“The game is about glory.” So said celebrated Spurs midfielder Danny Blanchflower. These five words, which ring out before every football match played at White Hart Lane, articulate the conviction of football fans across the globe. It is upon rallying cries such as this that the sport has taken on the hallmarks of a religion; difficult to grasp for those on the outside, yet quite impossible to renounce for its followers. And the promised land of this religion, for European club supporters, is the Champions League.
Yet for a handful of people, comparatively speaking, the game is about more than glory. For these people the game is about making money. Lots and lots of money. And the more money these people make, the greater the disconnect grows between club directors and fans.
Over the past couple of decades, English football fans in particular have become disgruntled as the price of watching live games has become prohibitively expensive. It is an entirely justified and understandable grievance, and one that supporter groups such as Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust do excellently to highlight and oppose. The game should not just be about money. Yet money and glory, when it comes to modern football, do quite often go hand in hand.
Source: tottenhamhotspur.com
Tickets for tat
When it comes to ticket price inflation, the finger is naturally pointed at greedy football executives. However, in many cases it is not necessarily clubs and their boards who are to blame. A team’s league position is closely correlated to its position in the wage-bill hierarchy. In order to outdo an opponent, the best strategy is quite often to outspend them. Hence the increased dominance of the very richest clubs right across European football.
In most industries there are regulators whose role it is to protect consumers’ rights within any profit-driven sector. The price of Premier League games would be very different if it adopted the same ownership regulations as Germany’s Bundesliga. However, the absence of such regulations means the simplest solution for any club lacking a 60,000 seater stadium is to increase ticket prices in order to compete. What’s worse, the product on the field doesn’t always reflect the price hike.
Growing ticket prices has been one of the many factors causing unrest amongst various Spurs supporters over the past few months. A ludicrous ‘partnership’ between the club and Stubhub – essentially an online marketplace for the exchange of above-face-value tickets – is at best ill-judged and at worst a slap in the face to many fans. Another grumble has been the lack of ‘net spend’ on new players. The latter of these complaints is short termism at its worst. The words Glasgow Rangers, Leeds United and Deportivo La Coruña spring to mind.
Estadio Da Luz-kalike
The reality is that the glory of the Champions League – and the riches it brings – do make a difference to any club. However, to clubs in England these riches are not as meaningful as they might be to those in other countries. Last season Real Madrid made €57.4m in prize money after lifting the Champion League trophy. For finishing sixth in the Premier League, Spurs received £90.3m. Yes, a bonus of €60m-odd for winning the most coveted trophy in European club football would be very useful, but even the mighty Spurs are never going to win the Champions League every year.
In the 2012/13 season Tottenham made £33m in match receipts. Arsenal, with their Estadio Da Luz-kalike stadium, generated gate and matchday income of £93m – a stonking £60m more than Spurs. Matchday revenue is now the main reason for the vast disparity between the two clubs’ spending powers, not the Champions League. Tottenham cannot be guaranteed a full-house at every home game, yet this is a far more achievable goal than winning the Champions League every year. Furthermore, once it is built, a lucrative stadium is not something you have to re-qualify for every year.
Investing in the new ground is not without its risks (*see Valencia). Yet if the project is managed by people who know how to finance and manage such a delicate operation, the reward might just be a shot at sustained glory – the most glorious of all glories. If Tottenham have to do without Champions League qualification, without the Di Marias, Alexis Sanchezes and Cesc Fabregases of this world for a few years as payment for that scenario, I’m game.
Kenny Wastell
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