LONDON -- The owner of a former Premier League club said that the relationship between football club owners and fans can be “extraordinarily difficult” and that some fans do not appreciate the success of their clubs.
League Championship side Barnsley Owner Patrick Cryne said, "I think it's extraordinarily difficult, the relationship with the fans. If you take, say, Everton, Everton have never been out of the Premier League. They have always punched around their weight or above their weight. And yet, the fans decided that the ownership needed to be changed because they should be doing like Chelsea, Manchester City, and so on. The relationship that exists between the owners and the fans is actually quite tough. Sometimes, I think an owner is doing a great job but the fans don’t appreciate it. So, it’s a very complex relationship."
Cryne was speaking at the Leaders Sport Business Summit on Wednesday alongside Steve Kaplan, the American co-owner of Premier League side Swansea City, who described the relegation of sides in English football as a “frightening prospect.”
Kaplan said: “It’s one thing to know it, it’s another thing to live it. It’s a frightening prospect and it can have a very significant impact not only on your decisions as a owner, but you can see it impact your organization. You also feel a tremendous sense of responsibility. There is a huge responsibility to being an owner of a Premier League team. And it does affect decision-making.”
As an example, he pointed to how the threat of relegation can stop teams from blooding and developing young players. "It’s very hard to play young players when the result of working with the learning curve could result in your team being relegated out of the division you are in," he said.
Cryne, who is terminally ill, is reportedly selling Barnsley to a consortium including Chinese businessman Chien Lee, American investor Paul Conway and Oakland A's Exec VP Billy Beane. Questioned about placing the value of a football club when put up for sale, Cryne said, “It’s extraordinarily difficult. You can’t use normal valuation metrics. It really comes down to how attractive the prospect of owning a football club is to a potential buyer.”
Leaders is owned and operated by American City Business Journals.
John Reynolds is a writer in London.
