised land would help.. Last time quite a few from other club fan bases swelled our season ticket sales only to loose them after relegation..
Build it on and off the field and they will come

 

Just so happens that some of my mates have been discussing the investment scenario at Elland Road. Our current management do seem a bit more scientific in their approach than previous owners, who were, by and large, clinically insane, and our MD has stated that upon taking control in 2017, they undertook an analysis of other clubs in the Championship and their findings were as follows;

A wage bill of:
£10 million usually means regulation
£15 or £16 million will secure a mid table place.
£25 million will secure a play off spot
over £30 million will get you promoted.

At the time, LUFC's wage bill was in keeping with a mid-table finish, which is where we ended most seasons. LUFC decided that this was inadequate and raised our expenditure, subsequently finishing 7th, 13th (under Hecky) and 3rd.

When you look at the typical turnover of an EFL club that doesn't receive parachute payments, this is somewhat scary. I'm off to look down the back of my sofa.......

 

The season 2017-2018 Leeds wage bill was £28m

 

It seems odd to base a promotion by how much you spend. I get why they’d think that, but there is more to it than just the money. I mean if we just decided to start paying our current team 100 times more... it wouldn’t put us at certs for promotion. The Leeds board appear to have missed the need for solid foundations, strong team work and that massive slice of luck.

If it was all about wages, Wednesday would have been promoted years ago....

Hopefully we’ll buck the trend.

 

Just a thought mate... why do you need to post this 'analysis'? What's the underlying point? Just asking, not being rude

 

So he can say 'hecky' again.

 

I am very happy at the way BFC is being run right now.

 

Because - there has been a few IT discussing big reaction from Leeds fans to us signing their younger players.
Some fans saying that they should have kept them - while others saying these players weren’t good enough and behind a string of others - in other words those fans want success now.

In the meantime - Barnsley fans can enjoy the journey of watching how a young talented squad develop.
Something that would never be allowed to happen at Leeds.

 

Because Hecky s his mate!

 

Transfer sums are getting out of control and this leaves very little room for error, and i agree wi Y.N. everything is spot on, well said Nudger.

 

I wish he was.
But no.
Someone posted on here that Hecky didn’t do owt at Leeds.
Why then, while he was manager, was there a group of young players introduced to the 1st team ?

 

The prior history in the context of that great Leeds team of the early 70's is not really relevant though is it? They were a great team. Period. And I say this as reds fan

 

Jibber jabber my old man's a baboon

 

Yes the Birmingham deduction did seem deliberately tactically inept by the league. Quite subtle.

 

Aye, thanks for making a reasoned, non insulting point. Regards