Smile though your heart is aching

Gutted: Cardiff's outstanding Michael Chopra is sportingly consoled by Blackpool's Stephen Crainey

THE day of the Championship Play-Off final for a place in football’s Premier League between Cardiff City and Blackpool, as we know, turned out to be Blackpool’s day in the sun. Quite literally, in fact, as it was the tangerine contingent among the fans at Wembley who were bathed in sunshine for the duration of the game and who of course saw their team triumph in a thrilling game to win promotion to the most watched football league in the world.

Much of the talk in the run-up to the game was of just how much the prize of promotion to the Premiership would be worth to Cardiff, with claims being made not only about the potential size of the gains for the football club itself, but also the wider benefits that would accrue to the city and indeed the economy as a whole. One might then ask just how much was resting on the outcome of this one football match for the city.

The direct financial impact of promotion to the Premiership for the football club itself is relatively easy to calculate. The prize has been estimated to be worth a record £40 million for the winning club this year in terms of the additional revenue generated by television income, higher gate receipts and increased money from sponsorship and merchandising – the benefits inflated this year by the Premiership’s increased revenues from international broadcast rights. In addition, even if the winning club is relegated in just one year after promotion to the Premier League, parachute payments may be received over the following four seasons of up to £48 million. It’s not surprising then that this has been dubbed the most substantial prize in world football. It clearly provides any club with a great opportunity to put itself on to a solid financial footing for some years to come, especially if it can perform well on the pitch and enjoy an extended stay in the top flight.

It is much more difficult to assess how much of this increased revenue would filter into the rest of the local economy. When assessing the impact of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ promotion to the Premier League in 2009, Wolverhampton City Council suggested that the direct impact on the city would in fact be limited given that the club would need significant investment in transfer fees and players’ salaries to compete effectively. Furthermore, the impact of any increase in the number of opposition supporters travelling to games at the club would also be relatively small due to the fact that the club was already achieving attendances close to capacity when in the Championship – something that would in all probability also apply to Cardiff. However, the Wolverhampton report noted that there would be other less direct but undoubtedly positive impacts on the local economy.

These relate principally to the opportunities Premiership football provides to market the club’s home city to a whole new audience. Premiership matches are broadcast on all continents and viewed by an estimated 64 million people each week, with viewing numbers increasing for the blue-chip ties against the top teams such as Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United. The potential to promote the city to a global audience through perimeter advertising alone at home games is enormous and creates a real platform to raise the profile of a city for overseas investors, tourists and other visitors.

Anecdotal evidence from Hull, whose football club recently managed a two-year stay in the Premiership, suggests promotion helped raise the national and international exposure of the city and created a new opportunity to sell the attractions of the city. Premiership football certainly provides a useful vehicle for corporate hospitality and an invaluable way to encourage potential investors to visit cities that perhaps would not otherwise be on their radar.

This might indeed be one of the key benefits of promotion to the Premiership for cities such as Hull and Cardiff. It’s the very real opportunity provided to change existing preconceptions and the often pejorative images held by some about their cities, their football clubs and fans. This would certainly seem to apply to Cardiff as is perhaps best exemplified by the comments made by a prominent, if typically acerbic, sports writer Mick Dennis on Sky Sports news in the run-up to the play-off final. Dennis asserted that Blackpool would have the popular support in the final on the basis that they are a small club with a small ground and fan base, a very entertaining manager and hail from a town with an unrivalled history and character which would provide endless opportunities for rags to riches stories. Furthermore he labelled the welcome given to away supporters visiting Cardiff City as “feisty” and dismissed the city as “a long way away”. If Mick had visited Cardiff recently he would have to admit that the city and its football club are both modern and vibrant, and increasingly diverse. A two-hour train journey from London hardly makes a city a backwater, either. Promotion to the Premiership and the increased exposure associated with it might have therefore created a valuable opportunity to re-image the city and the football club.

Perhaps most important of all, however, is the likely ‘feelgood factor’ that would have resulted from promotion success. The palpable sense of satisfaction and civic pride that comes with sporting success and its accompanying champagne celebrations, victory parades and media scrutiny is now known to have a significant and positive impact on well-being and can even boost the productivity of workers. Research conducted by the Social Issues Research Centre in 2006 found that workers who enjoy sporting success experience a positive boost to their morale which improves their mood, motivation and productivity in the working environment. Furthermore, sporting success helps create a team spirit in their working environment, and so has a positive impact on social inclusion.

Clearly, the feel-good factor created by promotion to the Premiership can be short-lived and poor performances by the team in a much tougher league may of course have negative effects, although they are likely to be transitory. In this regard, it is perhaps other findings of the SIRC research that are particularly worth noting. The research found that it is not just one-off performances or set-piece events that can trigger positive responses in the workplace. For the passionate followers of sport, ‘talking sport’ is an integral part of day-to-day working life and fulfils a host of functions, not least improving lines of communication between colleagues, breaking down hierarchical barriers between employers and employees, and enhancing creativity and the sharing of ideas. So perhaps promotion success isn’t the be-all-and-end-all of everything. Maybe just getting behind your team is important, with very real and positive effects.

This suggests that Cardiff’s defeat to Blackpool at Wembley shouldn’t perhaps be seen as all doom and gloom. The club retained the total gate receipts from the play-off final – estimated to be worth around £1.25 million. They’ve probably gained a few extra supporters in the city from their recent success and have secured some new investment which provides the prospect of a more sound financial future than they’ve enjoyed of late. And the recent history of Portsmouth FC perhaps demonstrates above all that the Premiership prize, while huge in financial terms, clearly comes with significant risks and possible costs.