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General Category => Altrincham FC First Team => Topic started by: Wilmslow Alty on June 19, 2009, 06:46:32 PM
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The Premier League's just cancelled Setanta's contract for the coming season and The American tycoon, Len Blavatnik, has pulled out of a deal to save them (see below). I think that's just about it for Setanta and and Conference football on TV next season.
The American tycoon Len Blavatnik has pulled out of its deal to save Setanta
Sources close the deal have said that the deal faltered after Setanta lost the rights to the Premier League games and after it was revealed that Setanta owed HMRC around £50m
This is the statement from Access Industries, run by Len Blavatnik
"On 12th June Access Industries put forward a proposal to the Board of Setanta to acquire a majority interest in the Company. Access believed that this proposal could potenitally have secured the future of the broadcaster for its customers, employees and for football, provided certain conditions required to put the business on a long-term viable footing were met.
Regrettably, despite intensive efforts on all sides over the past few days, and despite significant progress in a number of areas, there remain a number of issues which we have been unable to resolve within the time available.We are disappointed not to have been able to make this deal happen. Access remains committed to sports programming and will continue to explore opportunities in this area."
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More fresh in from PA:
GAME LOOKS OVER FOR SETANTA
By Kelly Macnamara, Press Association City Staff
The future of troubled sports broadcaster Setanta was thrown into doubt today
as rescue negotiations failed and a key football contract was cancelled.
A potential deal with US tycoon Len Blavatnik's Access Industries, thought to
be worth #20 million in return for a 51% stake in the broadcaster, collapsed
after "a number of issues" were not resolved in time, the investor said.
The news comes as a further blow for Setanta, which today lost its licence to
broadcast 46 Premier League football matches next season after failing to meet
"certain contractual obligations".
An Access Industries spokesman said: "Access believed that this proposal could
potentially have secured the future of the broadcaster for its customers,
employees and for football, provided certain conditions required to put the
business on a long-term viable footing were met.
"Regrettably, despite intensive efforts on all sides over the past few days,
and despite significant progress in a number of areas, there remain a number of
issues which we have been unable to resolve within the time available."
mfl
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So it looks like we will be televised one game less than we were on last season. Unless we get a nice FA Cup run.
We could however have done with the anual payment. :(
Poor Luton will also lose out on TV money again. ;D
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£80,000 over a 40 week season...
£2,000 off the wage bill.
Its a disaster.
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£80,000 over a 40 week season...
£2,000 off the wage bill.
Its a disaster.
Surely all clubs in our league will have the same problem though? There are that many players out there this summer looking for clubs that i'm sure we'll be able to get a few in late on once they realise after a couple of months of looking that not many clubs are chucking decent money about.
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The AGM cup in 2010 could be interesting now with more entrants than ever. It is going to be a tough competition this time around.
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I think there could be a silver lining to this.
OK, so we'll lose the £85000 that everyone gets, but Alty never really made much more than that from Setanta. The more fashionable clubs that are on the TV 7 or 8 times a season stand to lose a lot more than we do.
To put forward an alternative opinion, I reckon this could create more of a level playing field for us to compete on.
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Are some people on here having a little difficulty reading Ecky's post? £2,000 off the weekly wage bill takes us back to the wages of 3 years ago. If you think we can keep Young, Doughty, Denham and McGregor on that you're not looking closely enough.
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Erm if our turnover is one of the lowest in the league, then losing £80k will hurt us more as a %age than other teams. No?
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Well, no.....
Teams with turnovers as small as ours will get hurt just as much, teams with bigger turnovers will lose a lot more TV money than us, as they tend to be on Setanta more than us, levelling things out. Teams with bigger turnovers also normally have higher costs and rely on TV money more than we do.
Just because they have higher turnovers doesn't mean they make more profit, there are plenty of bigger teams in this league in a worse financial state than us, they will be devastated by this news.
There may well be teams that go under because of this, but I would bet that Alty aren't one of them.
