Setanta going under, good thing or bad?

[the ringmaster]

Well looks like setanta are going into administration so where does this leave Scottish football ?
Although there coverage of games seemed to me to be of poor picture quality and the studio guests left a lot to be desired surely this is a hammer blow for all clubs in the spl and I include the old firm in that as they aint exactly flush at the moment .
I read somewhere that espn might be interested in taking over the rights well that would be fitting as they are a Walt Disney affilated company but then again anything rather than Sky having more power over sport will be ok by me...

[scotty]

Sad for the clubs that are going to lose the money .

Great news for me as I don’t have to listen to bitter Scott Booth anymore .

[TYM]

Unfortunately the Setanta business model was never going to work. They paid over the odds for their televised rights and tried to take BSKYB on at their own game when they never had a hope of gaining the number of subscribers required to reach break-even.

I have likened them in the past to being the Leeds United of broadcasting. They gambled and lost.

It is a bad thing for Scottish Football but the SPL Chairmen only have themslves to blame. They chased the bigger pot but should have listened to Celtic, Rangers and Aberdeen who were more focused on the longer term security of SKY.
Most teams are now being run on a sound financial footing day to day, but to then lose 20 - 25% of their revenue stream will be a major concern. The loss to Rangers and Celtic will be an inconvience, the loss to the Kilmarnock's of this world will be potentially disasterous. It will make the gap between the Old Firm and the others even greater, and that again, is bad for Scottish football.

[Hume]

It will make the gap between the Old Firm and the others even greater, and that again, is bad for Scottish football.

Agree with that other than perhaps the above. The OF (rightly) get more of the TV money so may lose out more. I think it is the TV money that has created the gap.

The OF have always had bigger gates but there was a time when others competed better so perhaps losing the TV money is a blessing?

Then agian, I'm sure some other company will pick up the rights from the SPL or Rangers and Celtic will eventually be allowed to negotiate their own TV / Internet Broadcast deals.

I accept it may be different for certain clubs who rely more on the TV money but they will just need to adjust to survive. Where you could be right TYM is if these teams have to offload their better players to do this.

Great news for me as I don’t have to listen to bitter Scott Booth anymore .

[TYM]

That is exactly what I was thinking on. Hamilton will be forced into selling McCarthy, McArthur and Easton. St Mirren will lose Dorman. Motherwell will lose Clarkson. Falkirk, probably Barr and Arfield. Kilmarnock are the team I fear most for as they do not seem to have any saleable assets and are one of the worst in debt.

The point about the Old Firm is that they will still have European TV money and in percentage terms, their loss is lower and therefore more easily absorbed. With at least one team saying they stand to lose the equivalent of their annual wage bill, then that is a major problem. Out of contract players will now be replaced by youth team players.

[Trapper]

3 clubs were against the setanta deal from the start, OF and aberdeen.
Don't usually like being associated with the ugly sisters but it looks like they were right this time.