Letter in the NLP

There's a letter in today's  issue regarding the automatic promotion to the football league being stopped, and I think the sender has got this 100% spot on.
He starts by saying any club that cannot average more than 2500 fans should not be in the football league, and that teams like Grimsby, luton, and stockport, should replace the dagenhams, morecombe, Barnet, etc, staight away, with future promotion depending on a top two finish and sufficient support.

He goes on to say, and this is the part that I really agree with, is that it would be a travesty if the likes of Bradford, Plymouth, Northampton, end up in the conference whilst the smaller clubs remain, including possibly fleetwood, southport, etc, attracting less than 1500 crowds in div2.

He finishes by saying he wants the conference to be again what it was originally intended for, the place for the top non league clubs and those who aspire to be.

Anyone care to disagree?

The whole point of sport in my opinion is that promotion and relegation is only decided on the pitch. i.e. you get the most points you win the league and thus promotion.

Only on the grounds of your stadia not being fit for purpose should promotion be denied

Whilst good support is important, what do you do in a situation like last season when Crawley walked the league? Ultimately football is a result based business, and promotion etc should be based on that alone.

I totally disagree with the letter. What would be the incentive for teams to get promoted from non-league, and why should teams like Town, Luton, Bradford and Plymouth have an automatic right to be in the Football League just because they used to be good, or have a good history. It's what you are doing now that is the most important thing in football.

Quoted from BlackBoots

The whole point of sport in my opinion is that promotion and relegation is only decided on the pitch. i.e. you get the most points you win the league and thus promotion.

Only on the grounds of your stadia not being fit for purpose should promotion be denied

So on that basis you would be quite happy for moneymen bankrolling a club like say Whitby town or north ferriby united etc, as a hobbie, clubs that couldn't dream of crowds over 1000, and then going on to replace proud traditional league clubs?
It would just be wrong for me, like I said there needs to be a line drawn.

Next thing is you'll have the Premier League clubs not wanting smaller teams in their little cartel. Football must always be a meritocracy, otherwise it just becomes a contrived gameshow. NFL anyone? thought not.

Quoted from 2578

So on that basis you would be quite happy for moneymen bankrolling a club like say Whitby town or north ferriby united etc, as a hobbie, clubs that couldn't dream of crowds over 1000, and then going on to replace proud traditional league clubs?
It would just be wrong for me, like I said there needs to be a line drawn.

If the 'proud traditional club' deserves to be relegated based on performance, and Whitby Town or any club deserve to get promoted through performance then yes. The amount of money being put into a club is irrelevant, if they have more points than every team in their league they deserve to go up.

Quoted from codhead91

Whilst good support is important, what do you do in a situation like last season when Crawley walked the league? Ultimately football is a result based business, and promotion etc should be based on that alone.

By setting a 2500 average minimum Crawley would then have has to give insentives to the local public to draw them in and raise the gate, reduced ticket prices etc, after all it's not like they couldn't afford to.

Would you agree with this if we were in the Championship averaging 5500 about 10000 less than most clubs up there?

Quoted from BlackBoots

The whole point of sport in my opinion is that promotion and relegation is only decided on the pitch. i.e. you get the most points you win the league and thus promotion.

Only on the grounds of your stadia not being fit for purpose should promotion be denied

TOTALLY AGREE. If we never get out of this league it's our own fault. Hats off to the likes of Accrington, Barnet even Scunthorpe who have poor attendances and low wages but still do well and stay in the league.