Sugar Daddies in Football - Expecting Milne to Fund our Success

[Chris Frae Killie]

There is nothing worse than sugar daddies in football - they bring short term (potential) gain and long term ruin. It is tantamount to cheating and we have all done it. Aberdeen were one of the first to realise football clubs need to operate within their means and so cut their budget accordingly. (Stewart Milne is hated by so many at the club because of this) Now this had a disastrous effect on us for a number of years, as we toiled near the bottom of the SPL whilst clubs like Rangers, Motherwell, Livingston, Dundee, Gretna and Dunfermline 'profited' from higher league position and winning trophies. All of the afore mentioned clubs went into administration at least once and suffered relagation (except Motherwell) and in some cases more than one division and Rangers and Gretna even went bust. Dunfermline for me were one of the worst offenders with a wages to turnover ratio of 118% at one point. Now this means that for every £100 the club brought in from season tickets, TV, sponsors etc. they were spending £118 on wages alone - that is before they paid any of their other bills i.e. electricity, tax, upkeep of the stadium, stewarding, policing etc. To put this in perspective Aberdeen currently sit at about 50% ratio, which is where it should be.

 

Football clubs should be run as a business that operates within their own means and organically grow or shrink depending upon the success of that business. For too long we have watched poor quality football and poor quality entertainment with empty football stadiums and no effort from the clubs to promote a feel good factor about their clubs by making matchdays enjoyable. If fans enjoyed the match day experience and they could afford to go then the numbers would swell and in time the quality of players would increase. It is simple business, unfortunately our game has been run for too many years by 'football fans' with little or no business acumen. Short term thinking by throwing money at second rate foreign players and not investing in the grass roots will only ever bring short term (potential) success.

 

Although I do not like/agree with everything the board at Aberdeen have done, I do applaud their stance on not spending beyond our means. For the first time in as long as i can remember we are relatively free of debt and can look forward to building the club from now on. Remember we won the European Cup Winners Cup without crippling debt or massive sugar daddy investment! The training facilities are an absolute must. We must provide the best facilities we possibly can for our youth teams and our first team. The better the facilities, the more likely we are to convince young players to stay with us and also to attract better players to us. Then, although it pains me to say as I love Pittodrie, a new stadium which will create far better atmosphere on match days, even with smaller crowds - the better the atmosphere the more entertained the fans are win, lose or draw. The more entertained the fans are, the more money they will be prepared to spend on the club and so the growth continues. I look at AA Gent in Belgium - they built a new stadium with a fantastic atmosphere and wonderful facilities (I have been) and within a year had won the Belgian league for the first time in their 116 year history.

 

I would like the board to give McInnes funds to invest in the team in January but not if it is going to start us down the road to a debt ridden club again.

 

Stand Free.

[OxfordDon]

Evening Stewart