Guest 90minsofmadness Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 I think short termism is the main problem with what is going on, the fans don't want a smaller league but it's not possible to up the amount of teams without teams having cash crisis. Football has the problem that it only seems to be able to look at the present or 1 season ahead but a ten year or even 20 year plan should be put in place to secure the future of the clubs and the league. All teams must work together to save our game and get back to having a strong league. Looking at the Dutch and German leagues for insight would be the first place to start. Anyway here's my suggestion. 2014 ââ?¬â?? change to two SPL leagues of 10, play each other 4 times (36 games) 2024 ââ?¬â?? change to 1 SPL league of 18 play each other twice (34 games) (Top 18 of the two SPL leagues from season 2023) 2014 ââ?¬â?? 2024 3 promotion/relegation places up for grabs, 2 automatic, 1 between 3rd and 4th bottom of top league and 3rd and 4th top of second league. 2 down from second league into SFL divisions. TV Money to be split completely evenly between the top 20 clubs by 2024, changing a slight percentage every year until this has been achieved. From 1014 ââ?¬â?? 2019 available money should be directed towards youth development and training facilities. Further rules for UK and youth developed players should come into play. From 2019 -2024 available money should be directed towards stadium facilities. The main pushes should be undersoil heating (for newly joined clubs) and safe standing areas. 2024 onwards 4 promotion/relegation places up for grabs, 3 automatic, 1 between 4rd and 5th bottom of top league and 4th and 5th top of SFL. TV Money to be split at a more reasonable amount as per league position finish and games broadcast again, changing a slight percentage every year until this has been achieved. The Scottish Cup European place should be used for the league . Although this may devalue the Cup, midtable teams need more incentives by the end of the season. Further Ideas To promote attacking football 1 additional league point for every 15 league goals scored should be implemented. Safe standing areas will be vital as they bring the capacity higher allowing for more revenue to clubs and will be easier for the smaller clubs to implement and improve their stadium. Beer (with regulations) should be allowed to be sold at the stadium to bring fans in earlier and spend more money directly into the club. Prices must be cut and regulated; I would propose a maximum of Ã?£15 (top grade game) for an adult. Fans must have incentives to go regularly again. We should try to secure the 5.15pm Saturday TV KO time so all games are at a more regular day which should secure more fans. Ticket to the match should include free public transport travel as has been implemented in Germany. Some sort of police/referee committee and a certain amount of time to be release before a call off ( ie if a pitch is unplayable at 7pm the previous evening then the game will be called off, no wait and see attitude). Something should be done to integrate the SPL and the SFL with a second tier of 22 or 2 tiers of 10. Clubs must live within their means, no club should be running at an unpaybackable debt and transfers can only happen with cash upfront (this includes add-ons, the potential fees must be available) The only type of debt should be Stadium improvements and the like. I'm no expert when it comes to money issues and the ins and out of running a club so some of these suggestions might be completley unmanagable but I like to think that there is a few ideas in there that might be worth looking at. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 I think "safe" standing will take up exactly the same amount of space as seating. In fact I think the best way for safe standing is to have designated standing areas in a seated stand and make it safe for standing by putting railings in front so that you can't fall over into the next row. You can't have surging or crushing if you only have one row of people at a time. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 PS I think one of the reasons safe standing has not been tried in the UK is the perception that seated fans are less likely to cause trouble than standing fans. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 I've always understood the attraction of a small league for the top 10 to 12 teams but I do find it strange we apply this to the rest of the SFL. Without regionalistion it doesn't really make sense. If we go two leagues of 10 then we should just have a third league of 22 - or cut it back down to 20 or 18 - we've far too many senior clubs for a country our size. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 90minsofmadness Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Never thought that would be the case with safe standing, always though you could perhaps get an extra third of the capacity or so. Even as such I still think it would be easier and cheaper for smaller clubs who might have the opportunity to join the SPL to improve stadia through using safe standing areas. I'd agree that the police wouldn't like safe standing but surley vastly improved policing and behavior would mean safe standing should be a viable option. I'm in the belief that the police are also behind the no alcohol policy at football which must be stopping clubs generating alot of income. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 90minsofmadness Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 As for the amount of teams it is always going to be hard to change history as people cling to it. Not to mention local rivalries with clubs preventing mergers. I think there should be relegation from the SFL as well with maybe some sort of playoff between junoir/ highland league teams. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluedell 5,329 Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 My comments are in red below. I think short termism is the main problem with what is going on, the fans don't want a smaller league but it's not possible to up the amount of teams without teams having cash crisis. Football has the problem that it only seems to be able to look at the present or 1 season ahead but a ten year or even 20 year plan should be put in place to secure the future of the clubs and the league. All teams must work together to save our game and get back to having a strong league. Looking at the Dutch and German leagues for insight would be the first place to start. Anyway here's my suggestion. 2014 ââ?¬â?? change to two SPL leagues of 10, play each other 4 times (36 games) 2024 ââ?¬â?? change to 1 SPL league of 18 play each other twice (34 games) (Top 18 of the two SPL leagues from season 2023) I don't get why we start with the 10 team league and then go to an 18. If 18 is what we want to achieve then why not go straight there? Also I don't think that 18 teams will be any more feasible in 13 years time than it is now. 2014 ââ?¬â?? 2024 3 promotion/relegation places up for grabs, 2 automatic, 1 between 3rd and 4th bottom of top league and 3rd and 4th top of second league. 2 down from second league into SFL divisions. I think that the possibillity of having 3 teams relagated is too much. Teams will not be able to budget for following seasons and cannot get players to commit to medium term contracts on decent wages. It needs more stability, and I wouldn't be adverse to one automatic and one play-off TV Money to be split completely evenly between the top 20 clubs by 2024, changing a slight percentage every year until this has been achieved. NO!!! You are suggetsing that Rangers give up a big proportion of our TV money, money that is earned by us. Rangers and Celtic are why the TV deals exist. Why should we give up our rightful share of it? Should we also give up a proportion of season tcket money to other clubs? All this would achieve is dragging down the OF towards the standard of other teams. From 1014 ââ?