True, but presumably most people have the time to watch one or possibly two games a day, which will be more likely UEFA games I suspect.
Which reminds me, the Copa and Euro finals are on the same day in 2020! Hopefully not the same time, but it could be if the Copa final is an afternoon kickoff like it was this year. The Euro final kicks off at 14h00 Colombia time.
It would probably come down to which kickoff times are more convenient for each region of the planet. Euro obviously works great for Africa and fairly well for the Middle East while Copa is more suited for North America and perhaps the Far East.
Well, if they care about other countries when deciding on kickoff times, then the copa final could very well overlap with the Euro final. Brasilians, Argentines, Uruguayans love Sunday afternoon football.
Depends where you live. Euro games for me are all in the middle of the night so I don't watch many of them. Copa America games are in the mornings so I can spend saturday and sunday morning watching games. In 2016 I watched more games from the American tournament than the European one for that reason.
Sorry, my reply was more in response to @r0adrunner regarding people having time to watch one or two matches per day. I hadn't seen your post when I began typing my reply but I should have quoted him irregardless ( ). @almango basically gave an example of what my point was.
I think most people attending the Copa America Final would want it to take place at night. Barranquilla in the middle of the day in July will be scorching like the surface of the sun.
This is true. But conflicting with the Euro seems to logically bring in less ratings so it would be counter-productive in that regard as well. Remember the 2016 Centenario Final was in the evening hours so it is not unprecedented to play play an evening Final.
Though I doubt the final wouldn’t be in one of the 3 main cities in Colombia (Bogota, Medillin, Cali). And nobody in South America cares about the Euros, so it would have zero impact on ratings.
From what I am hearing Barranquilla will host the Final. Two of the biggest Television contracts for the Copa America are from the USA and Qatar. Those markets care about the Euro so there is an impact.
I was under the impression Euro Cup rivals Copa America for interest across Latin America, although the value of the respective TV contracts would confirm this or otherwise.
Nothing official yet from CONMEBOL itself, but El Observador in Uruguay is reporting that the knockout round will be mixed: the 3rd- and 4th-place finishers in each group will have to travel to face the 1st and 2nd teams in the opposite group in the quarterfinals. Still not a fan of the format...but if this is true, then I like the multiple incentives at play. Top 2 means you move on and get to stay at your base, while 3rd or 4th means you'll have to uproot everything and travel ~5,000 km for your next game The only downside is that as things stand, there's a non-zero chance Argentina would have to bail to Colombia for the QFs
That would make alot of sense. Yeah, the travel distance is almost 3 times as far as the distance between the Russian cities of Kaliningrad and Ekaterinberg, to use the largest host nation to ever host a major tournament before as a reference.
Going back to this... ... I think it is VERY safe to say that the Final is going to be at Night. 1) To not conflict with the Euro Final which is at 3PM Eastern USA time. and 2) The Final has been officially scheduled for the aforementioned city of Barranquilla. Also going back to my guess about Chile, Argentina did in fact based them in Mendoza which is a very smart move on their behalf to start out the tournament. Almost guarantees those two matches to be sellouts and filled with red in the stands.
What did they draw? Which group Qatar would be in? Amazing that this draw kinda flew under the radar. Can’t believe the whole world wasn’t waiting for it with baited breath. This thread title is spot on - Copa aligning with Euros (by having “draws” that are 90% predetermined/rigged). Well... more like 90% predetermined for the Copa, 60% predetermined for the Euros. CONMEBOL winning the stupidity contest again.
Well, CONMEBOL wants to make money without the USA this time around. So they learned from the CONCACAF the best way to do it. Rig it in a way that best fits their pocketbooks.
They drew which groups the visitors would be in and also the order of games. I think the groups as they stand are reasonably well balanced and as the top 4 go through if a favoured nation doesn't make it its really their own fault rather than the draw.
And publish the regulations, so we learn how the knockout round will work. Hopefully the 3rd and 4th-place teams have to travel, to add some intrigue to the group stage (more incentive to fight for a top-2 finish) and avoid a whole bunch of repeat matches in the QFs.
Isn't that already up - Wikipedia has a draw. Top 2 teams stay in their countries for the QFs and SFs (so 1st and 2nd in a group can't meet in the final). 3/4 and final in Colombia. J
EDIT: Forget everything I just said - you're right @JLSA . The full bracket is included on the last page of the draw preview, albeit with a TBC asterisk - thanks for the catch.