Conway wants to share the winnings.... Should they trust him !

[EastStandRed]

The American owner of the U.K.’s Barnsley Football Club is open to sharing the takings from the so-called richest game in world soccer later this month -- if his team can clear a last hurdle and contest it.
Barnsley is one of four clubs competing in an end-of season mini tournament that will culminate in the annual Championship play-off final. The winner will be granted passage to the English Premier League, the world’s wealthiest soccer division, and about 170 million pounds ($240 million) in new broadcast and sponsorship revenue, according to previous estimates from Deloitte LLP.

On the flip side, the unsuccessful teams will be left nursing wounded pride and the monetary cost of having had to stage and compete in extra games at the end of a pandemic-ravaged season that’s already hit club finances badly.

For Paul Conway, who controls Barnsley through his Pacific Media Group Inc. investment vehicle, that’s a raw deal. He confirmed in an email that if Barnsley reach the final at Wembley Stadium on May 29, he’d consider a deal to ensure the losing team gets compensated.

Pacific Media owns a stable of European soccer clubs and is a believer in the data-driven approach to sports management and performance popularized by Billy Beane, the U.S. baseball executive who featured in the 2003 book “Moneyball” and is now an investor in Barnsley.

Conway said Barnsley will lose more than 500,000 pounds competing in the play-offs. The club will tonight host the first game of a doubleheader against Swansea City AFC, which will play out in front of a greatly-reduced crowd because of coronavirus restrictions. Should Barnsley emerge victorious from the games, it will challenge either Brentford FC or AFC Bournemouth in the final.

While the winner of the showpiece will easily be able to claw back losses accrued along the way, Conway said the other teams will receive no form of solidarity payment from the English Football League, the governing association for the three divisions below the Premier League.

“As you achieve success in the English Football League you actually lose money, which is a complete violation of sporting integrity and goes against the entire spirit of football,” Conway said. “We have to absorb significant costs.”

Impossible Pressures

Conway said he would prefer to follow in the footsteps of Dean Hoyle, the former owner of Huddersfield Town AFC, who did a deal ahead of his team’s Championship play-off final with Reading FC in 2017 for the winner to compensate the loser.

Hoyle told the podcast “Looks Goods On Paper” in March that, with the approval of relevant authorities, he agreed with Reading that the loser would receive around 6 million pounds, comprising a solidarity payment and all gate receipts, as a buffer for the defeat. Huddersfield won the game on a penalty shootout.

A representative for the EFL said its current rules only allow clubs to agree on how to distribute gate receipts from a play-off final. Any other form of payment or benefit from one club contesting the match to the other is prohibited.

Soccer finances have been under strong pressure as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, with shuttered stadiums robbing clubs of millions of pounds in match-day sales. At the same time, falling revenue from broadcast rights has exacerbated the problem.

Earlier this month, the Premier League agreed a renewal of a domestic broadcast deal with Comcast Corp.’s Sky, BT Sport and Amazon.com Inc. In a statement at the time, the EFL said the extension didn’t go far enough with solidarity payments to clubs further down the U.K.’s soccer pyramid.

“Championship clubs in particular face impossible economic pressures, seeking to gain promotion to the Premier League, which has in turn led to untenable financial speculation and irrational behavior,” the EFL said in a May 13 statement.

The Premier League supports the EFL with more than 140 million pounds per season in solidarity payments and grants for youth development, according to its website. Conway said the Premier League’s sharing of its media revenue with the EFL needed to be brought more in line with leagues in the rest of Europe.

[Redrascal]

Does he mean will lose half a million or weve lost it in gate receipts,cos its a bit poor if its costing over half a mill for qualifying for play offs.

[animallittle3]

Does he mean will lose half a million or weve lost it in gate receipts,cos its a bit poor if its costing over half a mill for qualifying for play offs.

I'd take anything Conway says with a large pinch of salt personally Rascal .

They will have had a good cheque from Sky tv last night which was a bonus .

I'm not saying we've made money this season and it's highly likely we've lost a few bob .

So has every bugga else due to the pandemic .

What passes Conway by is that ownership of football clubs are not without financial risk , in fact there aren't any businesses that aren't financially risk free .

