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It's not for the people who go to the stadiums, it's for the TV audience, increasingly the American TV audience at that. We get the 'it's everyone's game' banners on TV here when the 'premeer league' comes on. It's marketing itself - very successfully, I should add* - to the kind of middle-class, educated demographic that traditionally doesn't follow the NFL very closely.

 

This isn't to say that the Premier League is ignoring its core market. The UK TV deal still dwarves all the other deals put together. But it's very much a captive audience over there, while the US and China, among others, are ripe for growth. The Chinese don't care about this stuff of course, but they have all the betting ads.

 

*soccer is the second most popular sport with those under 30

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American sports seem to be pretty much driven by Rednecks, maybe with the exception of Ice Hockey which seems more Canadian dominated.

 

Anyway, I tried googling and saw the blurb about the Premier League being for everyone. Aye, that is unless you support someone as shite as Aston Villa.

 

However, it begs the question - why isn't there a public campaign to kick Paedophile Coaches out of Football? I think that is a far more serious issue.

 

If there is - why isn't it more high profile, with loads of charity funding and government money being splurged on that? I think football clubs and authorities should get their own house in order before they start telling their paying customers how to behave.

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Because large industries and organizations tend to look after their own, be it professional football, the Roman Catholic Church, the US Congress, you name it. And it's much easier to moralize about things like this when there's a queue of other large industries ready to throw money at it to rainbow-wash their own records.

Rednecks here are largely unwelcome at professional sports. I doubt it's news over there but there's a minor (it was major a few weeks ago) kerfuffle about some players (mostly black) refusing to stand for the national anthem, some choosing to kneel, in order to protest racism in the US. The entire mainstream media applauded this while, predictably, the working-class, mostly white fans of the NFL took this as an affront against all they stand for etc etc. The upshot is that the NFL's ratings decline, already pretty severe, has become increasingly severe, while 'attendance' at most of the stadiums is down precipitously. (The NFL counts tickets sold and since most teams sell season tickets years in advance most games are sold out, but in terms of bums on seats there are real struggles. And NFL food/drink sales, not to mention parking, are very lucrative.) The likes of ESPN, also already struggling, are now taking a massive hit on the sum they paid for live coverage a few years ago, exacerbating the layoffs they're already making. Rumor has it they're about to cut payroll by $80m. Now, a lot of this is systemic - cord-cutting and the like - but there is outrage among the proles that 'their' sport and 'their' network now comprises people who hate them. Whether or not you agree with them, the bottom line is clear: the NFL is in a state of contraction because its traditional audience is both abandoning the technology and feeling alienated by the product. The NFL and ESPN's gamble, I assume, is that a new audience will emerge to take their place. I don't think this will happen.

 

That said, there are still many redneck-friendly sports in the US, such as NASCAR (itself struggling greatly despite having none of these political woes) and to a lesser extent college football. Baseball, too, comes and goes in popularity but despite rampant drug abuse and shadiness it somehow manages to keep on muddling along.

 

You're right about hockey - the TV deal in Canada is worth more than that of the US despite its much smaller population. But it has an extremely profitable niche here. Hockey fans in the US tend to be rabid supporters, very loyal, and curiously enough richer than fans of most other sports. They're also overwhelmingly white, whereas (American) football and basketball cut across racial lines.

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Interesting thoughts as ever.

 

The NFL 'protests' have made the news over here, the news slant seems to be sympathetic towards the black players and the Scottish-American President Trump's intervention also made the news too. I would be lying if I said I was following it closely.

 

Also, I saw an episode of South Park recently were the disabled characters (Jimmy, Timmy, Nathan, Mimsy) were breeding Seamonkeys and the NFL were buying them up to boost their audience figures.

 

Ice Hockey seems like the sanest of all the North American sports, it is also growing in popularity over here. Braehead Clan, from my home town who play in the EHIL, regularly get bigger crowds than St.Mirren for example.

