Golden eggs

TV deal may GARY TEDDER fears the bumper football kill the goose – and end up scrambling

The danger of the whopping TV deal

HERE’S a thought: are the television companies who are currently falling over themselves to force more and more cash into the coffers of the Premier League actually contributing towards the demise of the goose which lays the golden eggs that they covet so much?

When the details of the latest television deal were announced in February, it was revealed that the sum to be paid for the broadcasting of live Premier League games in the period 20162019 has risen by an incredible 70% on the agreement currently in place.

The figures involved are so large that it’s impossible to fully comprehend the scale. Sky and BT Sport are paying almost £5.14billion to cover live games over the three years, which, in Sky’s case, will equate to more than £10million per game.

An almost perfect example of context was provided by the BBC website, which pointed out that the sum being paid for the transmitting of one match alone would be more than sufficient to cover the design and construction costs of the new ground/community hub which FC United of Manchester are currently attempting to fund.

That the price for broadcasting a single game – 90 minutes of action, or inaction, depending upon the fixture – can be deemed to have a higher individual worth than a project which could bring substantial benefits to the wider community, and possibly be lifechanging for some, beggars belief, and brings to mind Oscar Wilde’s scathing description of those ‘who know the price of everything, and the value of nothing’.

But trying, for a brief while at least, to look beyond the moral questions around such excessive spending, could it be that the mid to long-term effects of this action will be to the detriment of what the marketing men who now