All promotions are good, but Pompey’s is very well timed...
There’s never a bad time to win promotion, but some years are better than others. In that respect, Pompey couldn’t really have timed their League One promotion any better.
Off the field, they will benefit from the record five-year deal with Sky Sports worth £935m that kicks in next season and will see at least 24 of their 46 Championship games broadcast live in 2024-25.
On it, they have left behind a third tier which looks highly competitive next season, and that’s putting it mildly. I politely suggest they have dodged a bullet here.
Pompey’s promotion means they have avoided league games against Wrexham, who the world and his wife knows are owned by Hollywood A-listers Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mcelhenney.
But those in charge at Stockport and Mansfield - the two clubs newly promoted alongside Wrexham - are hardly skint.
The CEO of Mansfield Carolyn Radford - is said to be worth more than £150m.
She lives in a 10-bed mansion complete with a helicopter landing pad and swimming pool. She once appeared on a TV programme called Billionaire Babies which I have never watched and have no plans to either. At Stockport, Mark Stott - a successful local businessman - took over in early January when the club were in nonleague football and personally cleared a near £8m debt.
Next season Stockport will face Wycombe, hardly a glamorous club themselves but who have recently been taken over by Kazakhstan businessman Mikheil Lomtadze, whose wealth is estimated at more than $5.5 billion. Crikey.
"Our goal is to achieve longterm success whilst building a financially sustainable club,” Lomtadze, a technology entrepreneur, has said.
The Eisners will no doubt be nodding their heads in agreement.
Elsewhere, Birmingham (Tom Wagner) and Huddersfield (Kevin Nagle) have wealthy
The CEO of Mansfield once appeared on a TV programme called Billionaire Babies
American businessmen as chairmen. Unlike the Eisners, though, they have recently overseen a relegation.
Wagner has plans to build a 60,000 seater stadium for Birmingham. For his sake, he can’t afford to spend as long in League One as Pompey did...