Premiership goes Tangerine

Over the past few months we have been boosting Cardiff City as a Premiership prospect on economic grounds, but in football it’s what happens on the pitch that matters, which is as it should be.  The Premier League will take on a tangerine hue with the promotion of Blackpool

Over the past few months we have been boosting Cardiff City as a Premiership prospect on economic grounds, but in football it’s what happens on the pitch that matters, which is as it should be.  The Premier League will take on a tangerine hue with the promotion of Blackpool


I can remember Blackpool as the team of Stanley Matthews and in those days they were a top flight club, finishing 6th in 1953-4, the first season I watched football.    Since then the club has had its ups and downs, like the seaside resort it serves.   Determined efforts are being made to regenerate Blackpool, but it has been quite a challenge.  When I went there a couple of years ago I was struck by the number of guest houses offering rooms at £15 a night.


In its present condition Bloomfield Road is an unusual ground.   The away supporters were in a temporary stand exposed to the elements along one side.   One end at that time was completely undeveloped and there was a modern stand wrapped around the other two sides.   The north-west wind coming off the nearby Irish Sea caused swirling gusts and the game ended up 5-3.


Now the Premier League has told the Seasiders that they will have to make a lot of improvements even though their main stand was built in 2002.  The press box would have to be enlarged to seat 50 reporters from its present capacity of 14 and the changing rooms are too small.


Spectator capacity was raised to about 13,000 in March with the opening of the Armfield Stand.  The club aim to use part of the financial windfall from promotion to build a new stand and take capacity to 16,000.   The average crowd this season was 8,611.   Under Premiership rules, the Seasiders would have to provide only 1,300 tickets for the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United, although for safety reasons they would probably need to be given the whole temporary stand which seats 2,000.


Blackpool’s highest paid player earns about £6,000 a week.  To ease cashflow player salaries drop to £90 a week during the close season.   Presumably players went off and sold ice creams on the front.  Players also had to wash their own training kit.    Those days are are now at an end.


The majority shareholder is Owen Oyston, the father of chairman Karl Oyston.   Oyston acquired his interest in the club in 1988.  Owen Oyston is still on the board, despite a conviction for rape and indecent assault in 1996 which led to him serving three-and-a-half years of a six year prison sentence.   The ‘fit and proper persons’ test was introduced in 2004 and it it is not believed that it would be legally tenable to apply it retrospectively.


Valeri Belokon, a Latvian businessman, has invested £4.5m since 2006.   Relationships between the board and supporters were poor in the past, but they have improved substantially.  Nothing succeeds like success!


One does wonder whether at some point in the future the Premier League will introduce a ground capacity and facilities test which clubs have to pass before they can be promoted.    Like Burnley last year, Blackpool will find survival hard, even with some good results at home.  The £90m bonanza figure which is often quoted doesn’t come all at once as it factors in parachute payments over four years if a club is relegated.   But even a one year promotion can transform a club’s ground and finances.