[St Charles Owl]

I'm sure the English FA give European entry status to the Capital Cup winners, unlike the Scottish League Cup winners, and it has not done their competition any harm - the possible Euro footie participation is indeed a 'carrot' for a lotta non Premier League clubs to take it seriously and try to win it.
Also the poor state of Scottish footie has been a negatively evolving one and I'd argue the decline goes as far back as 15-20 years ago. Study the Scottish European footie stats and you'll see there's been a gradual decline to the point where we celebrate just winning one initial Euro quali match (barring Celtic with their dollops of money!) these days and all our participating clubs now play quali matches - no more direct qualification because of the consistent losses! How do we redress the prob? Previously discussed in depth, that's a searching question with no easy answers!

There is a whole debate in England about the cup competitions and unfortunately due to the fact that 6-8 teams are chasing the top 4 places, and 8-10 teams are potentially fighting relegation from the prem, both the LC and FAC have seen reserve teams put out by Prem teams deep into the competition!!  But as we stand both winners get Europa League places the following season.

There's so much money in your game - the relegated teams from the PL will get more money than is shared in prize money across the Europa League - none of the bigger teams are really interested in it.  Christ, I'm surprised they are even bothered about the CL these days they have so much cash.  There was a time that was where the money was but not now.  More doled out in parachute payments from your top league than you might win in the group stages.

I still think the CL is worth more to the clubs than just the prize money though, the media exposure and sponsorship opportunities are greatly enhanced for the teams who get into the CL compared to those who do not, and that is reflected in the turnovers of the teams that get in regularly.  Plus, look at the Championship teams, those at or near to the top will also field reserve sides in the cups, we beat Newcastle away in the LC with our second string 11 but lost to Shrewsbury in the FA Cup with the same team, on both occasions we made something like 9 changes form the previous league game.  For us the prize of getting to the Prem far outweighs our desire to do anything in either cup competition!!

Getting out of the championship is the biggest prize in world football though.  From next year guaranteed 90 million for bottom team + at least 60 million in parachute payments.  As you say, add to that the advertising revenue etc got to be a minimum of 200 million.

You could buy every club in Scotland for that amount and have change to got to Wales and Northern Ireland.

Hence why our manager changed the whole team!!!!  He got some stick from fans especially as we lost to Shrewsbury, who then got MU at home in the next round, but I can see why he did it.