Friday 13th February, 2009last year, mid-February
Back to the field of play – Bradford City vs Wycombe Wanderers League Two Preview
Much has happened since last Bradford City walked the grass of Valley Parade in the 2-0 win over Grimsby Town.
The Darlington game bit the dust – or the snow if you will – and City had to wait a week before recording an impressive 2-0 at Gillingham leaving people talking about promotion prospects again until distraction came in the news that the Bantams seem unable to find a replacement for Bradford and Bingley who will not be sponsoring the club next season and are able to find a replacement for VP in the shape of an Odsal Sporting Village after revealing that it cost £1.2m to play at home a year. The game with former league leaders Wycombe Wanderers seems small beer in context.
The move from Valley Parade will be debated elsewhere and is surely one of the most serious in the club’s history dwarfing the problems with sponsorship which have effected many clubs in football and seen Mark Lawn effectively begging the businesses of Bradford for the £60,000 asked for by Friday afternoon that would assure the shirts that went to the manufactures could feature something emblazoned upon them.
City have handled the sponsorship situation poorly. Bradford and Bingley’s problems were there for all to see and the assumption could have been made that they would not renew a long time ago. In that situation City could go looking for a backer on the quiet and – if one were not found – do as Aston Villa and Barcelona do and hand the ten square inch of real estate on the front of the shirt over to charity. Either that or decide that it was to be left blank claiming this was a deliberate decision as Leicester City have done.
The scrambling for cash from anyone who will give it and the naming of a base price the Bantams will accept serves to cheapen the product when interest in sponsorship picks up. £60,000 of sponsorship equates to two Sky TV games – an interesting piece of information that casts a different light on City’s attempts to get the Darlington game on – and illustrates the rather random nature of football finances at this level.
The Darlington game takes place on Tuesday night and promises to be equally as tough as the visit of Peter Taylor’s Wycombe Wanderers. The Chairboys were top – taking over from City in November – until the middle of this week but the two games in hand they have over Brentford, who went level on points with them, suggest they may return to summit. Nevertheless when they do get to play Taylor’s side are not in the greatest of form with recent draws with Macclesfield, Exeter City and Luton Town being coupled with defeats to Grimsby Town and at AFC Bournemouth and arguabily the Bantams are playing them at the right time.
Stuart McCall goes into the game with a grumbling keeper Rhys Evans wanting a new deal – he has earned one but timing is everything and Evans’s comments in public are ship rocking – but in good form. City concede few and are building another run of clean sheets with Evans not picking the ball out of the net for the last 180 minutes. Much of this is down to adding a third commanding aerial figure in recent weeks in the form of Zesh Rehman who will most likely switch to the central defensive role to cover Graeme Lee who is suspended. Matthew Clarke will partner and Luke O’Brien will hope to have recovered to play left back with Paul Arnison on the right.
The midfield of Nicky Law Jnr and Dean Furman seems set in stone although Paul McLaren’s set plays are missed greatly when he is not included and the Bantam number four would be in my starting eleven as would Joe Colbeck who builds up match fitness to the point where he seems as if he will explode. Steve Jones on the right hand side will make way for him this game or next. Omar Daley continues on the left and McCall tells us that we should not be so negative about him, which is strange because we are not and perhaps someone should tell City’s players and management to spend less time fixating on criticism or at least balance it up against the praise.
I illustrate this with the fact that BfB got a ratio of 3:1 in comments in support of Daley during the week so ending that week with a spirited defence of the player is – perhaps – giving undue credence to one side of the debate.
Peter Thorne and Michael Boulding continue up front.
I have heard that strenuous efforts were made to secure new shirt sponsorship for 09/10 – to no avail it seems bar the ever generous offer from JCT 600 if nothing else is agreed – sign of the times indeed and a pointer that the next few years could be very tricky for a lot of clubs – so the support of the fans will be needed even more.
The charity idea is an interesting one – but the clubs talked about are in a different league altogether from City financially – maybe as some have suggested supporters could donate towards an agreed local cause who would benefit from being on the shirts – one for the future maybe.
Just following up Mark’s comment about a charity on the shirt and Barca/Villa being ‘in a different league altogether from City financially, didn’t I see that Keighley RLFC have Manorlands hospice at Oxenhope on their shirts this season? Now they really are in a different league! Maybe the City fans’ donations could go to the Burns Unit as our new shirt sponsor.
Barca – supporter run as they are – remain the unpicked fruit of advertising and the space on the front of the shirt has become hallowed. Unicef have it and they are the only name Barca have ever worn creating the idea that only the great and the good can have their name there.
Manchester United, Real Madrid or AC Milan can all charge a pretty penny for their shirt deals but that space at Barcelona is worth more – because it is rare and has such positive connotations. How much more would Nike play to join a list that contains only Unicef?
Aston Villa’s shirt sponsorship is league below Barca and when they lost Rover the situation was no doubt the same as City’s is now. I guess Villa looked around for someone and looked at the same options as City have of finding people not able to put the cash in at the levels hoped for and having to drop the price.
Rather than take that they took Acorns the local charity and in doing so increased the perceived value of the Villa shirt sponsorship. No longer is it a piece of tatty advertising thrown at a shirt at the last minute, it is a thing of virtue.
Being on Aston Villa’s shirt is not a signal of how much you have thrown at the local club – it is a signal that your brand has integrity – or at least that is how it will be sold and arguably how we all view it.
City are levels below but the principal is the same. Sponsorship – like any commodity – is about supply and demand and when the supply goes down as it has with Villa and does with Barca and the demand goes up because the item is perceived to have more value then the cost goes up.
“…perhaps someone should tell City’s players and management to spend less time fixating on criticism or at least balance it up against the praise”
This is something I’ve picked up on too – when Conlon was booed by a minority before coming on as a sub, there was a huge deal made about it and Simon Parker was still writing about it a couple of weeks later. The fact is, the majority of fans either clapped or stayed silent. A small number chanted Bazinho’s name, and a small number booed him. When he scored that day, the lads in the top tier of the Kop who didn’t boo apparently turned round and gave the boo boys some gentle stick (apparently – personally, I was looking round to see if I could work out which person had shouted “that’s crap McCall, crap!” when the substitution was being made).
The same happens with Daley – I was one of those who gave him a standing ovation a few weeks ago for making that cracking sliding tackle when the opposition had broken (I think following a corner) and our defence had been left exposed. It’s rubbish to claim that people moan Daley just because he can’t always beat 4 or 5 men – they complain when he doesn’t appear to be interested in doing the necessary chasing (and, as I’ve said, they cheer when he does!). Sadly, there’s too little focus on giving the lad a standing ovation for makign a tackle and too much on the frustration we feel when he makes a poor decision or doesn’t track back or harrass defenders as much as we’d like. Mind you – it was the same when Nicky Summerbee was here!
Cracking win today and an excellent three points. Down to teamwork, committment, and energy – we just need to keep on in the same vein.