Little did I know when I highlighted this issue last week and promised to return to it quickly that it would be quite this quickly! I commended the piece by the football finance blogger Swiss Ramble on City's finances, and did him the courtesy of letting him know I'd quoted his conclusion. He responded with a gracious note letting me know that he was putting the finishing touches to something I'd probably be very interested in. It duly appeared, and I was. So will you be if you're interested in this kind of subject.
Moreover, it's saved me from a good deal of work. Entitled 'How Manchester City Could Break Evern', his latest piece, as the Ronseal bloke from those ads on the telly would say, does exactly what it says on the tin. He doesn't claim that it will be easy, but his central thesis is that break even isn't quite the complete impossibility for City that the vast losses revealed in the recently released accounts would suggest. As ever, I wholeheartedly commend his work. It has the added bonus for City fans of allowing us to be cautiously optimistic.
The Sportcity development is one of the points in his ten point plan. As he notes, "include training facilities for a number of sports, conference halls, a luxury hotel and restaurant. Although there will obviously also be high costs associated with this project, it should still provide very healthy profits." I think that the eventual development - with the City Council trailing a visitor attraction that will attract 3 million visitors annually but some estimates suggesting twice this is a realistic figure - will probably be more impressive, though what will be in place for accounting periods from which financial figures will be considered by UEFA is, I suppose, another question.
Nevertheless, it's interesting to note that the strategic importance of the Sportcity development to the Sheikh's plan hasn't gone unnoticed beyond a small coterie of interested City fans. No doubt at some point the media will catch on too.
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