Spiderpig Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 Given our current situation relegation is a serious possibility and while I hope it never happens, if the worst case occurred would it be a bad thing? The main impact of relegation is financial, loss of revenue , TV money, prize money , match day tickets sales and hospitality etc . However as the club is now debt free, fan owned and in a much better financial state than previous years would the impact of relegation be as severe than say 4 or 5 years ago? Assuming a major rebuild in the summer and keeping a premiership level squad together we could restore confidence in the team and come back up right away, a bit like Hearts look like doing this year. So my question is , would relegation necessarily be a bad thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellup83 Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 Relegation for me is an unthinkable scenario. The bragging rights that would give the likes of Accies etc. would make me want to crawl under a rock and die. I'm sure financially we would get by as the board have stated but would it be that easy to come back up and then reestablish ourselves as a Premiership club? I'm not so sure. I'd feel a massive sense of shame if we were to go down, deserved or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelman1991 Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 Not sure anyone who has suffered relegation needs to ask this question. It would be horrendous.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ya Bezzer! Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 I'm known to go and watch lower league football so that aspect of it is fine by me, a game of football is a game of football and actually the quality and entertainment of lower league matches is often higher than the Premiership. The big problem is financial and how that can affect the overall running and decision making at the club. If you look at similar sized clubs as Motherwell, say Dundee, Falkirk, Dunfermline or even Partick Thistle they have gone through some depressingly tough times since being relegated. Simply put it is very difficult to run clubs of that size on lower league incomes without massive cost cutting and reductions and I think Motherwell are particularly vulnerable being fan owned. Perhaps we could sustain current investment levels for a season or two but if you don't get back to the top level in that time frame then I think you are looking at a very different type of Motherwell FC. Even then, think about the quality of player we've been able to attract to the club as an established Premiership side and then imagine taking that drop in level into consideration. That alone would be a big cause for concern although it might re-focus our misfiring transfer policy. So for the question 'would relegation necessarily be a bad thing'? I think it would certainly require supporters to recalibrate their expectations on a medium to long term basis and I think it would be more likely to be an existential threat to the club than the rose tinted glasses view of 'romp it and go straight back up'. That might happen, but I think it's less likely than the other scenarios. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
santheman Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 I would be absolutely devastated if we were to go down and there would inevitably be serious financial implications long term if we didn't come straight back up and the danger is we turn into another Falkirk/Dunfermline. But I must admit a tiny little bit of me would relish not having to watch us play the usual teams 4 times a year and getting the chance to visit different places and grounds and be involved in a promotion battle instead of the usual battle to keep out the bottom half of the table. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Wispy Flossy Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 With the absence of a wealthy benefactor relegation would be an absolute disaster for sure. The Turnbull safety net doesn’t come close to financing a season in the championship Scant consolation but the away days would be great Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ropy Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 The novelty would be good, if it lasted for more than 2 years it would likely be bad. My concern would actually be that even if we bounced back after one or two years we would be vulnerable as the new team in the Premiership and could become a yo-yo club, eventually the string would snap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KirkySuperSub Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 Just now, ropy said: The novelty would be good, if it lasted for more than 2 years it would likely be bad. My concern would actually be that even if we bounced back after one or two years we would be vulnerable as the new team in the Premiership and could become a yo-yo club, eventually the string would snap. That's exactly my thoughts as well. Someone above mentioned Falkirk and Dunfermline, you could also add in ICT, Dundee and Partick too, my fears would be we could easily become be another name within that bracket. I wouldn't be too confident of an immediate return. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mortonhallwell Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 I would be devastated if we go down. We have a very proud record given the length of time we've spent in the top flight. Would we have the resources to come back up quickly, that would be my worry. I'm sure Falkirk, Dundee and Partick Thistle all thought they could return at the first attempt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ya Bezzer! Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 I have a friend that is a Falkirk supporter. He's always saying that the club lost it's heart when they scrapped their youth system. For me the youth system has been massively beneficial to Motherwell down the years and perhaps my greatest fear would be that if we found ourselves outside the top tier for any length of time we would cut back or scrap completely youth development. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