Obviously I would rather we all received the money, but this is the situation we are in, we need to look for positives.
I stand by what I said.
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Are some people on here having a little difficulty reading Ecky's post? £2,000 off the weekly wage bill takes us back to the wages of 3 years ago. If you think we can keep Young, Doughty, Denham and McGregor on that you're not looking closely enough.
i imagine these players if they stay to play part time would struggle to get another club bar fleetwood who would pay the same even if they lost £100 per week , if setanta go under - ie knock on effect in bsp
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Well, no.....
Teams with turnovers as small as ours will get hurt just as much, teams with bigger turnovers will lose a lot more TV money than us, as they tend to be on Setanta more than us, levelling things out. Teams with bigger turnovers also normally have higher costs and rely on TV money more than we do.
Just because they have higher turnovers doesn't mean they make more profit, there are plenty of bigger teams in this league in a worse financial state than us, they will be devastated by this news.
There may well be teams that go under because of this, but I would bet that Alty aren't one of them.
Obviously I would rather we all received the money, but this is the situation we are in, we need to look for positives.
I stand by what I said.
Not a criticism of our board who have made their position clear, but quite a few other clubs will have directors who will just put in to make up the shortfall.
Still struggling to find a positive for a wage bill reduction of 20 odd percent, unless we can find another source of income.
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Well, no.....
Teams with turnovers as small as ours will get hurt just as much, teams with bigger turnovers will lose a lot more TV money than us, as they tend to be on Setanta more than us, levelling things out. Teams with bigger turnovers also normally have higher costs and rely on TV money more than we do.
Just because they have higher turnovers doesn't mean they make more profit, there are plenty of bigger teams in this league in a worse financial state than us, they will be devastated by this news.
There may well be teams that go under because of this, but I would bet that Alty aren't one of them.
Obviously I would rather we all received the money, but this is the situation we are in, we need to look for positives.
I stand by what I said.
Not a criticism of our board who have made their position clear, but quite a few other clubs will have directors who will just put in to make up the shortfall.
Still struggling to find a positive for a wage bill reduction of 20 odd percent, unless we can find another source of income.
if they have already committed themselves to next season perhaps we can trust most will stay even if they have to take a wage cut ,
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Are some people on here having a little difficulty reading Ecky's post? £2,000 off the weekly wage bill takes us back to the wages of 3 years ago. If you think we can keep Young, Doughty, Denham and McGregor on that you're not looking closely enough.
So do you reckon the above named players will now be released because they're big earners? I can't see it mate to be honest although it will definately affect any possible players coming in or not coming in as the case will probably be now.
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As far as I can see, there are no positives whatsoever ! We potentially stand to lose £80k and some think there could be a 'silver lining'
So called bigger clubs will either borrow more money or their benefactors will put their hand a little deeper into their pockets. There are other clubs who we know have no regard for debt either, it just means they will lose more money next season than they hoped for.
Believe me, this will impact the smaller clubs more than the bigger clubs, even though they featured on the telly much more. The only levelling of playing fields will be at rival clubs such as Barrow and Tamworth etc
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A very strange way to look at it!!
I am sure clubs like Halifax, Boston ,Scarborough and others now have a very healthy regard for debt.
You really can't argue that going further into debt than they originally hoped is not a problem. All clubs have to keep an eye on their balance sheets, the ones that don't will at some point wish they had!!
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There was talk about Setanta going towards the end of last season so maybe that might have been taken into consideration when the budget was set
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Just pointing out that to some clubs this will be a disaster, whereas to some others it will be an unfortunate loss. It will impact on each club differently.
As far as it being a strange way of looking at things, then I think the same thing when I read posts about this major loss of income having a silver lining
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'Just pointing out that to some clubs this will be a disaster, whereas to some others it will be an unfortunate loss. It will impact on each club differently.'
We agree on that!!
I might have been a little bit harsh last night, I don't want to fall out with anyone over this.
All I was trying to say is that this is the situation we are in, let's deal with it as best we can and try to make the best of it.
