The future of sport: Enthusiastic amateur era over
ENTHUSIASTIC and wealthy owners are no longer enough to ensure sporting clubs succeed, according to experts.
Increasing demands from sporting governing bodies, sponsors and the taxman are just some of the drivers behind a rapidly growing professionalism in the way sports clubs are managed.
The changing environment in which professional sports clubs are operating is considered in a new supplement, The Future of Sport in Yorkshire, published by TheBusinessDesk.com in partnership with FrontRow Legal and Sheffield Hallam University.
A string of high profile financial crises at football clubs have demonstrated the growing tenacity of HM Revenue and Customs in pursuing unpaid tax debts.
According to Robert Wilson, principal lecturer in Sport Business Management at Sheffield Hallam University, in the past clubs have used HMRC flexibility to ease short-term cash flow problems.
“Once the short-term problems turn into long-term ones, clubs cannot meet their national insurance obligations and we begin to hear about winding up orders,” he said.
Clubs are responding by increasingly hiring in-house legal and financial professionals, part of a broader move to professionalism that includes a much stronger focus on exploiting commercial opportunities.
While supporters will naturally focus on the on-the-field results of off-the-field management failure, there can be serious consequences for the individuals concerned.
Richard Cramer, principal at specialist Leeds-based sports law specialist FrontRow Legal, said: “We are coming into an era where running a sports team can no longer be seen as a hobby – and I’ve seen some very successful business people who have bought into a club and then for whatever reason have not stuck to business disciplines.
“In such circumstances, ownership becomes a very expensive season ticket, and in the most extreme instances I have seen, individuals have ended up being banned as directors when things have gone very wrong.”
