Football is likely to change and not for the better

[Mince n Tatties]

Gary Neville is quite right in what he said the other day,that a lot of players should be looking at alternative careers starting from now...Over 300 are out of contract in the summer,and lower league clubs will not be in a position financially to re- employ them.

[Woolly Mammoth]

Football may be hit the hardest compared to other team sports as it has more to lose financially. If the sponsors start having second thoughts and pull out, then the gravy train the overindulged players who currently have their snouts in the trough will find that there cash cow is no longer there to be used as a crutch to keep them in a quality of life they have been most fortunate to have, and some of them may need to start working for a living.

[domprague]

Excellent points. My only question would be how long Sky and BT Sport are prepared to show empty stadia? Now, we might get used to it or they might broadcast generic crowd noises or they might just be glad to have something to take to advertisers - not sure how many of them there will be.
But if the season doesn't end then maybe people will demand a refund of their subscription and maybe the tv companies will demand a refund on their fees.
Then many, many Premier League clubs will be in the mire.

I don’t believe it can stay the same in the top two leagues as the amount of debt that will accumulate. From the borrowed money the clubs have financed players will have to be repaid. Take Sess spurs paid a lot of money for him but he has not come through yet. It may be that they would have to loan him out to get another club to pay his wage bill. Who will be able to afford that? There are lots of players like that. You will get a lot of good fringe players going on free transfers. Youth teams will be cut to the bone and you will no longer pay good wages to young players. That changes everything

If they play out the season behind closed doors, presumably the TV and prize money will still be paid out. So the only thing they lose this season will be the gate receipts. If you take Spurs for example, their gate receipts are about £2m per game. They've got 5 home games left to play this season so the financial hit will be £10m. That's probably offset against some savings from putting non-playing staff on furlough etc. And their typical annual revenue is about £400m. So you're talking about them losing about 2% of revenue. They're hardly going to fold over that.

As to next season, again the key is whether the season is actually played and whether the TV and prize money is still paid. The fact that the start of the season is delayed, or the first few home games will be played behind closed doors (unlikely anyway IMO, because a lot will change between now and then) will not really hurt them, as far as I can tell. 

[domprague]

My thoughts are that players might accept reduced wages but the agents will fight it without caring about the reality. Probably the same with Gordon Taylor and the PFA, too.
Perhaps we will go back to the days of players having professions outside the game and lower league clubs being part-time. That might also help them reconnect with their local community.
I wouldn't want a full return to the time set out in Gary Imlach's excellent book 'My Father and other working-class heroes' but as others have said here, the current model is not sustainable.

[Skatzoffc]

I would have thought the clubs were insured for all eventualities