underboyleheating Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 It would be a financial disaster for the club. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fizoxy Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 We would survive, but it would be rubbish. No doubt we'd have to cut back on a lot of things, but hopefully we would stick by our academy for a while. It was said at the AGM that we have things in place to cut costs should relegation occur, which I assume is either wage cuts or contract termination clauses triggered by relegation. We are in a decent position in that we're not sitting with any bad multi-year contracts, but still have a nucleus of a team contracted for next season. I do want to apologize for causing this whole thing though. We had our great spell under McLean and Mcleish when I lived in england, and then nearly got relegated when I moved back. Now I'm close to moving back from the states it seems I've triggered the doomsday scenario again. But you know, new grounds and stuff. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sinjy Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 I am reminded of a lovely guy I worked beside in the mid nineties. He was a Partick Thistle die hard. When it was obvious they were going to be relegated from the premier league he said he was looking forward to seeing new teams and winning a lot more games than ten or so wins they were getting in the SPL each season. They got relegated again the following season. Be careful what you wish for. Relegation will be awful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0Neils40yarder Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 The thought of it gives me the fucking shivers... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy_P Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 Relegation. And another Lanarkshire side still being in the to flight. That's your doomsday scenario. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milo Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 Relegation for Motherwell would be an unmitigated disaster on so many levels it’s difficult to know where to begin. But I’ll try.... First of all the financial implications. I’m not sure how much we get from TV money from being in the top flight but it’s got to be a significant proportion of our income. Then you have the money from the league placing money any the advertising you can charge when appearing on Sky etc. No revenue from old firm away support or the larger supports that premier club can bring. Everything really! That would be gone overnight! Our player/staffing budget possibly/probably could remain the same for the first season down but if we are disappointed with the standard of player we can attract and afford as a well established premier league club then you have to shudder to think about what we might “enjoy” as a championship club. Any Turnbull, Scott, Kipre we unearth or produce would be lost for a fraction of what we got for them from being a premier league club also. I’m struggling to think of a team that has went down and came straight back up recently and we don’t have the money to chuck at a promotion campaign the way Hearts, Hibs and Utd. Even then, Utd took 3 attempts to get back up! There would be a real danger of becoming another Dunfermline, Falkirk, Raith or Patrick and spend years in the wilderness often just bobbing along in the championship hoping you might get a sniff of the play offs. You could pretty much kiss goodbye to ever being any sort of credible or respected club for a generation, if not longer. Livingston were down for years, St Mirren were down about 10 years then up for a season then down for 5 or 6., Dundee were up for 5 years I think there but have spent something like 14 of the last 20 in the championship.Dunfermline have had 1 season in the last 15 in the premier league and that quite possibly could be our future. At best! Absolutely terrifying stuff. I think as a fan base we would find in particularly tough. Despite being on a Motherwell roller coaster it has yielded 35 years, by hook or by crook, or top flight football. As a poster above said, we’d need to adjust our expectations very quickly and that’s what asker said than done. Motherwell fans under the age of 40 will never have seen us play anything other than premier league football and I’m sure plenty of our friends and colleagues who support other teams would waste no time in reminding us of our predicament! Losing to Alloa and Morton etc and sitting mid table after 6 games would be 100 times worse than anything we’re going through right now and the panicking among the support as the reality hits would be unbearable. Any Motherwell fan who is blasé about it being a bit of a laugh and a jaunt round new grounds is deluded. 