Far too many components need to align for the Mercury13 investment to be a success at Lewes FC. Like many trumped up investment opportunities that fail, so will this. Before we even had confirmation that an owner’s vote would happen, I said from the offset that it was silly of the board not to accede to one straight away, as they would win; there is no doubt in my mind that Lewes FC will press ahead with this investment and the inevitable breaking up of Lewes FC will begin.
So, welcome to Mercury 13 and really the best of luck to you, because you sure as hell are going to need it.
I have always said that Equality FC was unaffordable and would end in a breaking up of the club. I mooted the real costs and got soundly lambasted by everyone as negative and talking crap. I predicted it because I didn’t get taken in by the marketing message and purely read the club financial accounts, the licence arrangements for the Premiership and Championship, and had a dialogue with the Head of the Women’s FA. I feel no sense of schadenfreude that I was correct all along, and that the club is now in a position where the Board and other cheerleaders are saying that there is no alternative available to the club except to take this deal.
I thought Equality FC was a brilliant initiative but predicted the problems that would come with it. One of the reasons the fanzine I co-authored fizzled out, was because I deemed it churlish criticising a club who, even if it was a gimmick, were undertaking such an important project.
So, I can say with reasonable authority why Mercury 13 will fail.
The whys and wherefores of why we are taking the current Mercury 13 path, and the wrongs and rights, are being vigorously discussed elsewhere.
Women’s football is the huge sleeping giant of British and world sports. The investment and sponsorship opportunities are about to explode and leave Lewes well behind. Mercury13 will take the hit. National women’s football is set to explode to the levels of interest of women’s international football. Are Lewes, Durham and London City Lionesses going to be part of that? No. It is simply not in the interests of the progress and growth of women’s football.
When I had my exchange with the Women’s FA, sorry it is on an old email address so I cannot vouch for the name, she told me Lewes got a berth in the Championship purely because of Equality FC and the positive press coverage we were bringing to the game. We fell short with many of the licence criteria but were deemed good news, so we didn’t earn a place through football merit, but because of our brand.
But that was then, this is now. There are huge demands within women’s football to lift the game. The one line of defence we had was Equality FC and could therefore compete by paying our men and women the same; ironically the Mercury 13 deal sees the death of Equality FC. You couldn’t write it.
New licences for the Premiership and Championship will be reflective of the desire within the women’s game to ruthlessly expand. Anyone remember the Doncaster Belles, for many years one of the top women’s teams? They were essentially forced out of the topflight to make way for Manchester City – surprise – not?. Totally wrong, but you can understand for the purposes of raising the ante why it was executed. In our little bubble, for some reason we and Mercury 13 think we are safe and will be able to compete at the level of the ‘big clubs’. Or maybe we are going down this path because the leadership of Lewes can see troubling times ahead and want someone else to fund a very very uncertain future.
Ask yourself the question. Do punters want to watch Man Utd v Lewes, or Man Utd v Arsenal. It is the law of safe returns and growth; go with what works and what gets the crowds.
Do punters want to watch a game in Old Trafford etc or in the, albeit wonderful, Dripping Pan Lewes. Chelsea v Brighton last year drew a crowd of 900. If it has been played at Chelsea it would have been 30,000.
More and more games are being played in the clubs main stadiums and it is an inevitability to cash in on the interest in women’s football, that all games will be soon. After all, in the league it is only ten games a year.
Because it is all about the money. Via the licence arrangements we can simply be told we need a ground with a capacity to compete in the top two flights and game over. This really is going to come sooner than you think, even for next season.
Yes, the licence agreements can do it and yes they will. This is not scaremongering, it is the natural evolution of women’s football. It needs funding and TV will provide it. We were a player and could compete whilst it was embryonic, but as women’s football blossoms the investment required will be significant.
There are numerous other infrastructure and commercial issues that can be utilised to push us out too.
The only alternative is for Mercury 13 to rebrand somewhere else. We are told there are red lines that will make this an impossibility. But red lines are made for crossing and contracts can be amended. If Mercury 13 are told they can get a £25 million a year TV contract, equivalent to only 10% of the men’s Premiership contracts so not impossible, and came to the Board and said they would give us, suppose, 10% of that – enough for us to get the men into the football league and invest in completing the stands and new facilities at the Dripping Pan – will the owners and fans say no if the board at the time want to go along. No.
So, any of the supporters of Lewes FC Women getting excited about the Mercury13 investment, be careful what you wish for, because in 5 years’ time you may be trekking to Huddersfield to watch the Mercurial Huddersfield Lewes Women. I am not suggesting for one moment as the situation stands Mercury13 are some clandestine organisation planning to uproot the Lewes FC Women, but their hand may be forced.
Strategically it may be better to cut their losses and go.
We are told that Mercury 13 will bring sponsorship and further investment. Yes, I remember 2007 or thereabouts the last time we were in the financial doo dah, Kevin Keehan came along exchanging involvement in the club for sponsorship and investment. It is interesting because it seems this was not forthcoming partly due to his personal involvement and the fact he was not wanted. Much of the investment/sponsorship interest in our club has come on the back of budget parity aka Equality FC, and 100% fan owned. These have been dumped; is there any guarantee this great selling point going is still going to maintain that interest from interested parties.
Mercury 13 will be investing in players or will have to, in order to get into the Premiership or achieve a decent placing int eh Championship. Having seen the monies bandied about over a 5year period for a large collection of teams around the world they want to invest in, how on earth can they compete financially if players values and wages soar. My understanding is all of the figures and ideas being bandied around are based more on today’s women’s football finances and not on the expected huge growth and expansion of the game.
If Lewes could even compete with the big clubs where on earth do they think these top players will want to play? Is there a naivety about this in that do people really think top players would choose to play at a minnow club with relatively appalling stadia and facilities oh and fan base, if the big clubs use their big stadiums. We simply will not be able to get players to compete. The brand which has got us to where we are will be diluted so that won’t be a selling point either – we will just another women’s club with a set amount of money to invest and out core infrastrcture.
Sorry, none of this stacks up and I think when Mercury 13 come in they will soon be out, their finances pushed aside by the growth of the women’s game. I believe all the board are doing is breaking up our club for a potential two or three years further involvement at the top table.
The Rights of Fans. 