At least it sparked off an interesting debate!!
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Interesting comments from Conference independent chairman, Brian Lee, in thepress.co.uk - especially about the viewing figures being comparable with the SPL.
Lee still believes Conference games remain an “excellent marketable product”.
He said: “We may be considered to be a minor player in the demise of Setanta, but we know we have an excellent marketable product.
“Recent viewing figures, which are comparable with the Scottish Premier League, clearly show that we have a competition which is of major interest to subscribers who hold the sport so dear to their heart in this country.
“It would be silly not to recognise the value of Premier League packages which became available following Setanta going into administration, but with the Blue Square Premier now consisting of numerous ex-Football League clubs and the cream of the non-League battling it out season after season we would like to think that we can, among the debris, find a new broadcaster who values what the ordinary supporter wants from the game nowadays.
“Whether there is any mileage still to be obtained through the administrators or whether we accept a new approach, we want broadcasters to know we are happy to talk.
“We were the first to embrace the model of innovations brought to our screens by Setanta with their unique approach to presenting and we are willing to continue such an approach, if a broadcaster is also willing to help the top end of the grass roots game.
“In global terms the financial deal we had with Setanta was not huge by modern day standards but it was a major lifeline to my member clubs”.
http://www.thepress.co.uk/sport/4460817.Blue_Square_football_league_issue_plea_on_TV_rights_deal/ (http://www.thepress.co.uk/sport/4460817.Blue_Square_football_league_issue_plea_on_TV_rights_deal/)
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I'm certain that a few months ago I read that the Blue Square Premier was getting HIGHER ratings than the Scottish Premier League on Setanta. However, in true Wikipedia style I'm unable to quote an official reference to that effect.
It's a bugger because I subscribed to Setanta Australia and used to enjoy seeing 15 to 20 seconds of Alty action each week.
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I'm certain that a few months ago I read that the Blue Square Premier was getting HIGHER ratings than the Scottish Premier League on Setanta. However, in true Wikipedia style I'm unable to quote an official reference to that effect.
It's a bugger because I subscribed to Setanta Australia and used to enjoy seeing 15 to 20 seconds of Alty action each week.
I'm pretty sure that the Conference Playoff Final 2008 got 500,000 viewers - that would suggest there is a decent market for Non-League. I'm not sure who will go for it, Five or somebody else that won't charge me to suscribe would be good.
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When I purchased my season ticket last week, GH said that the only way we can balance our books now (if we can) is that we bring in 4 kids at best to provide us with cover.
If that means that the collapse of Setanta wont impact too heavily on us then I dont know what is.
However I can see what others are saying about the silver lining in some respect, but I would call it more of glint of light one hell of a long way in to a dark tunnel.
The reason being is that we have kept all of our first team, and Michael Welch is apparently signing for us but will be out of action until about October (meaning for the first time in many years we have a strong nucleus of a team who are used to playing with each other). Other teams we know are cutting their wage bills and now this will need to be cut further, some are down to a squad of 3 or 4 players meaning they are rebuilding.
However the upshot, whether it levels the playing field or not, is that ths is a disaster to the long term development of Alty, that has been going on over the last few years.
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I'm certain that a few months ago I read that the Blue Square Premier was getting HIGHER ratings than the Scottish Premier League on Setanta. However, in true Wikipedia style I'm unable to quote an official reference to that effect.
It's a bugger because I subscribed to Setanta Australia and used to enjoy seeing 15 to 20 seconds of Alty action each week.
I'm pretty sure that the Conference Playoff Final 2008 got 500,000 viewers - that would suggest there is a decent market for Non-League. I'm not sure who will go for it, Five or somebody else that won't charge me to suscribe would be good.
The latest copy of When Saturday Comes does indeed confirm that the Play-off final got more viewers for Setanta than the SPL title decider. It also states that the viewing figures for our league were often similar to the SPL. The key difference being Setanta paid £3m a year for our league and £25m for the SPL!