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ropy Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 Agree with that, to clarify the TV money and the league placing money is the same thing. You get nothing extra for being on TV 6 times as opposed to 2 times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennyc Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 I don't know how much the current parachute payment amounts to. but no way would it offset the areas of funding mentioned in Milo's post. And Season Ticket income could well be much reduced as well if current Holders take up the CoVid deal. We would need to create a team capable of securing promotion, probably with a bunch of journeymen senior pros and a smattering of untested kids.. Could we afford to run any sort of fruitful youth programme? If not, there goes another source of income. And then if we do succeed in bouncing back up, how on earth do we build a new team capable of keeping us up? Just look at how much Hibs, Dundee Utd (and probably Hearts) had to invest in new players and wages to achieve safety following promotion. But coming straight back up is not a given. The fact the play off structure is weighted to benefit the PL team means actually winning the Championship is essential. So to my mind relegation would be a disaster and at best I could picture us being a yoyo club for years. At worst I could picture us sitting mid table and getting used to that station in life. In truth I would enjoy visiting all sorts of exotic new grounds and playing in Cups with crazy names...but only for a wee while. Much better to survive this season and invest hard earned monies in building a new team to keep us in the PL for another 30 odd years. hopefully with players that want to play for Motherwell. Believe me, I have tried to convince myself that relegation might prove beneficial. So far I have failed miserably. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ya Bezzer! Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 Let's be honest about this - Motherwell FC have had a very charmed life. We really should have been relegated before and I think under fan ownership it's only really a matter of time before we are relegated. A club of our size and budget just isn't going to survive in the Premiership indefinitely. Even if we escape relegation this season (I think we will) it's bound to happen sooner or later. I just can't see us surviving, say, another 10 seasons in a row in the Premiership. So while relegation is more bad than good, I think we need to think of it as a strong possibility in the immediate future of the club and something we need to be prepared for as supporters and as an organisation. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelboy Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 I disagree. Even under fan ownership we are always going to have a top 10 budget and advantages over other clubs of our size in bringing in players. There is no reason why we should be relegated from a league with Accies, Livi and Ross County. Look at our squad just now. Money isn't the issue it's the fact that we have signed dozens (no exaggeration) of shite players who have contributed nothing while letting our captain and vice captain leave. If fan ownership has any problems it's not being ruthless enough. Robinson completely hobbled us and the board were still telling him to stay then when he quit anyway gave him a golden handshake instead of trying to get him out the door at minimum cost and telling him to take his boy with him. If we finish below Accies or lose to a Championship team in a playoff heads will have to roll. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weeyin Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 Apart from all the obvious issues with relegation, there is also the likelihood you end up playing on BBC Scotland's Friday night broadcast most weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goggles & Flippers Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 Relegation, how bad would it be? I dunno, like winning an all expenses trip to the Seychelles, get to the airport and find out due to lockdown it's been cancelled so as an alternative you're off to a Caravan Park in Girvan. You get there and Steelboy is head of customer service, and milo is entertainment director. It would be that bad. Awwww FFS, now Lasley's just shown up in a white trackie and a bumbag to take the Mrs off for her massage. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
underboyleheating Posted February 22, 2021 Report Share Posted February 22, 2021 1 hour ago, weeyin said: Apart from all the obvious issues with relegation, there is also the likelihood you end up playing on BBC Scotland's Friday night broadcast most weeks. As always Weeyin I value your insight. You told me a while back we would stay up, as there was far worse than us in the league. Are we still staying up or has your faith been tested with recent results? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weeyin Posted February 23, 2021 Report Share Posted February 23, 2021 11 minutes ago, underboyleheating said: As always Weeyin I value your insight. You told me a while back we would stay up, as there was far worse than us in the league. Are we still staying up or has your faith been tested with recent results? I still have no doubt we'll stay up. I think we'll maintain a decent above relegation and play-off before the split and increase that gap post-split. The only wildcard for me right now is the injury situation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
underboyleheating Posted February 23, 2021 Report Share Posted February 23, 2021 10 minutes ago, weeyin said: I still have no doubt we'll stay up. Good to know, In Weeyin we trust. We are staying up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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