Impending TV cash funded Neill wages

Jan 24 2007 Red Watch by Andy Proudfoot, Liverpool Daily Post

LAST week the Premiership announced a lucrative new overseas television rights deal worth around £625million over three years, which will take the prize money for the team finishing bottom next season to £30million.

This week West Ham secure Lucas Neill from Blackburn for a reported salary of £60,000 per week. See any connection?

The more cynical among you will draw the conclusion that the main beneficiaries of the massive sums now flowing into Premiership clubs’ coffers are mediocre players who, perhaps understandably, are now beginning to choose gold over glory.

In the meantime the fans are being asked to hand over increasing proportions of their hard-earned cash to watch these dedicated professionals who frequently can only kick with one foot.

Doesn’t sound sustainable does it? Seats (hah!) for next week’s game at West Ham are going at £40: this for a midweek game that’s on the telly.

While ticket prices are more reasonable in the north (and indeed Liverpool’s are amongst the cheapest in the country) the cost of going to football is beginning to verge on the prohibitive, and many fans are already priced out of attending.

So wouldn’t you think that the Premiership, ever the commercial concern, would seek to score a publicity coup by considering using their latest windfall to subsidise reduced prices at matches?

After all, the sight of empty seating at Wigan, Blackburn and others hardly makes an enticing backdrop to Sky’s TV pictures does it? Imagine ‘An Audience with…’ with no audience? ’The Price is Right’ with no-one to ‘come on down’?

Premiership clubs need to maintain a delicate balance between the needs of the TV companies and the paying public because if the latter disappear, the former won’t be far behind.

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