Thanks to my top 10 referrers for November 08:
1. Soccer Blogs.net
2. Georgia Soccer Forum
3. Street Soccer Indoor
4. Emerald City Supporters
5. World Club Rankings
6. Big Soccer
7. Letters From Vagabondia
8. Sports Blogs
9. Tonyajk's Journal
10. Top 100 Soccer
10 December 2008
08 December 2008
Will a European city host an American sports franchise?
According to an article in the Guardian, Tim Leiweke who runs AEG, the entertainment company who own LA Galaxy, thinks that there will be European based team in an American sports league within the next two years.
I think Tim Leiweke may have been hitting the egg nog a bit when he made this prediction.
The Premiership is the only league in the world that could support a team outside of its home area, and even then - if you looked at it from a pure business perspective, I doubt a team would succeed outside of England.
The global popularity of EPL is largely a result of the global fan base of four major clubs: Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Arsenal.
Of course the rest of the clubs have their share of global fans, but the vast majority of fan passion that sustains a domestic league is a function of both location and proximity. There is a reason why city derbys are so popular - it's the same reason why inter conference games in NCAA gridiron are more passionate. There's no hate quite like neighbor hate.
Unless you have some kind of Cold War thing going on, by placing an ocean between teams, you dilute the passion. The exception to that rule is of course the World Cup, where every country gets a shot at the biggest prize in sports, but that's a single tournamenet, not an ongoing enterprise.
I can't speak for Europe, but for the places I've lived outside the US, US based team sports have absolutely zero following...so unless you base a team in an American sports league on foreign soil next to a large US military base, I can't see it working.
I think Tim Leiweke may have been hitting the egg nog a bit when he made this prediction.
The Premiership is the only league in the world that could support a team outside of its home area, and even then - if you looked at it from a pure business perspective, I doubt a team would succeed outside of England.
The global popularity of EPL is largely a result of the global fan base of four major clubs: Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, and Arsenal.
Of course the rest of the clubs have their share of global fans, but the vast majority of fan passion that sustains a domestic league is a function of both location and proximity. There is a reason why city derbys are so popular - it's the same reason why inter conference games in NCAA gridiron are more passionate. There's no hate quite like neighbor hate.
Unless you have some kind of Cold War thing going on, by placing an ocean between teams, you dilute the passion. The exception to that rule is of course the World Cup, where every country gets a shot at the biggest prize in sports, but that's a single tournamenet, not an ongoing enterprise.
I can't speak for Europe, but for the places I've lived outside the US, US based team sports have absolutely zero following...so unless you base a team in an American sports league on foreign soil next to a large US military base, I can't see it working.
03 December 2008
Wednesday December 03, 2008 US East Coast times for televised soccer matches to watch
Courtesy of livesoccertv.com
9:15am Manchester City vs Manchester United Setanta Sports USA, Setanta-Broadband Repeat England Premier League (a good match if you missed it this last weekend)
2:30pm Manchester City vs PSG FSC, FSE, Sportsnet All Live UEFA Cup
2:45pm Watford vs Tottenham Setanta Sports Canada, Setanta Sports USA, Setanta-Broadband Live England Carling Cup
2:45pm Milan vs Lazio ESPN 360, GolTv, GolTV-Canada Live Italy Coppa Italia
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