This may all be of limited interest to this group, but I'd note that like most sports, this now-dead league (48 hours alive!) was created with TV front of mind. Selling the rights to some broadcaster for even more money than current deals deliver.
All six English league clubs pulled out yesterday, including my club Arsenal. At least one Spanish and two Italian clubs had pulled out at time of writing. A league of three teams won't be much fun. The proposed league had managed that rare thing of getting football fans, players, coaches, football authorities, TV pundits, politicians of every hue, and most of the wider population, all in general agreement that was terrible and should be fought. That's quite a remarkable feat to achieve! Sports fans rarely agree on anything! I imagine there will be books written about this. Meanwhile, I think a few mostly American owners (Hello to the Glaziers, Kroenkes and Fenway Sports Group) have had their fingers burnt, and are likely to face legislative action that prevents a similar move happening in the future. It's an easy win for any government to enable. In Germany, for example, clubs have to be 51% owned by fans. That was the reason that no German clubs were in this league. This is perhaps a reminder that while sport is theoretically similar across the world, the closed shop league structure familiar to most major US sports fans, and very profitable for teams'* billionaire owners, is not much loved elsewhere. Simply put, the backlash here was about the right to lose, and there to be consequences for that loss. You need to understand that this was not just sports news in the UK - this lead headlines and dominated the conversation for the last 48 hours. Even today, most newspapers either lead with the collapse of the league or at least gave it second billing to the George Floyd trial result. Adam * I say "teams" but of course in US parlance, "franchise" is more accurate. And I think those two words explain how the US owners failed to understand the toxicity this move was likely to cause them. They will never recover. Fans will hate them until they divest themselves of these clubs. On Tue, Apr 20, 2021 at 11:38 PM Brad Beam <b.b...@suddenlink.net> wrote: > Update: Of the six Premier League candidates announced yesterday, today > only Chelsea FC is left kicking collie bollocks. > > > > *From:* tvornottv@googlegroups.com [mailto:tvornottv@googlegroups.com] *On > Behalf Of *Kevin M. > > > > >I could only care less if it was cricket > > > > > On Mon, Apr 19, 2021 at 8:39 PM Brad Beam <b.b...@suddenlink.net> wrote: > > While the idea of top-tier football teams in leagues across Europe forming > a "Super League" is being continentally denounced, British Jimmy begs > Americans to care. > > https://twitter.com/i/status/1384333967113932800 > > > > (When reached for comment, the New York Yankees reminded everyone that > the Red Sox are behind this - Fenway Sports Group also owns Liverpool FC - > while the NCAA's Power 5 football conferences responded tersely: "Yes. > And?") > > > > _ _ > > |_>|_> Brad Beam- Belle WV > > |_>|_> http://www.facebook.com/74bmw > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/000001d73596%24ce4fecf0%246aefc6d0%24%40suddenlink.net > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/000001d73596%24ce4fecf0%246aefc6d0%24%40suddenlink.net?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > > -- > > Kevin M. (RPCV) > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKgmY4Db7XSfgbMXyUnW8GwFrpsWg%2BsGFJBnXgRCPt2GNm_OfA%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKgmY4Db7XSfgbMXyUnW8GwFrpsWg%2BsGFJBnXgRCPt2GNm_OfA%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/00dc01d73635%24e18ade20%24a4a09a60%24%40suddenlink.net > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/00dc01d73635%24e18ade20%24a4a09a60%24%40suddenlink.net?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAD_sJGAcEDf93mOOT7Tx9Vx4u_Ybfgw8_YkmokN4OFQzfXFJ_Q%40mail.gmail.com.
