Who’s best equipped to go up and stay up?

[TxRover]

Just now, Mon eh Ton said:

I don't think there's a bad time to get promoted out of the championship. I imagine it's easier to establish yourself, whatever that means, after a year of premiership gate + TV money and, even in the worst case, relegation prize money that's double what you get for winning the championship.

I don’t know, the costs associated with the Premiership are huge, unless you’re willing to mail it in, and that wouldn’t make for a happy fanbase. I understand we all see it as the goal is to be promoted, but there also has to be a plan to handle that promotion or you risk the promotion costing more than you make from it. I’ve always believed that a few years in the Championship, stabilizing finances and “getting ready” are critical to any significant length of stay in the Premiership for any team outside the OF, the Dons, Hearts and Hibs. After the first two attendances drop precipitately, and after the next three there is another drop, and nearly every team below this is vulnerable to even one bad season threatening very bad financial things if they’ve spent enough to try to make a push for sixth.

[hk blues]

5 hours ago, VincentGuerin said:

Livingston and St Mirren are 1 and 2 points off a European place as things stand, and three of Livi's next four are against sides in the bottom half.

St Johnstone are arguably the only side out of twelve in the top flight with not much riding on their games from here on in. That's a pretty good set-up. A third of the teams in the division could quite realistically end up either in Europe or the bottom six.

I get that four times a year isn't ideal, but I disagree that it's not important to create competition. A bigger league would stretch the division given the financial differences between clubs in Scotland. We don't have a tv deal to make it competitive like they do in England, and we'd end up with a more stretched division with less movement over a season and a lot of boredom towards the end.

And, as I've mentioned on here before, the price of season tickets would need to come down, costing the clubs more money. How do Hearts' ST prices change when we remove a derby, a game each against the OF, a game against Aberdeen, and replace them with ICT, Raith Rovers, Morton, and Ayr United?

The larger league is one of these things that gets a very sympathetic hearing, but when you scratch the surface of it I'm not sure it would really improve our lot at all.

Would anyone be turning up to 11th v 8th in April thinking 'at least it's Ayr we're playing today and not St Mirren again, this is great!'?

Whilst I agree to some extent with the sentiment of your post, I'm not convinced by the cost of season ticket point. My club has just announced the price for next season without even knowing what division we will be in. I think there is a general feeling amongst club owners that fans will pay whatever they are asked to within a certain band of reasonableness. 

[hk blues]

On 25/03/2023 at 23:29, TxRover said:

I don’t know, the costs associated with the Premiership are huge, unless you’re willing to mail it in, and that wouldn’t make for a happy fanbase. I understand we all see it as the goal is to be promoted, but there also has to be a plan to handle that promotion or you risk the promotion costing more than you make from it. I’ve always believed that a few years in the Championship, stabilizing finances and “getting ready” are critical to any significant length of stay in the Premiership for any team outside the OF, the Dons, Hearts and Hibs. After the first two attendances drop precipitately, and after the next three there is another drop, and nearly every team below this is vulnerable to even one bad season threatening very bad financial things if they’ve spent enough to try to make a push for sixth.

I can't be arsed checking but I'm pretty sure the vast majority of teams promoted are already teams who have been there, done it and bought the t-shirt. In short, when was the last

time the promoted team were top league virgins?

I'm not sure whether I'm agreeing or disagreeing with your post t.b.h. but it's pretty clear we have an established top 16 or so teams. 

 

 

Edited March 27, 2023 by hk blues

[Sortmeout]

7 hours ago, VincentGuerin said:

Livingston and St Mirren are 1 and 2 points off a European place as things stand, and three of Livi's next four are against sides in the bottom half.

 

 

3 hours ago, Cptn Hooch said:

Is that the same Livingston who are AHEAD of St Mirren and still within touching distance of European qualification?

Aye fair enough I fucked it.