NASDAQ: Fireside Chat with Levy and Ledley

[eddiev14]

This was on Facebook live earlier. Enjoy!

 

[tototoner]

thanks, will listen now

takes about 2 minutes for sound to kick in

 

[Gb160]

I watched until they started taking questions from the audience that were inaudible...i just fucking love Ledders.

 

[tototoner]

good question from the audience at 42 mins to Levy about how do you balance cost of new stadium with finances for incoming transfers.

 

[Gb160]

good question from the audience at 42 mins to Levy about how do you balance cost of new stadium with finances for incoming transfers.

i didn't get that far, what was his answer?

 

[Insomnia]

i didn't get that far, what was his answer?

Sell Kane & Alli

 

[tototoner]

i didn't get that far, what was his answer?

we are more likely to promote from the academy than buy, unless we can find a player who will make a massive improvement - we haven't found a player like that this window yet

 

[ziggy]

we are more likely to promote from the academy than buy, unless we can find a player who will make a massive improvement - we haven't found a player like that this window yet

So I assume that when Poch said last season that lessons had been learnt etc etc he'd identified academy players he wanted to promote already ?

 

[spursfan77]

Quick bit about a naming rights partner being the next step and the interviewer joking they would lock the doors until someone in the room paid up.

So thats actually what Levy is up to out there.

 

[Gb160]

Quick bit about a naming rights partner being the next step and the interviewer joking they would lock the doors until someone in the room paid up.

So thats actually what Levy is up to out there.

Not necessarily, he always seems to be on these pre-season tours.

 

[eViL]

we're not yet in a place where we've found the player who we definitely want to buy but can't afford to buy."

Most interesting quote from this New York thingy.

 

[robertgoulet]

He mentioned that the current transfer climate is unsustainable, and seemed to infer that is the reason they haven't been as aggressive.

I don't know that I agree with him about the sustainability. I understand that the money is dumb, but there's no sign that there is going to be a market crash. Has that ever happened in sport? If there is a decline, it seems it would happen relatively slowly, not a giant crash where "oh you just paid 200M for Mbappe but now no one can afford to pay more than 20M for him". You may not make a profit on the player, but you should at least be able to get CLOSE to what you paid for him if you want to sell in a year or two.

 

[spursfan77]

Not necessarily, he always seems to be on these pre-season tours.

Well, he went to the end of season Australia one a couple of years ago as part of looking for a development partner for the stadium, so he definitely ties them in with bidness.

 

[tototoner]

He mentioned that the current transfer climate is unsustainable, and seemed to infer that is the reason they haven't been as aggressive.

I don't know that I agree with him about the sustainability. I understand that the money is dumb, but there's no sign that there is going to be a market crash. Has that ever happened in sport? If there is a decline, it seems it would happen relatively slowly, not a giant crash where "oh you just paid 200M for Mbappe but now no one can afford to pay more than 20M for him". You may not make a profit on the player, but you should at least be able to get CLOSE to what you paid for him if you want to sell in a year or two.

Serie A 30 years ago was the top league financially

 

[spursfan77]

On a side note, how good is ledders speaking in public now. Remember back to when he was a player and he struggled to get his words out. Now he's so comfortable public speaking. Really have to give the man lots of credit in that regard.

 

[robertgoulet]

Serie A 30 years ago was the top league financially

Yes, but it wasn't an overnight crash. It slowly dropped. You're not going to get caught out on players fees in a market that slowly drops.

 

[ItsBoris]

He mentioned that the current transfer climate is unsustainable, and seemed to infer that is the reason they haven't been as aggressive.

I don't know that I agree with him about the sustainability. I understand that the money is dumb, but there's no sign that there is going to be a market crash. Has that ever happened in sport? If there is a decline, it seems it would happen relatively slowly, not a giant crash where "oh you just paid 200M for Mbappe but now no one can afford to pay more than 20M for him". You may not make a profit on the player, but you should at least be able to get CLOSE to what you paid for him if you want to sell in a year or two.

The reason the market is the way it is, especially in England, is because money has flooded into the sport, so no one needs to sell their players to balance the books. Levy should know that given that he's participated in exactly what has driven the market to crazy levels - we didn't need to sell Walker, so we demanded an obscene sum and City paid it. Now that would only be unsustainable if money leaves the sport in the future, which I don't see happening. Popularity is growing worldwide, not declining.

 

[Jody]

Wouldn't want to bet the farm on the back of some tv deals. Not with the way technology changes.

 

[joelstinton14]

Wouldn't want to bet the farm on the back of some tv deals. Not with the way technology changes.

I was going to say this. And it's not just TV, it could be any principle sponsor that decides that they just can't keep supporting the financial investment they are putting in.

TV itself is changing - Sky have already changed the way they have delivered their sport package due to people going elsewhere - if that declines continue where are sky going to get the money to continue supporting the deals they want to sign? May not be apparent this year, or next, but in 5 years it could be.

Problem with these high transfer fees and Wages is that they have a knock on effect as well- when one player goes for 50 million, another goes, when another player gets £150,000 a week, another player will - before you know it prices are balloning, and it takes just a couple of dominoes to fall to potentially have a negative affect on any given club.

 

[robertgoulet]

I was going to say this. And it's not just TV, it could be any principle sponsor that decides that they just can't keep supporting the financial investment they are putting in.

TV itself is changing - Sky have already changed the way they have delivered their sport package due to people going elsewhere - if that declines continue where are sky going to get the money to continue supporting the deals they want to sign? May not be apparent this year, or next, but in 5 years it could be.

Problem with these high transfer fees and Wages is that they have a knock on effect as well- when one player goes for 50 million, another goes, when another player gets £150,000 a week, another player will - before you know it prices are balloning, and it takes just a couple of dominoes to fall to potentially have a negative affect on any given club.

The point is that, while some of those sponsors/tv deals will go away, they won't disappear into a vacuum with nothing to replace it.

Something/someone will come along and pay for distribution and sponsorship. While it may not be equal to or better than the last deal, it will still be enough money that the market won't crash and player values will plummet. These fees aren't going away. Could they plateau? Certainly. Could they decrease? Nominally over time, sure, but not enough to say "this is not sustainable!" and have it be true. It's a new market and will be this way for the foreseeable future, you have to adjust your scale accordingly.