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Short story (thread) on the actual value of the Championship play-off final vs what it's said to be worth, a tale that involves Ricardo Vaz Tê, Sam Allardyce, Blackpool and why a single game of football is *the* epitome of a "Sliding Doors" fixture in sport.
19 May 2012, and Sam Allardyce's West Ham are playing Ian Holloway's Blackpool at Wembley in a one-off game - said to be worth £90m - for a place in the Premier League. Vaz Tê scores an 87th-minute 2-1 winner for the Hammers. The Sliding Doors moment.
Here we are, 7 years on, and Blackpool have been to the 4th tier since then, their fans in perpetual turmoil, & to the brink, but never back to the PL. West Ham, meanwhile, have had 7 straight PL seasons and, some blips not withstanding, are a top-half club
One can easily argue the Sliding Doors fixture of the 2012 Championship play-off altered the course of both clubs' history. Here's the 'proof': we now know, all these years later, the 2012 Champ play-off wasn't worth £90m to West Ham, but more than £1bn. 
£1.01 BILLION ... and counting. The amount of EXTRA money that West Ham have earned for being in the Premier League as a result of winning the 2012 Championship play-off final vs losing that game. Sliding Doors.
And yes, of course going up to the PL comes with drawbacks, and expenses. Most of this new money ends up being spent on expensive players and massive wages. But. It doesn't have to. It can be a positive. It can be transformative.
Which is all a different way of saying that Villa v Derby in the play-off might be worth £170m. But almost certainly it will be more. And possibly it will change the destiny of a club, a city, a set of fans. No pressure then.
