When did you have your 13th birthday? Did I miss the invitation within the last few months? Yes, I understand why people see negatives and I see why old traditionalists would laugh at something like this and be apathetic towards it. But the advantages are there for everyone involved and the incentives are obvious.
Exactly. I would have been OK with the idea of a 32 team tier 1 tournament and a 16 team second tournament. That way FIFA could have their 48 teams without that stupid format.
Cant speak to the other countries, but Americans as soccer fans traditionally like to watch their country play rather than other countries, even if in a lesser tournament. They’d rather watch their country compete for some form of title rather than nothing. And from a business POV that’s why this isn’t far fetched. TV partners and federation in the US in particular, but also in the other big countries eliminated unusually, all stand to take a big hit during the WC. And that’s not good for the partners or the federations who made deals based on what we’re expected results. A lesser tournament like this could help them all offset those losses. Which were and are considerably more than ever before. Fox in the US alone is losing at least $20 million after the US was eliminated. Never mind the loss of other big name staples like Italy.
From what I've heard and what I'd expect I can't see that hold true for any European country (regardless of if they qualified or not). Sure the WC viewing numbers is likely to be lower than expected in Italy/Netherlands but I can't see a friendly tournament such as suggested have any real interest, likely less than what the normal pre-WC friendlies would have got tbh and certainly not enough to warrant any TV deals that would make up for what their FA's lost by not qualifying. I can certainly see why the USSF and other FA's would like to get some sort of pay-out from a TV deal now that they aren't going to the WC. But I can't see any Euro based network pay any sort of substantial fee for rights to show it in Europe, there just won't be enough interest to warrant paying any more than what the normal pre-WC friendlies would have cost. And while I can see ESPN or some other US broadcaster being interested in paying for the US TV rights I think that the USSF and FIFA should be very vary of the long term impacts of it. Fox is pissed enough that they have paid big money for a tournament that now won't include the US. And then whatever interest there is left will be even more eroded by this new tournament? Yea that won't go down well. And even though someone will pay for the new tournament you can be sure they all will watch closely for the fall-out for Fox and then factor that into any future negotiations. There won't be much goodwill or trust left towards the USSF from the broadcasters and future FIFA TV deals might also take a hit. But I guess the short term butthurt from missing the WC will cancel out any long term thinking at the USSF.