Bury – GAME OF THE PEOPLE

ROCHDALE became the first club in the EFL to sack their manager in 2022-23, just a handful of games into the new campaign. Robbie Stockdale had been in charge for 13 months, but the season has started badly for the club and they are currently bottom of League Two. Rochdale is one of those clubs that epitomise the lower divisions of the EFL; surviving in spite of their situation, backed by a loyal band of fans but unlikely to ever see major success.

Against this backdrop, Rochdale, from a town of 200,000 people on the fringes of Greater Manchester that doesn’t always get particularly good press, represents the very essence of the “92”. This is a town that made its name as the birthplace of the cooperative moment in 1844. It has also given the world entertainers Gracie Fields, Lisa Stansfield and Bill Oddie, as well as political figures such as Sajid Javid.

There’s an awful long way to go, but the trajectory seems a little downbeat at Rochdale at the moment. They were relegated to League Two in 2020-21 and finished 18^th in 2021-22, winning just 12 of their 46 games. There were some 15 points between the Dale and relegation but the alarm bells have already started ringing this term. In their first five league games, Rochdale have scored once, new signing Devante Rodney netting in the opening fixture.

Rochdale have spent most of their life in the bottom division of the Football League and have won promotion just three times: in 1969, 2010 and 2014. In addition to their playing record, Rochdale are also facing big challenges off the pitch.

There was some good news during the summer, though, when the club announced that it had repaid the mortgage taken out in 2016 when Rochdale acquired their Spotland stadium outright. In November 1987, the directors of the club at the time passed a special resolution under the Companies Act to ensure Rochdale enjoyed permanent protection against Spotland ever being sold. In 2019, the stadium was listed as an Asset of Community Value. Chairman Simon Gauge commented: “As a sustainably-run club, building the club’s long-term future starts with ensuring complete security of our stadium…The annual cost savings achieved by being mortgage free are being redeployed into our first team playing squad.”

One look at the finances of Rochdale, indeed many other smaller clubs from the 92, demonstrates the chasm between the haves and have-nots in professional football. In the 2020-21 season, which ended with Rochdale being relegated to League Two, Rochdale’s income was just £ 3.3 million, largely due to covid-19, early cup exists and reduced transfer business. The club made a loss of £ 1.2 million. A year earlier, revenues totalled £ 6.8 million and they made a profit of £ 1.4 million. The loss of matchday income due to the pandemic clearly hit clubs like Rochdale far worse than the elite – there is no huge sum of TV money to bolster the finances. Rochdale don’t have to look far to see how a mismanaged club can hit the rails, Bury have long been one of the Dale’s local rivals.

It wasn’t long ago that Rochdale, a fan-owned club, might have been taken over. Morton House MGT and First Form Construction tried to take control of the club in 2021, buying a 42.3% stake for £ 1.2 million. This came after a search for new investors was conducted to no avail. Morton House acquired the shareholdings of six individuals, amounting to 220,000 shares, to reach a majority, they needed over 251,000. They never got there, partly due to director Andrew Kelly selling his stake to the Dale Trust, which became the second largest shareholder. Morton couldn’t achieve its objective of taking control and by mid-August 2021, announced it was withdrawing from the approval process concerning their acquisition.

The situation was clouded further in November 2021 when 400,000 new shares in the club were sold, raising £ 800,000. The price of £ 2 per share was a third of the price “paid” by Morton. The share issue diluted their holding from 42.3% to just 23%. Morton also claim they were not given the chance to buy more shares. Their response was to file legal action against the club, its directors and the Dale Trust – an unprecedented situation in a complex transaction. The EFL conducted an investigation suggesting Rochdale may have breached their regulations concerning acquisition, but nobody from the current regime was actually charged.

It would be sad if a club like Rochdale was to disappear from the Football League – recent events have only served to strengthen local ties. And if you want evidence of the homely aspect of the team from Spotland, there’s a statue of long-time fan David Clough, whose estate was left to his beloved Rochdale AFC when he died. Even in this age of billionaire owners and millionaire players, football still rewards the everyman and woman.

WHEN A football club moves out of its traditional home, such as West Ham’s transition to the Olympic stadium at Stratford or Atlético Madrid’s relocation to the Wanda Metropolitano, the local economy is bound to suffer. The restaurants, fast food outlets and bars that, for decades, have depended on the micro-economy that existed around the football club, suddenly finds that 30,000 potential customers have disappeared. There are a few boarded-up bodegas and torn posters around the site that was once the Vicente Calderón stadium in Madrid.

