How Bad Would Relegation Be?

[rileyev.the.third]

Okay, I know the Championship or even better is where we all want to be. But.....

Should we go down and assuming we don't suffer financial disaster with the loss of the current revenue we get, which looking at how TS does things, I don't think we will.

Just how gutted will people all be?

Although I have enjoyed the last 2 seasons, I enjoyed the previous 2 promotion seasons much more. Seeing us winning games on a regular basis and challenging at the top of the league was for me, a more enjoyable experience than the last 2 seasons, often not knowing where our next 3 points were going to come from.

Having said that the run Neil Warnock took us on was brilliant and fully enjoyable but was an unexpected bonus in a season that was looking dead and buried.

I'm not being defeatist here either. My wish would be to find a way of competing in this league, whether through additional investment, or if he can afford it, TS making more funds available. That said if he can't and investment isn't forthcoming, I do not advocate him bankrupting the club for a 1 swallow in a summer moment.

All I'm trying to say is would it be the end of the World if we did go down but had a great season in League 1 next year.

Perhaps I'm just pining for some of those last minute winners that got us to the level we are at now.

Oh to be the fan of a small club in the big boys league eh!!!!!

Please try and keep responses civil peeps!!!!

[lbj]

Watching Sheff - U v Gillingham

Very poor -

Just looking through the fixtures is a thrill - to even be in this league is a privilege!

Going down would NOT be good!

Just want AS to get the lads together and be competitive !....UTM

[redhouse]

I really want us to stay in this league even if it is a struggle at times, it's nice to be able to compete

towards the top of any league you are in

But I would be really disappointed if we went down, what I would really like and I am still quite confident

it could happen is for us to compete playing like we did for that first half hour against Wolves

UTM

[Casper64Frank]

It would ask the question should he have squeezed a bit more out of the budget.
Accounts ending December 2014 showed a turnover of £11M with wages & salaries of almost £5M.
Unless you're in the know it's pure speculation what this year's will be. Extra cash from Sky TV but we've not sold anyone recently, was Arnie & Agard the last two ?
Hospitality & Corporate are booked up evey game, more sponsor's than we've ever had. Record season ticket sales this season.
The usual will happen, a drop in revenue & Tony Stewart will cut his cloth to suit.

[animallittle3]

Relegation cost my club Barnsley around 4 million pound's , that figure maybe even more now with the new tv deal , I'd suggest all your top earners will have to go and it's a case of trying to re-balance the books and bring in after the fire sales what you can as suitable replacements , we were able to buy Hourihane and Winnall after selling Chris O'Grady to Brighton .

Footballing wise league one's much better than it was the last time we were at that level in 2006 , deffo more football getting played than the usual kick and rush .

League one's got an honesty about it that you don't find in the championship , already I've seen the divers and play actors and QPR's defenders waving imaginary yellow cards to the ref in order to get our players booked , hate that aspect of it .

Far from the end of the world getting relegated , proper clubs with proper fans down there instead of the plastic p illocks you find in the championship , you win more games too which is helpful and a guaranteed derby with the blunts who seem to like life in that division given their reluctance to get out of it .

[Back of the net]

Don't want to go down would be gutted.

That said I'd go and watch us play in Clifton park.

UTM

[mellowmiller]

There is a view that it is better to be doing well in the division below than to be struggling in the one above.
This may be true to a certain extent but presumably the point of doing well in the division below is to get out of it and be able to play in the one above.
That is the dilemma for a small club like ours but I think it is pretty obvious that Tony Stewart doesn't even want to contemplate relegation as the financial implications would be far reaching.
He has said he wants the club to become established in the Championship and has even loftier ambitions.
Most level headed supporters are struggling to understand how either of these targets can be achievable without increasing the budget or securing additional investment.
Personally I want us to stay in the Championship as relegation to League 1 doesn't bear thinking about but, if we keep sacking managers and building new squads, this is going to be pretty difficult.

[CAMiller]

History over the last 20 years shows us that League 1 (Division 3) is a place we don't stay very long, just 4 seasons there compared to 7 in the Championship and 9 in League 2. Admittedly the two seasons on the way down were tainted with administration/financial issues and the two single seasons on the way up were astonishing to say the least and having done it once under RM nobody I believe expected it under SE. All in all I'd say it's a place we need to avoid if at all possible.

[Fensmiller]

What would be the point in going down again? Surely the effort would then be to get back up to the Championship again and if we managed it what then? Would we want to go back down again. If we dont want to be in the Championship then there is no incentive to compete in L1. Which then begs the question do we want a football club at all.

Sport is about competing and striving otherwise there is no point in any of it

[Anderson Council]

History over the last 20 years shows us that League 1 (Division 3) is a place we don't stay very long, just 4 seasons there compared to 7 in the Championship and 9 in Le8ague 2. Admittedly the two seasons on the way down were tainted with administration/financial issues and the two single seasons on the way up were astonishing to say the least and having done it once under RM nobody I believe expected it under SE. All in all I'd say it's a place we need to avoid if at all possible.

Agreed Cam. Fact is the 3 times in living memory we have been relegated from the second tier we have dropped into the fourth tier before the climb back to championship level. Although weve done the 2 promotion bounce twice nobody would suggest the trip has been easy.

I say stay in the championship whether its finishing 4th bottom or mid table. Look at how Barnsley benefitted by staying in the league when promoted with us in 1981. They hung in there and eventually gained promotion and when they did drop down were back in the championship within 2 seasons. I say stay in as long as possible and gain a foothold.