Sunday, February 28, 2010

In Which I Show My Commercial Genius

Portsmouth are going down. Sorry chaps, but you are. So how about earning a little money and not losing your club as well? How are we going to do that, you ask?

I'll tell you. You have a very valuable asset that you haven't yet exploited. In fact, I don't think anyone has, ever. What is this great asset that the accountants haven't noticed? Why, the chance to play at Anfield against Liverpool, at home against Chelsea, and a few more games.

I don't know how much Portsmouth actually need, I think the transfer window has closed, and they've already played at Old Trafford and Highbury, which would have been worth a lot, but the principle could apply to other clubs who find themselves in big trouble. Forget trying to stay up, sell a few of those players who expect to be paid, and sign a few millionaires who'll happily pay a fortune to play against Manchester United, or just to play for the team they've always supported.

There's one born every minute, after all.

2 comments:

Mark Wadsworth said...

That's an excellent idea, but...

I'd estimate the price for one place on the team for one match at £10,000 to £50,000, and they wouldn't be able to auction off more than three places per match (8 professionals might just be about able to carry three willing amateurs), so maybe £100,000 per match x ... games remaining in the season won't be enough to keep them going, commercially.

But as they are already more or less relegated, they don't need to worry about minor details like scoring goals or anything any more and even if this scheme only brings in a couple of million, then so what?

The Hickory Wind said...

Exactly. It may not put them back in the black but if they accept they'll be relegated they have nothing to lose. A couple of million is a lot to a small club. My local club (then old 3rd/4th division, managed to pick up a Zairean schoolboy who turned out to be very useful. They sold him for a million or so. THen they drew Chelsea in the Cup. THey paid their debts, bought a new ground and went up to Div2 (and down again).

In the right circs a small club with a few big games to play has something to bargain with, even though the FA would probably get sniffy.

I might have known you'd try to do the figures :-)