I used to enjoy watching soccer chat shows but lately I just can't be bothered, because of the focus on the very top. "The Locker Room" on BeIN Sport is the worst offender.
By the thesis of this article, those same clubs would be in trouble in any system. The issue is not promotion/relegation and you're (and perhaps the author, although I don't think it was their point, either) not quite right that it's digitisation (although that's a specific avenue for the instability): the sport of soccer is going through massive disruption. I don't think a mobile app would have saved Bolton: like you said, that's not what is making Tranmere or Dulwich Hamlet or F.C. St. Pauli or Detroit City FC weather this supposed storm. It's the embrace of the hyper local. The selling of atmosphere and not simply relying on the sport to draw the crowd. The problem isn't that the youth or whatever what a digital experience, it's globalization, just everything else. Because you can watch Barca or Liverpool or Juventus week in and week out, non-CL level soccer has to attract followers some other way. This is the same issue that MLS faces and why nobody watches it on TV. It's the same issue USL faces. It's the same issue NPSL faces. I imagine it's the same in Serie B, and Segunda Division, etc. The problem is that, like so many mature businesses, its practitioners are very slow to adapt to the realities of the market around them. A lot of this is because nobody really "knows" the right answer, of course (although I would say this embrace of the local is really good approach) and doing the wrong thing is often viewed worse as clinging to the status quo and hoping things straighten themselves out, even if that's a sinking ship.
Leicester have been a growing force over recent years, I think they are 'doing it right' they are a success story that are (currently) going in the right direction, I think under Brendon Rogers they will be better than under Ranieri, the one time 'dead certs' for relegation are now ready to move on from being an established Premier League club to one ready to challenge for European positions, Manchester United and Chelsea are 'currently' heading in the 'other direction' - but things always change.
I wonder how high the ceiling for LC is fiscally. They're not the poorest team in the Prem by any means, and it's only been a few years since their amazing Premiership championship. There's room for growth in that regard, methinks.
That the business of soccer is going through the same fundamental global disruption that newspapers, libraries, and department stores have either gone through or are going through.
So the article is actually relevant to this thread..........it gets people talking and thinking about the struggles of lower league football......... The reality is that the majority of American soccer fans don't watch the teams below the UCL. Hell, the majority of American soccer fans don't even watch MLS, let alone their "local independent soccer club." That's a huge obstacle to implementing Pro/Rel in the USA.
This is a good explanation. You could easily make the argument that this article is relevant in any thread in Soccer in the USA.
On the contrary. They’re the result of your owner being an idiot managing both your club and his business.
“It’s not outlandish to worry”. Those are classic weasel words. Me thinks it’s time to tot up how many Football League teams have disappeared recently. Oh, not a single one in the last quarter of a century...
And the previous owner who claims he sunk in £18 million. He fired Craig Short 3 months into his first full season because we were only 8th in League One. When he eventually sold up we were 21st in League Two. They are two examples of businessmen who had (emphasis on past tense) run very successful businesses based on their strong personalities and thought they could apply their experience to association football.
All you are doing is illustrating just how poorly Notts County have been run. Hope you get your act together or I can see you slipping further like the team from the place I’m posting this from.
So, you've come full circle. With a lovely catch-22 For the longest time, BigSoccer's usual anti-Pro/Rel suspects have insisted that those of us who want to see #ProRelForUSA should just shut up because the only way you can possibly even talk about Pro/Rel involving anyone is if there are "too many teams." Now, you tell me "pro/rel only works if you keep the top division from getting too big" but since you think "the horse is out of there barn," there still no reason to talk about Pro/Rel? And you wonder why people like me get so exasperated with about 10-12 perpetually anti-Pro/Rel regulars on BS...
So, what does England do? Jettison Pro/Rel? Have The Championship become the equivalent of AAA baseball? Sad for you that even if England actually did just that, there'd still be a huge majority of countries in FIFA that still have Promotion/Relegation as an integral part of their setup. Lower league football fan here who is very well acquainted with the volatility and instability of our closed pyramid. We don't want our lower leagues to become MLS's version of a farm club system. Only MLS snobs in places like LA, NYC, and Chicago fantasize about that. Also, there seems to be a problem/disconnect with the expectations of fans in large "major league" markets. Since the other major leagues in the US are arguably the best in the world in their respective sports, is it any wonder that casual soccer fans in cities oversaturated with major league sports decide MLS isn't really worth their time, especially on TV? MLS has to be more than just the standard wannabe NFL, NBA or MLB. There has been nothing underneath them compared to other sports.... The reality is that we American soccer fans are far more intelligent than that. We are loyal to soccer based on teams that play in the city or market in which we live...
P/R isnot essential to soccer league organisation. It's a necesity for it when many clubs exist so to ensure the best will be in the top league by performance. When things go the other way around, like clubs disappearing, there comes a point that P/R isnot possible anymore. If for instance the "Eredivisie" contains the last 18 professional clubs in the Netherlands and the clubs that are in the tier below it donot want to promote when they have the right to do so, P/R de facto ceases to exist...for that moment. However that isnot the same as a closed league, as that has that situation baked in.
The US is arguably in exactly the position you're describing, though. When MLS started, there were four existing professional clubs that had the financial ability to travel across the US. Right now, with the exception of a handful of major cities, soccer is still unpopular enough that few people are willing to invest enough money in a club to make it capable of playing in a national league (keep in mind that a national league in the US means flying to most away games), without the security of a closed system.
It's a shame that Notts County didn't go bust. Serves them right that they are now non-league because Derek Pavis was an areswipe.