People don’t always like having a football club on their doorstep and the prospect of a floodlight illuminating your home at inconvenient times can be a hurdle to be overcome. Yet inner-city clubs often have a longer history than new housing developments. While some locals may complain, they also have to understand that a major club brings significant economic benefits to the area and removing them to an out-of-town motorway exit or huge retail park could be a genuine negative for businesses that have relied on the peripheral income that can be generated by professional football.

Modern football has become a tourist attraction and major institutions like Real Madrid and Barcelona attract visitors from all over the world. Since 1999, Real’s museum has welcomed over 15 million people, while hordes of overseas fans queue around the Bernabéu to take a tour of the iconic home of the club. Similarly, Barcelona’s Camp Nou is like a magnet for tourists and well over 30 million visitors have been welcomed to their museum. There’s little doubt that a successful football club not only makes a town or city more attractive but also provides a boost for tourism revenues. The economic potential football as a whole is vast and if the game was a country, it would be placed in the top 20 globally.

Strength

The strength of a football club’s presence in its home location can be tested by determining how long it takes to spot some sort of visual representation such as a logo, badge, shirt or advertisement. In cities like Barcelona and Madrid, you don’t have to look too hard, both clubs are firmly embedded in local culture. PricewaterhouseCoopers recently made a presentation that indicated Barcelona’s economic worth to the city. The club’s economic activity amounted to € 1.2 billion (1.46%) of the GDP of the city, which translated into 19,500 jobs and tax revenues of € 366 million. Furthermore, tourists visiting the club accounted for 1.43 million overnight stays in accommodation around the city.

Barca and Real Madrid’s combined revenues (around € 1.6 billion in 2018-19) contribute 0.12% to Spanish GDP – for every € 1,000, € 1.2 comes from Barca/Real. This has grown by € 0.40 since 2009. Barcelona is also vital for the economy of Catalonia, contributing 0.57% of GDP.

When a football club challenges for the league championship can increase economic growth by up to 1.1% , the Centre for Economics & Business Research recently claimed. Likewise, success in a World Cup by a national team can be the catalyst for consumer activity. For instance, the World Cup semi-finalists between 1990 and 2014 saw on average a 4.5% rise in spending in the following year, compared to 3.3% prior to the World Cup (source: Lloyds Bank).

While EY research suggested that Leicester City’s Premier League triumph added £ 140 million to the local economy, the relegation of Sunderland to League One was a drag on the city and the club.

Myths

In the past, football performance was, allegedly, often linked to industrial productivity, with output rising when the local team was playing well. This is, to a certain extent, a mythical perception used to highlight the link between the working man and his favourite pastime. The correlation between football success and the broader economy is also questionable. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Liverpool FC enjoyed a golden age, winning countless trophies and producing some excellent football – in a time when the city itself was going through economic and political turmoil.

The same could be applied to Spain and its top clubs. The financial crisis hit Spain very hard, but this coincided with the national team’s World Cup win in 2010 and European Championship victories in 2008 and 2012. At club level, Barcelona won the Champions League in 2009, 2011 and 2015, while Real Madrid lifted the trophy four times between 2014 and 2018.

Football is the great distractor and often allows people to forget the trials and tribulations of everyday life. In cities such as Liverpool, a significant sum of disposable income is spent on watching and following the game. The club’s UEFA Champions League run in 2018-19 contributed almost € 500 million to the city, representing 4% of gross value added. On the other hand, the possible two-year ban on Manchester City from European competition could seriously undermine the local night time economy, notably the food and hotel sectors.

All sizes

The demise of Bury FC, albeit on a more humble level, also highlighted the consequences when things go badly wrong for a club. Local politicians claimed that Bury’s collapse was a case of social, economic and cultural capital being “torn from the area”. Certainly, there will have been neighbouring businesses that may have been linked to the club that find themselves with a hole to fill. It’s not Barcelona or Manchester City, but eco-systems come in all shapes and sizes.

Tottenham Hotspur opened their new stadium in 2018-19 with the promise of added bonuses, including investment of around £ 300 million per annum in the local community. Some interpreted this pledge of “regeneration” as an attempt at gentrification and exclusion in an area in urgent need of change. Whatever the outcome, this does underline how some football clubs are trying to link urban revival to their new stadium projects. Again, an example of the economic impact of a major football business.

It’s not just philanthropy, there are clear agendas at play here. A club can have the best ground in the world, but if the neighbourhood is uninviting, it will compromise commercial opportunities and deter some folk from attending games and spending time in the area, spending money. In an age when presentation is everything, football wants the right image and clubs are prepared to spend their cash to ensure they create the right environment. The economic influence is very much linked to the potential social impact of a major club.

@GameofthePeople

Photo: PA