I think this rather reflects on the managers at the club this season......Scott Parker is a Fulham man through and through, stick with him next season and I reckon there is a chance that Fulham will gain a promotion spot.
Think he's trying to find out if that merit based system to get into a first division instead of a closed system spending a billion entrance fee is working and gratifying.
A lot of what is discussed in this thread has very little to do with pro/rel. The English leagues have their issues. Ask the avg football fan in England and they have a list of things that have gone wrong with English football. But nowhere on that list would there be anything about scrapping pro/rel or pro/rel being a negative for English football. It’s considered overwhelmingly a positive vital mechanism that keeps lower leagues afloat. Telling someone in England that pro/rel is a bad idea is like telling them a blue sky is a bad idea. Someone in here said pro/rel is outdated. Ugh what? The VHS is outdated. DVD is outdated. Outdated means obsolete, as in no longer being used. That’s not the case. It’s a concept that’s used in just about every soccer league outside of Austrialia and the US. In fact the US may be the only country where people find it to be a bad idea. It’s hard to quantify how many in the US find it to be a bad idea. It’s always felt like a vocal minority and they wouldn’t admit it but I believe that the reason some Americans believe it to be a bad idea is that Americans generally reject ideas that are foreign in favor of ideas they have come up with. It’s our default stance on ideas, generally , to accept the lesser idea that we came up with and stick with it while telling ourselves it’s a good idea. That’s my two cents.
I agree with this. That said, many of the problems in England are linked to P/R even if they're not outright caused by it. And when some P/R zealots liked to point to England as the most popular/successful pyramid structure in the world its natural to point out the flaws in that structure that P/R has helped create. Well, 13% of men's leagues and over 50% of women's leagues don't use it. That's hardly "just about every soccer league in the world". Funny, because from my POV it feels like the P/R advocates are a VERY vocal minority. In reality what that probably tells us is that the vast majority don't give a damn one way or the other. I'm pretty sure your average, non-SG, fan at a MLS game could care less if the league has P/R or not. Its also possible that its just not a good idea for this country too, the idea being foreign or domestic.
Outdated means that the world has changed to the point where the technology doesn't serve a practical purpose. It doesn't mean it doesn't work anymore. If I have a VHS of a movie I like, I can either continue to use my VHS player or I can get a digital copy. Hell TV stations were using betamax tapes up until a few years ago. The top six in this year's EPL were also the top six in wages. Of the bottom six, three of those teams went down. Money buys merit. It would be a great concept if every team was playing on equal footing but let's be real here. The EPL is functioning as it was designed. It was set up when the biggest and richest clubs wanted to break away from the EFL so they could make more money. It's worked out pretty well for most of the original big five. The system is set up to continue to feed the richest teams. If England wants to keep using this system that was set up when teams were more equal, fine, just keep it the hell away from soccer in my country. Relegating teams will kill the progress soccer has made in this country. That's why it's a bad idea. The entire sports business ecosystem is set up differently and implementing pro/rel is damn near impossible, that's why it's a bad idea. Minor league teams couldn't promote to D1 if they wanted to because they don't have the money, that's why it's a bad idea. We don't practice p/r in any major or college team sport and it's a completely foreign concept to the casual fans who keep teams afloat, there are numerous other places people could spend their money if their team went down, that's why it's a bad idea. There might be some merit to this argument. My rejection of it is based on my experience having worked in sports, understanding how the sports business works, and being an intelligent human being who can look at pro/rel and see that the cons vastly outweigh the pros.
Only if you keep up performing. ManUnited is in a slump for years now and barely kept their 90 million sponsors deals alive by winning the EL final to avoid a second non CL year. Now they're again in the EL and are loosing around 60 million of CL revenues on itself. With a second year not qualifying they lose that plus triggering the sponsor deals opt out article, making a total loss of 150 million of revenues. On top of that star players are looking for the exit and new ones are reluctantly to sign. So now you are a top six, but that doesnot mean you're not vulnerable. Unlike the closed leagues you advocate you have to perform to keep the money coming in in this open system. Relegation is a far away mirage now, but even that isnot excluded. If your stupid assertion is true, ManUnited would be still next season cashing in those big money bags of the CL. They're not, because they didnot perform. Unlike your investors friendly closed league investors in the P/R leagues have to make sure their club is run well or their investment rapidly becomes less in value. Merit is still the game in P/R, whether your a big money club or not. Let it run out of control and you're on a slippery track. ManUnited would be able to go on for years being sloppy in your closed system. Not so in our superior system as then they would be out of the top six for sure and continuing so also outof the league. Merit rules.
It is. Which is why you can't claim they would be the Brummie Franchise. WBA would have a legitimate claim too.
Saw this on my Twitter feed this morning and thought of M.... "Josh Harris: buy American sports franchise and lose on purpose, year after year, until you're sort of good" "Also Josh Harris: buy a second division soccer club at a good value, attempt to win and increase the value of your investment through promotion." "Which system makes sense?"
I would be interested to see ANY fans reaction after being told that 'their' team doesn't make the cut for the 'big league'! Could you put Sunderland into your Prem League? They are after all only a League 1 side........a league 1 side that attracts over 30'000+ paying customers to their stadium every home game! I could only imagine my thoughts if I was told my team failed to 'make the cut'! I reckon I would visit every new 'Premier League' club and smash the place up!
I can't see that particular proposal being very 'popular' on Teeside. Middlesbrough are a top Championship side, why should they have to 'make way' for a club from a lower division?
So, then, you ignore all arguments from people who do actually know better than you? For example, you ignore your doctor's advice if you disagree with it? Isn't "I know better than you" kind of key to figuring stuff out? People go, get educated, and then apply that education to figure things out. Why wouldn't you take their arguments as convincing at that point?
I don't accept that that poster "knows better than me". I look at the merits of the arguments provided and with that individual I find the vitriol more prevalent than the substance.
Nope. A lot of fans would be unhappy. But remember, there was an attempt to form a closed league which only failed because it breached a TV contract.
A closed league that would have included Notts County had they got 4 points more the prior season... oh and Wimbledon and Oldham Athletic. Yeah!