I'm an Aston villa fan - I want to see Aston villa win trophies, I'm not a businessman. There is no reason why Aston villa could not have put out their strongest available team last night and still finished in the top 12 this season- last night stinks of lack of ambition and lack of respect for fans and the fa cup.
How much do e-on pay to sponsor this trophy ?Surely, it should be £15-20m for the winnersSomehow the FA needs to make clubs interested again, it's a shame but only money will address this
While last night's team was indefensible and my views on trophy v league place have been repeated ad nauseum, it's a sad indictment of football's priorities that if the current table is replicated at the end of the season, the total financial benefit of winning the FA Cup could be outweighed by winning one league game.
What about income from being in Europe as well?
Thing is though that the TV revenue and merchandising that come with a cup run also come when you're further up the league challenging. So the £7.2m and £1.8m comparison also works. Barring replays, the FA cup in 7 games, so lets be generous and say all 7 are televised. A team finishing 6th would have more than the 7 of their league games televised.
Quote from: WikiVilla on March 03, 2011, 11:59:20 AMHow much do e-on pay to sponsor this trophy ?Surely, it should be £15-20m for the winnersSomehow the FA needs to make clubs interested again, it's a shame but only money will address thisEven then it wont work because now its all about the worldwide TV audience. Try explaining to a 16 year old kid in Shanghai wearing a Man U shirt about Ronnie Radford scoring for Hereford against Newcastle, or the Matthews final, or Sunderland beating Leeds, or the White Horse in 1923, or Chasetown making it to the 1st round proper, or semi finals being played at VP and Hillsborough like they used to, singing Abide with me, the whole country coming to halt because its cup final day, open top bus civic receptions, scarfs and rattles.Jumpers for goalposts ? You may as well have a couple of chop sticks with a satellite dish on the top.
It's not a fair comparison.As others have pointed out there are tangible benefits from a Cup run, extra matchday revenue, TV revenue, qualification for Europe and the revenue from those matches.But more important than that is the perception and status of Aston Villa. Challenging for a mediocre League position and for one of the cups should not be too much for us. If it is, then how the hell are non-committed fans supposed to turn into casual fans, or casual fans into season-ticket holders, or people who buy lots of Villa merchandise?And if that is our ambition - then how are we supposed to attract or retain better players? Why should TV show our cup games, when our management appear not to give a toss?Last night's selection was a sick joke - it's undermined all of the work the club have done to rehabilitate Houllier's reputation after a shocking start. We needed a riposte to all those Bluenose colleagues that were gloating - but you expect them to take the piss, you don't expect it of the club's own management.