2 Comments

Great to have featured this piece from Mash on www.footballwriting.co.uk, another great debate piece for the Freebie Friday feature and hopefully we'll collaborate a few more times this season to help the exposure of both sites.

Expand full comment

Editor’s Footnote (ICYMI)

Machel alludes to BT’s execs and I’m afraid that’s where the buck stops. Execs up and down the food chain are primarily concerned with their viewing numbers. They live or die by them.

While not immaterial, the quality of the broadcasts they oversee isn’t the thing that keeps them awake at night. Your workaday exec answers to a ‘Head Of’ whose first question is: How are the numbers? The ‘Head Of’ asks that question because they report to a Chief Exec whose first question is: How are the numbers? That Chief Exec… well, you get the picture.

If you can guarantee decent numbers by pandering to the clubs with the biggest fan bases, it’s a safe bet for your employment as an exec. Your numbers look good, you sleep well, and you can keep making payments on your Audi estate (they all drive an Audi estate).

However, the other remit of the executive class is to grow the numbers. They love a year-on-year comparison that lot. Wrexham won’t be in the National League for much longer. How are the year-on-years going to look when they’re gone?

The National League is, let’s face it, a little bit niche. Big clubs are going to drop into it from time to time, but how do you help the league as a whole grow as a television spectacle? If I was an exec, that’s the question that would keep me awake at night.

Expand full comment