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What's the most "Tin Pot" thing you've seen in the SPFL


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1 hour ago, DiegoDiego said:


 


Sorry, but that's exactly how these things happen in US sport.

The US model has generating profit for owners and shareholders as the only aim. The franchises are companies and spectators are mere customers. Everything is done with remaining profitable as the sole motive, player salary caps and the rest. The problem with that coming to Europe is that local people would be putting a portion of their hard-earned wages into their local football clubs then would see profit being extracted from that by a parasitic ownership class, as now happens at eg. Man Utd and Liverpool. The traditional European model is where the money is reinvested back into the club or local community (via things like subsidised kids' football sessions).  Edinburgh council and West Lothian council were not interested in making profit, obviously, but in providing amenities to the local populations they govern for. That's why the Commonwealth games were bid for then hosted in Edinburgh and Meadowbank Stadium built in the first place. It's what West Lothian council were doing with the stadium they then built. As I put in a previous comment, it's my belief Bill Hunter was in it for a profit (although he'd deny that). He probably pushed for the move to Livingston as he thought he could create something valuable to then sell on. So I do think there were capitalist opportunists involved. However, other parties involved such as the John Bain clique and local government were definitely not in it for those reasons. My comment you quote from there was a reply to Vincent Guerin saying Livingston are "just below the Old Firm in being vectors of the American model" (I'm paraphrasing). That's very inaccurate. While Livi aren't collectively-owned like Motherwell or St Mirren, which would be the ideal, the current owners are actively promoting the "50 + 1" German-style model to Livi fans as the long term target.

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The traditional European model is where the money is reinvested back into the club or local community (via things like subsidised kids' football sessions).

Reinvesting money into the club is just a way for owners to make their asset more valuable. That's what owners in the US have been doing incredibly successfully over the last decade and have seen clubs' valuations soar. Everything is done with an eye to increasing revenue and making the club more valuable.

Owners in Europe are trying to do exactly the same thing. It's just a lot more difficult to make vast sums from Airdrieonians than it is the Chicago Bears. Folk like Jacqui Low aren't involved out of a sense of public duty.
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