EPL matches in the USA?
Woodward will be grinning ear to ear.
I can already see the dollar signs in his eyes.
La Liga sign 15-year deal to have games played in the US
- Thread starter Zebs
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Woodward will be grinning ear to ear.
I can already see the dollar signs in his eyes.
I wonder how many fans would travel to a league game abroad? Would make a good trip.
I understand that globalization has changed things a lot but still no. We should never ever play a home game outside of Manchester. If people really want to go and see United play a competitive it's easily done especially for people in the countries that the extra games are proposed i.e - America. Book a flight, buy a ticket, have a few cans and watch a game in Manchester.
I still enjoy watching games because I enjoy watching talented players and the sport in general but I agree with your sentiment somewhat.
I've actually been more and more into the last couple of World Cup's than I have ever been and I've generally not liked international football anywhere near as much as club now I actually like it a lot.
Argh always with this daft point. You're describing a situation in the PL that has existed for a season and a bit. Obviously the team that just won the league at a canter seem dominant if you only look at that season, but the point is that it never lasts for long in the PL, or at least not since United's dominant spell ended.
Over the last six years in the PL: 4 different winners, 7 different teams in the top 2, 7 different teams in the top 3.
Over the last six years in La Liga: 3 different winners, 3 different teams in the top 2, 3 different teams in the top 3.
And putting aside a single Atletico 1st place finish and a single Atletico 2nd place finish, the top 2 has been Barca/Real for 10 seasons, and the trophy hasn't gone to anyone else for 15!
There's simply no argument that La Liga has anything like as much competition at the top as the PL. If Pep goes on to dominate and win the next 8/10 or something then I'll gracefully admit you were right, but it would be polite to wait for that to actually happen instead of pretending it already has.
Cannot be arsed to go through this again as it would turn this thread into another ‘PL is so amazing, La Liga is so ridiculously bad’ discussion.
Any league that has 3 of the top 5 teams in the world is not going to be competitive for the first top 3 places. It is this way in La Liga and it was this way in PL every time there as a properly class team in the league. The times when the league was highly competitive when was there was no team that could be classed as a top European sids.
If we ever sell out like this then that would be the start of the end for me of football.
Why can’t other countries either watch on TV or put resources into their own football infrastructure to try and compete with the best leagues?
I personally just can’t see it happening. Can you imagine the amount of signatures a petition like this would get? Or how season ticket holders of 10+ years would feel if we played a home game abroad against a decent side and they couldn’t see it?
I can’t beleive La Liga actually agreed to this in the first place, I honestly think it’s madness.
One thing I can see happening since it's a massive money grab is this.
Smaller teams with small stadiums like Eibar for example will likely have to play a "home game" against Barca or Real Madrid in LA, NYC, Dallas or some giant stadium and tickets will be crazy priced and will all be snapped up by Messi fanboys or Madrid band-wagoners that don't watch any other La Liga outside Barca-Real so Eibar are basically playing an away game and probably get a tiny profit off what few travelling fans they bring over.
Wouldn't surprise me if Barca and Real did 2-3 away games each to make sure they get sold out stadiums and also less real "away" games.
In reality the only fair and decent way to do it since it's already going to happen is two base the league over here for 2 weeks. Every team plays a home game here and an away game here and to not feck with travel and all the unfairness that comes with it all 20 teams arrive and depart the same day. For example everyone would fly out this Monday (August 20th) and the games would be the weekends of August 25-26th and September 2nd-3rd and then fly back Monday September 4th.
Smaller teams with small stadiums like Eibar for example will likely have to play a "home game" against Barca or Real Madrid in LA, NYC, Dallas or some giant stadium and tickets will be crazy priced and will all be snapped up by Messi fanboys or Madrid band-wagoners that don't watch any other La Liga outside Barca-Real so Eibar are basically playing an away game and probably get a tiny profit off what few travelling fans they bring over.
Wouldn't surprise me if Barca and Real did 2-3 away games each to make sure they get sold out stadiums and also less real "away" games.
