Kitman 2207 Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 An American billionaire has invested in English football at an unlikely club - amateur side Bedlington Terriers. The appropriately-named Robert Rich is the 488th richest man in the world, but has eschewed following several of his compatriots into the cauldron of the Premier League by investing in the Northumberland club, who play their football in the ninth tier of the English pyramid. Currently four top-flight clubs - Manchester United, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Sunderland - are under American ownership, but Rich has instead opted for the delights of the STL Northern League Division One. The 69-year-old chairman of the Rich Products Corporation, a food manufacturing and catering empire, was drawn to the area after tracing his family roots there. His wife bought him the title of Lord of Bedlington and he became interested in the local football side. Rich now sponsors the club's shirts, and plans to install a £30,000 electronic scoreboard at the club's home ground. The record attendance at Welfare Park is 2,400 spectators for an FA Cup first round match against Colchester United in 1998. Rich - who owns three baseball teams in the States - said he would not plough obscene amounts of money into the club, and vowed to increase his investment relative to the club's potential. He told local paper The Journal: "I haven't made any promises. Having said that, I would love to see them do well and let them challenge me to increase our participation." Club secretary David Callop is just grateful that Rich's involvement has eliminated the worries surrounding the costs of running the club. He said: "The backing has relieved us of the immediate worries of scraping by. Even at our level, clubs can take some running. For a night match when we might only have 60 or so paying punters, we have to pay £50 for the floodlights and £200 for the officials." However, Callop allowed himself to envisage the Terriers rising up the divisions, and perhaps even surpassing local rivals Blyth Spartans. He said: "In my dream of dreams I would like to see Bedlington step on to the pitch as a League Two side. "Who knows whether that might happen? But we are not splashing the cash on players now, we are slowly improving our ground. "Mr Rich could have bought Manchester United or Liverpool, I would imagine but he would sooner help the underdog." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peasepud 59 Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Spending £30k on a scoreboard Surely that would have been better invested elsewhere in the team/ facilities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wavey Davey 0 Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 10 months time: You're raping my Bedlington family! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Dynamite 7204 Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Bedlington will never get further than the Unibond. Fan base is too small unfortunately. Would be interesting to see how far Blyth could get if they had decent investment though? They seem to be most Newcastle fans non league team of choice, ground can hold 4000 which they managed for the Bournemouth game a couple of years ago, some good history to the club. I wonder if they could sustain a League 2 spot? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shackbleep 0 Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Bedlington will never get further than the Unibond. Fan base is too small unfortunately. Would be interesting to see how far Blyth could get if they had decent investment though? They seem to be most Newcastle fans non league team of choice, ground can hold 4000 which they managed for the Bournemouth game a couple of years ago, some good history to the club. I wonder if they could sustain a League 2 spot? And you call Stevie.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Dynamite 7204 Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Straight from the horses mouth . . . Club secretary David Callop is just grateful that Rich's involvement has eliminated the worries surrounding the costs of running the club. He said: "The backing has relieved us of the immediate worries of scraping by. Even at our level, clubs can take some running. For a night match when we might only have 60 or so paying punters, we have to pay £50 for the floodlights and £200 for the officials." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WDP Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 (edited) Bedlington will never get further than the Unibond. Fan base is too small unfortunately. Would be interesting to see how far Blyth could get if they had decent investment though? They seem to be most Newcastle fans non league team of choice, ground can hold 4000 which they managed for the Bournemouth game a couple of years ago, some good history to the club. I wonder if they could sustain a League 2 spot? Look at it like this right. See when Blyth last played in the Cup they had 600 down Bournemouth, and about ten years ago they got Blackpool away (Blackpool of all places for a weekend) and could only muster 1,000. I was at Scunthorpe v Bed Terr was actually on my 21st birthday en route to a night out in Hull, then back to up to Boro for our game the next day, and Bedlington had over 2,000 fans there so hypothetically they could have the same potential as Blyth. If there's investment there's bandwagon jumpers. I remember song they had that day "say woof woof terriers say woof woof terriers". Edited November 5, 2010 by WDP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WDP Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Bedlington will never get further than the Unibond. Fan base is too small unfortunately. Would be interesting to see how far Blyth could get if they had decent investment though? They seem to be most Newcastle fans non league team of choice, ground can hold 4000 which they managed for the Bournemouth game a couple of years ago, some good history to the club. I wonder if they could sustain a League 2 spot? Blue Star used to be one of the bigger teams when I was younger, they've now folded and we've been along to watch North Shields a few times lately and I tell you what it is, that club will grow because a lot of the star fans are now watching them, although a lot have moved to Gateshead which I find just wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kid Dynamite 7204 Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Bedlington average a 60 home gate, Blyth average 500! