Alcorcón v Real Valladolid, Sunday 14th September

CharltonMadrid

Big game tonight live on Spanish TV for Alcorcón playing one of the favourites for promotion.

Valladolid were relegated from the Primera Liga last year and have spent most of their time in the top league, though last time they were at this level a young Diego Costa was playing for them.

Both Alcorcón and Valladolid have won two and lost one from their first three so the winners tonight will be right up amongst the early pace setters.

Updates to follow from 9pm Spanish time as I watch that to round off the footballing weekend. Vamos Alcorcón!

CharltonMadrid

http://tipsterarea.com/match/alcorcon-valladolid-spain-segunda-division-346753

CharltonMadrid

0- 1 Valladolid at half time after a goal from the impressively named Roger.

CharltonMadrid

And that's how it finished at full time.

jac52

What's the level of footy like in that league I've never watched it? And more importantly any decent players we could pinch?

CharltonMadrid

I would say it is a good standard and comparable to the championship but more of a focus on skill than physicality. Maybe a slightly lower level than the championship overall but certainly close.

As for players, this season I have liked the look of Óscar Plano and David Rodríguez, who had a spell at Brighton.

CharltonMadrid

Only 2000 at the Santo Domingo stadium last night, the lowest attendance in the league this weekend (the highest was 30,049 at Real Betis). RD must be disappointed with that after investing in a stadium upgrade in the summer.

Possible factors could be the kick off time (Sunday 9pm), the fact it was live on tv and the cost (cheapest tickets at €20, not particularly accessible in the current economic climate here).

Alcorcón are a city of 170,000 or so on the edge of Madrid but have to compete for fans with the four Madrid La Liga teams. Maybe they need to do a bit more promoting to raise the attendances. If they have any realistic chance of going up (have made the playoffs twice previously) this has got to be a priority for RD.

AFKABartram

I'm a lot more positive now about RD than I was, but I still don't fully get his buying strategy.

@CharltonMadrid‌ on crowds that size they can't be generating much income. Have you any insight in what sort of revenues Alcorcon generate, or what size the wage bill would roughly be ?

MrLargo

AFKABartram said:

I'm a lot more positive now about RD than I was, but I still don't fully get his buying strategy.

@CharltonMadrid‌ on crowds that size they can't be generating much income. Have you any insight in what sort of revenues Alcorcon generate, or what size the wage bill would roughly be ?

As I understand it, with the TV money situation as it is in Spain, where clubs negotiate their own deals, I can't imagine there's any money to be made outside of the top 9 or 10 clubs. I doubt that the likes of Almeria and Rayo Vallecano bring much in on top of their gate receipts and sponsorship deals.

My best guess would be that the likes of Alcorcon and Carl Zeiss Jena are cheap to run in comparison to other clubs playing at similar levels across Europe. Perhaps RD sees these clubs as the Youth Academies of the network. Not there to make money in their own right but to provide player development support to the larger clubs in the network.

Or it could just be some dodgy tax avoidance mechanism. Who knows?

CharltonMadrid

I don't know about revenues but I read that Alcorcón have a budget this year of 4.8 million euros, up from 4.5 last year. This is about average for the second league but is miniscule compared to Real (580 m) and Atlético (140 m).

Interestingly, Madrid's third team Rayo Vallecano have a budget of 7 million euros and an average attendance of around 9000, so perhaps that size is something Alcorcón could aspire to.

TV money is certainly a big deal here but Alcorcón have had two of their four games this season shown live on TV (on public channel). Not as much money as Canal + certainly, but something nonetheless.

Will keep updating with anything else I hear around here or see in the papers. The top selling papers in the country are two football ones (Marca and AS) so there are normally a few titbits on Alcorcón every few days!