FL Re-structuring survey

[STAR Liaison]

Supporters Direct (the umbrella organisation for trusts) is running a very short survey on the recent 'proposal for consideration' about the restructuring of the Football League into 4 divisions of 20 clubs.

Members can take part via

SD consultation on Football League restructure proposals
http://www.supporters-direct.org/news-a ... nsultation

[PieEater]

It's pretty brief survey, and they could of at least outlined the changes somewhere in the intro.

For me there are way too many open questions to even consider the principle of change.
i.e how would you make the 4th league (presumably at the bottom?) How would promotion and relegation be affected? What would offset the loss of club income by playing fewer games - or would prices be expected to rise?

The only benefit I can see is fixture congestion, that's really not much of a problem for a home fan. If they are concerned about long midweek away travel they could go some way to address that with local midweek fixtures, or just accept fewer fans would travel.

[Forbury Lion]

Members can take part via

SD consultation on Football League restructure proposals
http://www.supporters-direct.org/news-a ... nsultation

Non-members can also take part as the survey is anonymous.

My big concern is that clubs will lose revenue from ticket sales, tv food/merchandise sales and and increase ticket prices as a result, we will then end up over a season continue to effectively pay for 46 games but only getting 38 for our money.

Although, clubs will save on running costs, player appearance/win bonuses, rent (If they rent their stadium on a per game basis), policing etc but I can't see how a playing 8 fewer games will enable a club to reduce their squad size by any stretch.

[RoyalCrisp]

It's pretty brief survey, and they could of at least outlined the changes somewhere in the intro.

For me there are way too many open questions to even consider the principle of change.
i.e how would you make the 4th league (presumably at the bottom?) How would promotion and relegation be affected? What would offset the loss of club income by playing fewer games - or would prices be expected to rise?

The only benefit I can see is fixture congestion, that's really not much of a problem for a home fan. If they are concerned about long midweek away travel they could go some way to address that with local midweek fixtures, or just accept fewer fans would travel.

Plus cost per game will go up with fewer games so you'd be looking at price increases anyway. And how do you sell a third league to clubs at the bottom half of say the Championship. Adding an extra league would mean fewer teams in the second tier and fewer teams receiving the much higher pay package the Championship offers. Would a Rotherham or Bristol City rather be 19th in the Championship or at the top of League One? No brainer. Can't see how they can spin this positively, it's just a backdoor to getting B teams into the Football League (which is an idea so unpopular even if they forced it in attendances for those matches would be tiny) and a way of concentrating money at the top by making it harder for lower league teams to get up (with an extra level of promotion to get through). Really concerned by the proposals.