¬â?? 2019 available money should be directed towards youth development and training facilities. Further rules for UK and youth developed players should come into play. I'm not sure how you define "available money". What available money does any club in scotland have? are you saying that we would not be able to sign a Jelavic and that the cash would go to youth development? Most SPL clubs make losses as it is. I don't think that they can be dictated to as to how to spend their money. From 2019 -2024 available money should be directed towards stadium facilities. The main pushes should be undersoil heating (for newly joined clubs) and safe standing areas. Same point as above. What money is going to be available for additional stadium improvement? Safe standing areas? I doubt that Scottish football would go there as the Taylor report still applies, but certainly an area worthy of further discussion. 2024 onwards 4 promotion/relegation places up for grabs, 3 automatic, 1 between 4rd and 5th bottom of top league and 4th and 5th top of SFL. Too many. See above point. TV Money to be split at a more reasonable amount as per league position finish and games broadcast again, changing a slight percentage every year until this has been achieved. Again i disagree as it is the OF who bring the cash into the game. The Scottish Cup European place should be used for the league . Although this may devalue the Cup, midtable teams need more incentives by the end of the season. I don't agree but again worthy of discussion. It's nice that a Gretna or a Raith can hope to get european football. Further Ideas To promote attacking football 1 additional league point for every 15 league goals scored should be implemented. You might find Aberdeen losing 9-0 to Celtic more often if this was the case. Should a team that wins 3 games 4-0 have less points than a team that wins 3 games 5-4? Safe standing areas will be vital as they bring the capacity higher allowing for more revenue to clubs and will be easier for the smaller clubs to implement and improve their stadium. Is it required? Every team can't fill its stadum on a regular basis so why do capacities require to be increased? Beer (with regulations) should be allowed to be sold at the stadium to bring fans in earlier and spend more money directly into the club. I disagree. It would just have the potential of causing more trouble. Prices must be cut and regulated; I would propose a maximum of Ã?£15 (top grade game) for an adult. Fans must have incentives to go regularly again. This would take a lot of money out of the game IMO. I'm not convinced that the price elasticity would result in significantly bigger crowds. We should try to secure the 5.15pm Saturday TV KO time so all games are at a more regular day which should secure more fans. Moving to an 18 team league makes our game less attractive for the TV channels so we are less likely to get this slot. Would it secure more fans? Ticket to the match should include free public transport travel as has been implemented in Germany. It would need to be paid for somehow, so ticket prices would increase. Some sort of police/referee committee and a certain amount of time to be release before a call off ( ie if a pitch is unplayable at 7pm the previous evening then the game will be called off, no wait and see attitude). An idea woth discussing. I can see the pros and cons of it. I'm not sure what the right answer is. Something should be done to integrate the SPL and the SFL with a second tier of 22 or 2 tiers of 10. 22 is too big. I'm unclear what the advantages of combining SFL and SPL are. Clubs must live within their means, no club should be running at an unpaybackable debt and transfers can only happen with cash upfront (this includes add-ons, the potential fees must be available) The only type of debt should be Stadium improvements and the like. Rangers had a debt of around Ã?£70m. Was this paybackable? we got it down to Ã?£6m, so it must have been. How do we define what is "unpaybackable"? Look at hearts at themoment. A higher debt than us, but it could all be converted to capital tomorrow if required. It's not feasible to have transfers with all the cash upfront. we can't dictate commercial terms to other clubs throughout the UK and Europe. I also don't see how you can define what debt relates to. I'm no expert when it comes to money issues and the ins and out of running a club so some of these suggestions might be completley unmanagable but I like to think that there is a few ideas in there that might be worth looking at. Some points worthy of discussion Although I have been negative here, kudos to you for putting the OP together and having it as a discussion document, and some of my replies are to stimulate further debate. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Totti 0 Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Said it on here countless times, the main problem here isn't the size of the league its simply the abysmal quality of talent in the SPL. If Scotland produced good footballers and/or attracted superior foreign talent, we wouldn't be so deeply in the shit. IF the old firm were as good as they were 10 years ago we would be a more attractive proposition for tv deals. The old firm isn't that interesting a match anymore 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 90minsofmadness Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 My comments are in red below. Although I have been negative here, kudos to you for putting the OP together and having it as a discussion document, and some of my replies are to stimulate further debate. Cheers for the input, I'll just comment on a couple of your points that you made The 10 year wait would be to allow clubs a reasonable amount of time to get finances in order to make an 18 team league possible. As for the TV money, I realised this wouldn't be good for us in a selfish point of view but it's to secure a more competitive and stronger league overall. It would only be until clubs can get settled and on their feet before going back to a fairer way after it becomes an 18 team league. I went for a large amount of promotion and relegation in the 10 team leagues so all the main teams that will end up in the 18 team league get a chance to play in the top league. I also think playoffs are a necessity. For beer to be introduced, why should it cause trouble? doesnt seem to cause problems down south and anyone who wants a drink does so anyway. The 5.15pm is a personal preference as a regular, perhaps it doesn't guarantee more fans but it would make a massive difference to me. Alot of my points, regarding stadia were thinking about the introduction of the additional teams, who might not have the necessary infrastructure to come into the SPL. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbr 1,247 Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 90mins , there are more serious points in your post than have been put forward by the SPl , managers , Chairman etc well done on a well thought out post , a lot of what you say could work , but you need one hell of a lot of goodwill which is in very scarce amounts these days 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.