Last season he was pyssed off about Wednesday getting the points reduction this season when we were fighting a relegation battle and in danger of losing £8m of sky tv revenue .

Now he's pyssed because the play offs are allegedly costing us money .

Go sell ice creams in Cawthorne Park on hot summer Sunday's Conway , it's the only sure thing in business .

Only time he shows his face is to moan about money .

[pass_and_move]

Does he mean will lose half a million or weve lost it in gate receipts,cos its a bit poor if its costing over half a mill for qualifying for play offs.

23,000 supporters paying £25 a ticket equals £575,000

A reckon Conway is alluding to the lost gate receipts mate.

[animallittle3]

If Conway wants to do something positive for the championship then we wants to get together with the owners of the other 23 championship clubs .

The next sky tv deal for the championship needs some fat on the bones , £8m per club is taking the fecking pyss .

It's worth far more , nearer £20m a club in my opinion .

The average gates in the championship are higher than Serie A in Italy and the French top flight and the championship is watched globally .

As a product it stacks up with the unpredictability of it and the large number of big clubs .

The difference in tv revenue for the PL in relation to the championship is a pyss take .

Time the feckin EFL got its act together on this .

I've actually no problem breaking away from the EFL and the championship clubs forming a new league and negotiating their own tv deal just as long as promotion to the PL , play offs and relegation to league one are maintained and competition isn't taken away .

The EFL as a body are absolutely fecking useless on far too many levels .

[bill46]

All hes done is agree with Hoyle at Huddersfield.Difference is there was no pandemic in 2017.If all 4 playoff qualifiers agree to such a idea it would make a lot of sense.Just think one club get £170m and the others get nothing.

[bill46]

I'd take anything Conway says with a large pinch of salt personally Rascal .

They will have had a good cheque from Sky tv last night which was a bonus .

I'm not saying we've made money this season and it's highly likely we've lost a few bob .

So has every bugga else due to the pandemic .

What passes Conway by is that ownership of football clubs are not without financial risk , in fact there aren't any businesses that aren't financially risk free .

Last season he was pyssed off about Wednesday getting the points reduction this season when we were fighting a relegation battle and in danger of losing £8m of sky tv revenue .

Now he's pyssed because the play offs are allegedly costing us money .

Go sell ice creams in Cawthorne Park on hot summer Sunday's Conway , it's the only sure thing in business .

Only time he shows his face is to moan about money .

I think he'll be aware of the financial risks like every other club after going through a pandemic.In fairness Animal I think we've come through pretty well without creating major debts do you think.

[animallittle3]

All hes done is agree with Hoyle at Huddersfield.Difference is there was no pandemic in 2017.If all 4 playoff qualifiers agree to such a idea it would make a lot of sense.Just think one club get £170m and the others get nothing.

But isn't that what the play offs are all about Bill ? , ALL OR NOTHING .

What it says to me Bill is that Conway is looking for some financial reward for reaching the play offs , he stops short at mentioning any glory in the competition I notice .

The problem as I see it is that the three losing teams gain a financial advantage over the majority of championship clubs the very next season .

This is in affect is like parachute payments when teams come down from the PL which is something I'm dead against and something that's damaged the championship in my opinion .

I'm more in favour of all of the championship clubs benefiting with a much improved tv deal as I stated in my last post .

A bigger tv deal for the championship would also massively improve league one and two because a huge number of players from those leagues are purchased by championship clubs .

Clubs promoted from league one would have a significantly good chance to stay up with bigger tv revenue making the league more competitive and equal .

If Conway wants to play the game at heart card he'd have a bit more credibility with me if he spoke out when aren't in a relegation dog fight and not in the play offs .

It only seems to matter when it's us to Conway and it's a poor look especially when it's more or less to do with money all the time .

Then again that's why he's involved in football isn't it ? , making money .

[animallittle3]

I think he'll be aware of the financial risks like every other club after going through a pandemic.In fairness Animal I think we've come through pretty well without creating major debts do you think.

I don't know Bill and with respect neither do you with the detail of the accounts unavailable to view in Hong Kong .

[Jules88]

And Hoyle did what after the relegation......? Sold up, took his brass out ( according to most reports ) and left. Look where Huddersfield are now, Mmmmmm