The formula for success
A Blackpool fan rightly pointed out in a comment on one of our pieces the other day that there is no automatic correlation between a town's size and its prosperity and the success achieved by its football club. That is right, although in the long run the size and wealth of the catchment area of the club is one of the most important factors. One factor that can offset this relationship is the strength of competitor sports such as rugby. And a benefactor can allow a football club to punch well beyond its weight: think about the creation of Rushden and Diamonds formed from a merger of two clubs serving small towns.
In the short run, the chemistry between the owner and the manager is crucially important and if it goes wrong there can be serious consequences. Nottingham Forest is an ambitious club. They have a great past, are the more highly placed club in a big city and are hoping to move out of their ground for a new stadium to be built for the World Cup.
But they have been treading water for a while and have had a poor start to the season. They went through a period of financial turmoil and then acquired a new owner in the form of Nigel Doughty who is estimated to be worth £128m: not mega-rich, but rich enough. But now there appear to be tensions between him and his mercurial manager Billy Davies.
It's pretty much the opposite of the situation at Blackpool. So the Tangerine Army need to enjoy the good times, as they are undoubtedly are, and Forest fans will be hoping that their bad patch is soon over.
The case of Unirea Urziceni
Hello! I write you from Romania. There is a strog link between a town/city and its local FC. Take the example of Unirea Urziceni. Romanian champions in 2008/09, Unirea also played in the Champions League the following season. But no proper investments, targeting the sustainable development of the club, have been made with the prize money won. Now, just one season after winning the title, the club is bankrupt and at the end of the current season it will be history. On of the reasons of this fulminant disappearance is that Urziceni is a town of just 17,000 inhabitants. In fact, it is a "dead" town, as there is no industry or no services-based-economy there. You have just small business there, uncapable of supporting a football team. There was no big local business which to support the club with financial, material or know-how-ressources. Only the municipality gave some money, but not too much. So the club dependend on its owner. Now, the owner isn't interested to invest in football anymore, so Unirea will be bankrupt. What I want to point out is that, if the club had been deeply rooted in the local community, and if the city was a strong economy/industry, such a thing wouldn't maybe have happened, because there may have been local sponsors eager to invest in the club, to better atract local fans to the home games, and the club would have had a solid support. In the last time, local fans weren't even interested any more in attending the games of the team, because there didn't exist a real, strong affective bound between them and the club. As a conclusion: I think that a powerful town/city can set a basis for a competitve local sports team.