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Jimmy is one of the best characters on TV.

 

Hockey just bores the piss out of me. Any sport where you can take the puck/ball behind the goal is pointless. I'm walking distance from the American Airlines Center, where the Dallas Stars play, but unless a ticket was given to me for free it wouldn't occur to me to go.

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Jimmy is one of the best characters on TV.

 

Hockey just bores the piss out of me. Any sport where you can take the puck/ball behind the goal is pointless. I'm walking distance from the American Airlines Center, where the Dallas Stars play, but unless a ticket was given to me for free it wouldn't occur to me to go.

Funnily enough, I feel that way about American Football and Baseball. Watching one of the games is akin to watching Paint drying, or worse still, Cricket.

 

I like Ice Hockey however I don't think I could ever become emotionally invested in it. However, it's good to idle your brain watching it with a beer. Braehead Clan have a bit of a "Livvy" feel about them with their Supporters Club and canned entertainment, however some sides like Fife and Dundee clubs attract mentalists who are sort of similar to Wrestlemania nutjobs. They are fun to watch too, especially when they go off their nuts about something which I personally don't care about.

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American football I find mostly boring, baseball I can't sit through a whole game unless it's the playoffs or I'm physically at the ballpark, but one thing baseball does extremely well is its lore. No sport, not even cricket or football, has the depth of recorded history that baseball possesses. Baseball is also a sport that historically had a lot of characters. From its origins through to the mid-60s, baseball is utterly fascinating to read about, even if sitting through a game is dull. The sheer depth of writing and statistical recording of baseball is impressive, and aside from maybe boxing in the early 20th century no sport has come close to its cultural impact in the US (nor, I would argue, elsewhere. For all that football does have cultural resonance in most places it's played, I think early baseball simply had more. This includes dumb non-events like the 'football war' in central America.)

 

Funny you should mention Wrestlemania. That is the 'redneck' sport in the way that a British person would understand the word*. The heart of Trump's voter base has more love for professional wrestling than for almost any other pastime. It's not a coincidence that Trump is the first President - but not the last - to have appeared as himself in the WWE. 

 

*white, suburban or semi-rural, non-college educated, eats boxed mac and cheese and drinks Mountain Dew, goes to a Southern Baptist or evangelical church, drives a pickup. That kind of thing. 'Redneck' in the US has a much narrower definition and often isn't a perjorative, often being self-applied. But in the UK, as I understand it, it's basically an insult for 'lumpenproletarian white'. This is the core audience of professional wrestling - what's left of the white working and lower-middle class.

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American football I find mostly boring, baseball I can't sit through a whole game unless it's the playoffs or I'm physically at the ballpark, but one thing baseball does extremely well is its lore. No sport, not even cricket or football, has the depth of recorded history that baseball possesses. Baseball is also a sport that historically had a lot of characters. From its origins through to the mid-60s, baseball is utterly fascinating to read about, even if sitting through a game is dull. The sheer depth of writing and statistical recording of baseball is impressive, and aside from maybe boxing in the early 20th century no sport has come close to its cultural impact in the US (nor, I would argue, elsewhere. For all that football does have cultural resonance in most places it's played, I think early baseball simply had more. This includes dumb non-events like the 'football war' in central America.)

 

Funny you should mention Wrestlemania. That is the 'redneck' sport in the way that a British person would understand the word*. The heart of Trump's voter base has more love for professional wrestling than for almost any other pastime. It's not a coincidence that Trump is the first President - but not the last - to have appeared as himself in the WWE. 

 

*white, suburban or semi-rural, non-college educated, eats boxed mac and cheese and drinks Mountain Dew, goes to a Southern Baptist or evangelical church, drives a pickup. That kind of thing. 'Redneck' in the US has a much narrower definition and often isn't a perjorative, often being self-applied. But in the UK, as I understand it, it's basically an insult for 'lumpenproletarian white'. This is the core audience of professional wrestling - what's left of the white working and lower-middle class.

