TV deal/Neil Doncaster ( merged )

[section s heart]

9 hours ago, RobNox said:

Where to start with Doncaster?  This is a guy who as CEO of the SPFL earns a reputedly £400k salary.  For that sort of money, I'd be looking for a CEO who had strong leadership skills, a clear vision of where he wants to take the 'business' and the ability to come up with creative solutions to any problems that might arise.

 

Instead we've got a guy who, whenever a difficult decision has to be made, hides behind his mantra that he only does the bidding of the clubs, so rather than make a decision, he puts it to a vote of member clubs.  So whatever the outcome, he can't be held accountable because it's what the clubs voted for.

 

On top of his inflated salary, he gets a 6 figure bonus for securing a new sponsorship deal.  Surely that's part of his job!  If I was employing him I wouldn't be offering him a bonus to secure a new deal, I'd be threatening him with the sack if he doesn't do so.

 

It then turns out that he hired a consultancy firm to find the new sponsor, and they take a 10% cut of the deal for their services.  He heralds the deal as the biggest ever sponsorship deal for Scottish football, but conveniently doesn't mention that it's only the biggest deal because it's a 5 season deal.  Ladbrokes paid more for sponsorship during the previous 5 seasons, but that was not a single deal.  They agreed a 2 year deal, then a 1 year extension, then a further 2 year extension, so effectively 3 separate deals.

 

I'd love to have this guy's job.  Paid a CEO's salary but whenever a big decision has to be made, I can abdicate that decision to the member clubs and if it turns out shite, then it wasn't my fault because the clubs took the decision.  Paid a big bonus to find a new sponsor and I can abdicate that to some consultancy firm who then take a cut of the deal while I still get my big bonus.

 

The most telling part of the Deloitte report was when they described the current SPFL structure as a largely administrative function.  I said that long ago, Doncaster is a vastly overpaid administrator.  He has no vision about how to take Scottish football forward, he's just happy to continue to pick up his inflated salary and bonuses for as long as he can get away with it.

Great summary Rob.

 

On the decisions and votes of member clubs, he and his cohorts have history of trying to influence votes by lobbying support for the positions taken by the uglies. Not the equitable administration function that Doncaster implies. 

 

If there's a big exit cost as suggested, I think the clubs badly need to suck it up and get rid of him, and the whole spfl system as it stands. 

[Smoked-Glass]

I hear Doncaster has IPTV too. Tight bas 

[Sooks]

1 hour ago, Smoked-Glass said:

I hear Doncaster has IPTV too. Tight bas 

 

He does but in his case it means

 

Incompetence Personified To Validation

[Bazzas right boot]

On 15/08/2022 at 19:37, Boab said:

Could have been pished ?
Which, basically, negates any normal behaviour !

 

Not always. 

 

Courts only half agree with excuse. 🤔

[Watt-Zeefuik]

Watching the video from the Zurich thread that included them talking about the money needed in the game, and how they see cross-border leagues (which already exist in all but name only) and Super Leagues as inevitable.

 

I realize this raises all sorts of questions, not the least of which is European allocations and cup designations, but since the change is coming anyway, the SPFL should jump the queue and enter discussions about a joint pyramid setup with Northern Ireland. If the problem is the lack of population and hence TV subscribership, just adding in the north would increase the core TV catchment area by about 40%, which would probably be increased further by in-lookers from RoI. There are a handful of clubs there with setups and draws suitable to be SPFL teams, but struggle to maintain full professional status because of the lack of competition.

 

You could keep the pyramids separate below the top tier, so that there was joint promotion from the Scottish Championship and the current NI top tier into the Premiership (which hopefully would expand to 16 teams or some such). I realize ferry or plane rides to NI would be a longer stretch and that would take some management but to me the money would justify it. (I also realize that it likely involves letting in the Discount Store Old Firm from Belfast.) But it could likely increase total revenues by over 50% and would make the game more interesting and novel.

Edited August 17, 2022 by Led Tasso