So I'm way into the English Premiership these days and selected Newcastle United Football Club as my team. As luck would have it, we're pretty much in our darkest days as a EPL side. My buddy Coleman emailed me today and we were discussing whether or not Newcastle would be relegated this year if the club owner didn't spend some money this month to bring in outside talent. Here's my reply to him:
Leeds, at least from what I've read, has an extremely loyal fanbase. Even when they went down the SECOND time, their attendance was still respectable. According to Wikipedia, they've averaged 26,500 this season. That puts them in the neighborhood of Hull City, Stoke, Portsmouth, West Brom Albion, Fullham, Bolton, Wigan, and Blackburn. In Champ, the only team that is close to the same attendance is Derby- all others are lower and obviously they're miles ahead of anyone else in One.
So what's the point?
Sports teams, whether American, English, or whatever, make more money when they win than when they lose. Supporters, fans, whatever you want to call them, will follow a winner more willingly (and financially) than a loser. This is really the only reason the owners have an impetus to spend money.
Every once in awhile though, you end up with a loser team that for whatever reason, has a ton of support behind it- Chicago Cubs being perhaps the most obvious example of this. By simply being loyal supporters, the wrong message is inadvertently sent and the owners, being the businessmen that they are, spend nothing to improve the situation because there's no financial reason to- they may have a loser, but people support the team as though they were a winner.
I get the impression that Leeds was that way. Sir Alex himself said that Elland was one of the most intimidating places in all of Europe and the attendance stats speak for themselves- Leeds has fantastic support regardless of what league the team plays in.
This is exactly what worries me about Newcastle- we're the same exact way. Super loyal fanbase (we're currently in 3rd behind Man U and Arsehole in average attendance this season) that will come and buy stuff regardless of the current state of the team. Lots of folks think that Ashley will spend money to keep us up, but honestly, I don't see any reason why he would. After the mass exodus of players and their contracts, it's entirely possible that NUFC could be more profitable as a Championship side than a Premiership side.
So am I worried we'll go down? Yeah. Because unless the players suddenly man up and start playing with their heads up or WBA, Stoke, Tottenham, etc. completely lose the plot and distance themselves from us the wrong way I don't see what else can happen. I think it's unlikely that we'll have many new faces show up in the next week.