The bit in bold, I'm intrigued. Thats a bit of a bold statement, especially as professional baseball as a sport has struggled to transcend the national boundaries of the USA. The cultural impact of Football throughout the world is not to be underestimated, which im sure that you know. However I know you wouldn't have made a statement like that lightly, so I'm keen to know more...

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Sorry, I phrased that badly. I mean that no sport in any single country was as culturally relevant as baseball used to be in the US, but no longer is. In terms of the entire planet, yes, it's football by a mile. But in a single country I can't think of somewhere that's been so touched by a sport as the US was by baseball, up until the late 50s.

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Funnily enough, I feel that way about American Football and Baseball. Watching one of the games is akin to watching Paint drying, or worse still, Cricket.

 

I like Ice Hockey however I don't think I could ever become emotionally invested in it. However, it's good to idle your brain watching it with a beer. Braehead Clan have a bit of a "Livvy" feel about them with their Supporters Club and canned entertainment, however some sides like Fife and Dundee clubs attract mentalists who are sort of similar to Wrestlemania nutjobs. They are fun to watch too, especially when they go off their nuts about something which I personally don't care about.

I've been at a few Dundee Stars games and they have ranged from boring apart from a fight near the end to entertaining with a dramatic equaliser in the dying seconds followed by overtime and penalties. Will always prefer football but Hockey is a decent way to spend a couple of hours. Absolutely detest cricket and have no interest at all in American Football or Baseball.

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I've been at a few Dundee Stars games and they have ranged from boring apart from a fight near the end to entertaining with a dramatic equaliser in the dying seconds followed by overtime and penalties. Will always prefer football but Hockey is a decent way to spend a couple of hours. Absolutely detest cricket and have no interest at all in American Football or Baseball.

That's pretty much my thoughts on it.

 

A few years ago when they formed there was alsorts of cheap entry deals to Braehead Clan, however nowadays there are none but they still attract crowds similar to many SPFL clubs. They attract many students, ex-pat Canadians and Americans who love Ice Hockey and just ordinary families who have grown to love the game and team over the past 5 or 6 years.

 

I saw a couple of pre-season games a few months back, one against a touring Canadian third tier side who absolutely horsed them 7-1; and another against a German side who beat them 5-1. I can tell that it's nowhere near the best of quality as far as Ice Hockey goes, but you are right that is a good way to spend a few hours if the TVs crap.

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I've been to a fair few Braehead games with some mates who are much more in to it than me, but have enjoyed myself. I think it's best to grab a beer or two, try to pick up the rules (broadly speaking) and shout at the ref a bit.

 

The one thing about it I really can't get behind is a bunch of Scots talking about 'dee-fence'...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry, I phrased that badly. I mean that no sport in any single country was as culturally relevant as baseball used to be in the US, but no longer is. In terms of the entire planet, yes, it's football by a mile. But in a single country I can't think of somewhere that's been so touched by a sport as the US was by baseball, up until the late 50s.

Back to NFL, I've noticed recently in the UK there is a lot of increased coverage and even BBC shows a few times a week, Sky Sports and even coverage on Talksport. Why is that if it's falling in popularity? Are they getting the rights on the cheap?

 

Also,

 

Flicking through the TV just now I've came across a live football match on an Indian channel - Bengaluru vs Chennai- one of whom are managed by the legendary Villa manager that is John Gregory. I know you are right into these obscure leagues, is it a decent standard?

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Just watched about 15 mins now, big stadium and a massive crowd who seem very enthusiastic, loads of big brand advertising so it looks fairly affluent, TV cuts to show pics of cars parked trackside in a product placement thingy going on.

