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What would you do if you ran a football club that sat well outside of the top tier of the sport?

The Premier League is clearly the place to be. There’s a big drop - in terms of money and attention - when you step down to the Championship. And even more when you go down to League One and League Two.

Everyone who wants it has access to watch the Premier League. Thanks to modern telly you can watch the best teams and the best games, regardless of where in the world you live.

So why is anyone going to come to your League Two games?

There’s an attraction to watching your local side, no matter what quality you’re going to see. There’s also something to be said for watching a game in person. And there are people who will prefer watching a lower-league side - closer to the action, less pretentious players, more local players, etc.

But the attendance figures in League Two will tell you that there’s only so many people who are motivated to watch their local side. And no ground ever gets more than half-full.

So what else could you try? Here’s what I would do:

Commit my club to producing the best local talent. Hire some good coaches who can work with kids and young adults. Commit to playing the younger players in the league, maybe even to the point of putting an upper limit of 24 on the age of players.

It’s all about branding, so I’d promote the club to fans as the place to come to see the future of English football. I’d promote the club to players as the place to learn the trade, where you’ll get plenty of playing time in order to develop, and we’ll not stop you should a bigger club come calling.

From a business point-of-view, I should be all set as I’d not have to pay much in wages, which is always the biggest outgoing for any football club.

Now, if I ran the whole league, I’d get every club committed to this model. An entire league dedicated to producing the cream of English football. It would get a following from future-watchers who want to see the best young talent the country has to offer. I’d even move the games to, say, Thursday nights or Friday nights, when there will be little competition from the bigger leagues. People who were sick of the antics of the superstars in the Premier League would be drawn in.

At this point you may be shaking your head and saying that will never catch on. But what I’m proposing is actually pretty similar to college football (egg-shaped variety) in the USA. And it’s hugely popular - not because the players are better than their NFL counterparts, but because (a) you get to see future stars, (b) it’s a team you have some affinity for, (c) the games are more attractive to watch because the kids haven’t learned to be cynical yet.

In the US, there are twice as many people going to a college Division One game than going to an NFL game. They’re obviously doing something that is attracting people. It’s certainly not a second-rate league.

Now that the ‘best’ can be everywhere, the ‘not best’ crowd have to find their own niche. I think this would work will for lower-league football in the UK.

Update: See this follow-up article.