In reality the only fair and decent way to do it since it's already going to happen is two base the league over here for 2 weeks. Every team plays a home game here and an away game here and to not feck with travel and all the unfairness that comes with it all 20 teams arrive and depart the same day. For example everyone would fly out this Monday (August 20th) and the games would be the weekends of August 25-26th and September 2nd-3rd and then fly back Monday September 4th.
If season ticket holders who cannot accept that a single game might be played outside every few years, and give up their tickets, well, they will get replaced with other people.
The club/league might also pay the flights and hotel for people who have been season ticket holders for x or whatever years, or for people who go in all away games, etc.
People are making a problem when there is none. And while a few people might give up on United, a few people gave up on United when United was sold from some millionaires they don't knkw to other millionaires they don't know. As far as I am aware, United survived their loss.
Of course it’s a massive problem. The EPL is English footballs identity. If other countries want a piece of the action they should book flights and come watch games here, not the other way around.
Some people just don’t get football mate.
I’d never go again as soon as United started playing home matches abroad.
It will still be English's football identity, even if 2 out of 380 matches (which is around 0.5% of total matches) per year are played outside of England.
Other fans will still come to England in massive numbers to watch other matches. Not much will change on reality, bar getting some extra revenue and possibly millions of new fans. And piss of a few people with superiority complex.
I'm not arguing that the PL is 'better' (entirely subjective anyway), or that the PL teams are as good as the La Liga teams. Wumminator's post mentioned 'dwindling levels of competition.' You disputed that, apparently saying that the PL was less competitive based only on the argument that City won easily last season. Wumminator's point about dwindling competition is unarguably true, both in comparison to the PL, as demonstrated in my last post, and also noticeably in comparison to La Liga's much livelier past. (Take 1995-2005, ten seasons that featured 5 different winners, and 9 different teams in the top 3.)
Peoples feelings would change. And when you say a ‘few people’ I bet you it would be more than just a few. I’m a young fan, and liberal when it comes to foreign players and commercial/money making side of the clubs. But I’m still romantic and the thought of any English team (not just united) playing an EPL game abroad just ruins it a bit for me.
We boast to have the best league in the world. Keep it in England.
I still definitely can’t see this happening. I would hate to proven wrong though.
I can see your point but I just think it's not a good direction in general. The sport makes enough money. Spain could just distribute their TV money more evenly and other teams will be better. This is the league that had Deportivo regularly in title contention, Valencia winning a couple times, Atletico coming from mediocrity to the double then relegated then back up and successful, Sociedad and Sevilla within a hair of winning the league but more and more the financial gap has widened in an unfair manner.
I think English football already has more than enough money and that is having a negative affect due to extortionate fee's. Fair play they have branded the league well and it's global appeal is unbelievable but maybe it's just me being sentimental as fan in my 30's but there's just something that doesn't seem right that all these clubs solutions is to immediately look to their check book for overseas talent rather than on their own doorsteps and academies. I love the what the foreign players bring to the Premier League but to see only 5-6 British players on the field most games is really disconnecting the communities from their local clubs. Shit, some games between top 6 sides you may only see 2-3 British lads playing. More and more money I think means less and less domestic players getting a crack perhaps going abroad for other teams to play them and then English teams come back in and spend fortunes to get their own players back.
I love club football but it's lost most of it's purity.
I want it to happen just for the possibility of the gifs of Liverpool fans' faces as they turn up in Seattle or somewhere, carrier bags in hand, to the news that the game is snowed off.
Latin players prefer Spain due to culture, lifestyle, customs, language etc; but for fans it's generally "Barca or Real?", I think the Premier League is enjoyed more in general compared to the rest of La Liga.
This is almost a certainty IMO.
A few people's feelings changed when United started playing in Europe, and when Sky entered football, and when we became a Plc, and when United was sold to Glazers, etc etc. It didn't have much effect on United. Individuals (even thousands of them) on grand scheme of things, don't mean much.
The league will still be kept at England, even if a couple of games are moved outside of England. People are acting here like the entire league will be send somewhere else, where in all likelihood it will be a couple of games.
I guess it all depends on how things work for La Liga. EPL is by far the best league in the world when it comes to financial decisions and advertising it. The fact that it still hasn't happened, it probably means that they don't see much value on it. If La Liga experiment works, I don't have much doubt that EPL will follow.