 

The standard of Football looks dreadful, blatant hand balls, losing possession very easily, foreigners diving like they'd been shot. It's so bad it's good. :D

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I don't think it's falling in popularity in the UK. In the US the slide has been ongoing for a few years now but it's from an extremely high peak - it's still far and away the most profitable televised sporting event here, not just on a per-game basis but overall. You're talking in excess of $5bn a year. Major League Baseball makes around a third of that, despite playing around 2,400 games to the NFL's 256. There is the feeling in the US that the 'legacy' audience has been tapped out, hence the desire to break into new markets both domestically (women, minorities) and internationally. The current NFL deal runs through to 2022 and I imagine that they are doing a Hollywood - scrambling to get a global audience to augment (or in this case replace) those they are struggling to get at home. It's far, far too early to tell but if the deal was renegotiated today, instead of 2022, there's no way it would be sold for the same amount. It would be less. Hence the desire for foreign viewers. (This is why Hollywood films extra scenes with Chinese actors to slot into the Chinese release, because foreign box office is more and more important.)

 

I've only watched a couple of ISL games. I was not impressed by the quality of play, but football is very much a niche sport in India (popular in Kolkata and not many other places) and has a lot of opportunity for growth. As you say, the crowd is well into it and they seem to have done a decent job with team ownership, with a lot of cricketing and Bollywood figures being involved to make the adjustment a bit easier for the burgeoning Indian middle class. I mentioned Indian football very briefly in this post. I've watched several I-League games over the past decade and it is monstrously bad. Amateur and part-ime players in Europe could (and occasionally do) carve out very good careers in that league. The ISL is a bit better owing to the fact that they can sign more foreigners and bring in the cream of the Indian crop. But it's worth remembering that the best player in India a few years ago, Sunil Chhetri, couldn't hack the Portuguese 2nd Division or Major League Soccer. Shades of when Celtic signed that absolute haddie from China and he sold the jerseys against Clyde. But as an 'entertainment product' with ample scope for growth I think the ISL has a lot of potential. Like MLS it needs to grow slowly* but there is an audience there. As to its quality this year, no idea, haven't watched it this year. 

 

*MLS is expanding too quickly and is now at critical mass, IMO.

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I knew you'd be the man to ask about the Indian Super League. It has given me the idea to become a football agent and see if I could land a deal for VikingTon over there. :D

 

Regards the MLS, the games I've seen in recent times it seems like a decent standard. I don't know why more Scots players don't give that a shot instead of the English lower leagues,

 

I would imagine playing for, say, Montreal Impact, DC United or FC Dallas would have decent money but also a far greater standard of living than the likes of Luton Town or Rotherham would provide.

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I used to follow Asian football very closely for professional reasons. On the subject of dodgy agents, I was once given a serious offer to help hype certain players from a certain Asian country due to another writer's connections with agent(s) there. I said no. This was wise because I don't think the agent had anyone good on his books. (Oh, and it was the right thing to do n'at.)

 

The reason is the pay in MLS, except for the absolute top players, is absolutely crap compared to England. A few years ago George John, one of the better defenders in MLS prior to his serious injury, was earning less at FC Dallas than he would if he were, say, an electrician or a Home Depot store manager. All MLS salary data is public, see here: https://mlsplayers.org/salary-guide/ . Certainly standard of living can be very good (FCD are based in Frisco, a wealthy Dallas suburb, and you can live in American middle-class bliss there fairly cheaply) but if even relatively high-profile players like Tesho Akindele are earning five figures*, you can see why Europe is a bigger draw.

 

*to be clear, Tesho earns $95k, which is a very comfortable middle-class income in the US, and I don't want to sound like Ed and make out like it's pennies. I mean only in comparison to England, where even in the second tier that would be considered a pittance. The highest-paid player at FCD, Roland Lamah (ex-Anderlecht, Osasunsa, Ferencvaros) earns $600k a year, or around £9k a week. Good money, absolutely - but it would make him a squad player at most Championship sides. Then at the other end of the scale the likes of Sebastian Giovinco at Toronto are on megabucks.

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