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WDP Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Bedlington average a 60 home gate, Blyth average 500! There's three leagues difference though. To be fair Blyth are in a better position to grow straight away with investment, there are Blyth fans who are hardcore who don't give a shit about Newcastle or Sunderland. Ugly fuckers up there though dear me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wavey Davey 0 Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Bedlington average a 60 home gate, Blyth average 500! There's three leagues difference though. To be fair Blyth are in a better position to grow straight away with investment, there are Blyth fans who are hardcore who don't give a shit about Newcastle or Sunderland. Ugly fuckers up there though dear me. Oooooh you bitch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WDP Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Bedlington average a 60 home gate, Blyth average 500! There's three leagues difference though. To be fair Blyth are in a better position to grow straight away with investment, there are Blyth fans who are hardcore who don't give a shit about Newcastle or Sunderland. Ugly fuckers up there though dear me. Oooooh you bitch! Meowwwww Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wavey Davey 0 Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Bedlington average a 60 home gate, Blyth average 500! There's three leagues difference though. To be fair Blyth are in a better position to grow straight away with investment, there are Blyth fans who are hardcore who don't give a shit about Newcastle or Sunderland. Ugly fuckers up there though dear me. Oooooh you bitch! Meowwwww My mam says I'm handsome... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest WDP Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Bedlington average a 60 home gate, Blyth average 500! There's three leagues difference though. To be fair Blyth are in a better position to grow straight away with investment, there are Blyth fans who are hardcore who don't give a shit about Newcastle or Sunderland. Ugly fuckers up there though dear me. Oooooh you bitch! Meowwwww My mam says I'm handsome... Actually the best looking bird I've ever seen was from Blyth, so there a few exceptions and trust me, people from Ashington make people from Blyth look like they're from Beverley Hills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Heard about this and the guy was on the radio last night. Hope it's just a bit of sensible investment to help them out as too much money could actually wreck the club in the long run, if you know what I mean. Sometimes go and watch them with my Dad as it happens (although not for a couple of seasons). Anyway, good luck to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wavey Davey 0 Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Bedlington average a 60 home gate, Blyth average 500! There's three leagues difference though. To be fair Blyth are in a better position to grow straight away with investment, there are Blyth fans who are hardcore who don't give a shit about Newcastle or Sunderland. Ugly fuckers up there though dear me. Oooooh you bitch! Meowwwww My mam says I'm handsome... Actually the best looking bird I've ever seen was from Blyth, so there a few exceptions and trust me, people from Ashington make people from Blyth look like they're from Beverley Hills. Without wanting to get autobiographical I'm not actually from blyth. I just live there (5 mins walk from croft park) and yes, there is a certain amount of 'Hills have Eyes' type folk in the area. So yer not wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shackbleep 0 Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Bedlington average a 60 home gate, Blyth average 500! I've heard that Marco Van Basten is a regular... what a sound bloke he really is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manc-mag 1 Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 10 months time: You're raping my Bedlington family! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenL 0 Posted November 5, 2010 Share Posted November 5, 2010 Bedlington average a 60 home gate, Blyth average 500! There's three leagues difference though. To be fair Blyth are in a better position to grow straight away with investment, there are Blyth fans who are hardcore who don't give a shit about Newcastle or Sunderland. Ugly fuckers up there though dear me. Oooooh you bitch! Meowwwww My mam says I'm handsome... Actually the best looking bird I've ever seen was from Blyth, so there a few exceptions and trust me, people from Ashington make people from Blyth look like they're from Beverley Hills. I'm the exception The lass Andy Carroll battered is from Blyth aswell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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