Hope Premier League doesn't take this route. I don't really mind money in Football and understand that it is business but this is a step too far. Football is not the same without the local support. There are plenty of other ways to earn money.
Some stats for thought. Last season, Manchester United vs Liverpool only drew in 594,000 US television viewers compared to 1.25 million that watched Club America vs Leon (both Mexican club teams). You could see from the stats that there is money to be made from the US television market.
I dont like it, but it will come. European teams playing not just some glorified friendly games and cup game abroad, but also league and CL games. I would be surprised if they only do a few games here and there. Initially yes, but it will expand, to more continents and more games, no doubt. Football is massively expanding, it is only the logical consequence that this will happen, to all the major leagues and top clubs. Fifa and Uefa are changing quite a lot in recent years, more global, especially Fifa under Infantino is only looking at profit. Even the club world cup will be changed soon, with Infantino wanting to sell the rights of the Nations League and club world cup in the future to some investors, pure madness.. It is a massive money making machine and it wont stop anytime soon. The argument is always to appease the worldwide football community and fanbase, but football loses its soul.
I don't really think this would be much of a big deal. It's very rare that a team gets to play a CL final in their home country, so travelling is always necessary, and it's always incredibly expensive wherever it is because everything has to be done so last minute for the fans that want to go, meaning they're rinsed for hotels and such. We're already seeing teams travel to neutral venues in Russia, Ukraine and now Estonia, so I'm not sure how much of a difference it'd be going to LA or Dubai.
Since the inception of the CL, only 4 teams have played a final in their home country, and only another 8 going back to the first ever European Cup final.
Works for the NFL and is hugely popular with British fans.
And they only get 8 home games a year! Regular season of course
Not that I’m saying I like the idea at all, to any extent.
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Pretty much nail on head
You've given some thoughts on this, nice! As you said, it will be complex to implement and it may kill the competitiveness of the Spanish teams in the C1 for example.
The less and less interest in the pre-seasons here the more and more likelihood is that real games will come. This summers ICC games had way less buzz, less attendances and I'd imagine less people watching on TV.
American fans hate that shit. The owners don't give a shit though.
Crowd would be shit.
clap- clap
DEE-FENSE!!
clap- clap
DEE-FENSE!!
clap- clap
DEE-FENSE!!
I doubt the PL will follow suit. La Liga makes moves like this because they are desperate to have the global reach the PL has.
As someone who's strongly against this La Liga venture, I actually don't think this is a major problem. The CL final is already intended to be at a neutral venue anyway, and a final held in Moscow isn't going to be a much shorter travel for some potential finalists than a destination that's slightly outside Europe, depending on where it is. Plus it would eliminate the possibility of one team inadvertently having home advantage.
You say that, but there were talks of the whole 39th game thing just a few years back.
And the Spanish player's union is pissed about this.
it means exactly the same as now where average players prices go up along with more astronomical wages and agents fees. Clubs already have more money than they know what to with. We couldn't buy Maguire from Leicester this summer, meanwhile fans subscriptions and ticket prices will creep up each year while the clubs print money
Changed my mind, screw this idea.I think what alot of higher uppers forget or not even grasp is that the majority of American fans of clubs in Europe envy the atmosphere generated at the grounds, i have many American friends asking me about attending games and how it's their "dream" to fly to England and attend a game, i was showing a video of my mate at a Nice game and the atmosphere was pretty electric and all my mate who i was showing it to could say "i so wish i was there right now"
You take all that away and plonk it in America, all you get are the dumbass American "Ultras"coming up with stupid chants and it becomes another atmosphereless game in the MLS ... such as. (Credit to the Timbers who do try and make abit of effort)
You take all that away and plonk it in America, all you get are the dumbass American "Ultras"coming up with stupid chants and it becomes another atmosphereless game in the MLS ... such as. (Credit to the Timbers who do try and make abit of effort)
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Pfffft football has lost players before I am sure it can cope without them again .
United's wage bill is higher than Leicester's entire revenue. It won't mean exactly the same.
Plus there are other leagues to raid them of players.
Do you honestly believe that?
Fortunate at this point that Spanish clubs don't fill their teams with Iranians.