Just read this article at the bleacher report and was wondering what american fans think of it? I thought it made a lot of sense. Thoughts. Find the story here at http://bleacherreport.com/articles/97026-espn-and-the-epl-the-answer-for-soccer-in-america
more long ball ping pong soccer for north america? doesnt fsc has about 23 hours of english premier league everyday? wow, good luck with that. espn and fsc should put some MLS on it, epl is annoying.
EPL games rebroadcast in prime time would pull in at least 5x what the Thursday night MLS games do. I'm sure it won't go down well on BS because everyone here hates the EPL but it would defiantly at least do better than MLS.
I think the EPL is the only way to boost soccer among Americans in the US outside of the World Cup. I was watching ESPN sportscenter,and to my suprise they showed the Chelsea-West Brom highlights( yea actual 1 minute long highlights!!!!) and you could just tell the screen lit up compared to our american sports highlights and bullcrap talk( like what did Lebron James get for christmas) because the fast action style game it was and the atmosphere in the backround at stamford bridge. It was miles better than watching highlights of MLS, when ESPN shows it. And this is from a huge MLS supporter.
what about seria A and la liga? the team of the 90s was ac milan and the team of nowdays is barca... why would they want to put that crap on espn too? fsc isnt enough? nah dude im cool with mls. heck not ill become an mlb fan before any epl crap.
I think it is the answer. I can't tell you how many Americans I have met online who say that they will only watch soccer if they see the best of the best (which is why they tell me they watch the world cup). EPL is the best league in the world. They have their best of the best so go and watch it. Good marketing, and good time on Sportscenter could bring in very high ratings. Also, it is the best league, but more importantly it is the most exiting to watch (IMO) which is what will bring in the fans.
Millions of Americans do that regularly. How many Americans watch professional and college football, which is aired by CBS, NBC, FOX, and ESPN? How many Americans watch professional and college basketball, which is aired by ABC and ESPN?
I agree especially since EPL marquee games are aired on Thursday nights in July at around 9 pm eastern times....
last year manU was the european champ, other than that was barca, ac milan and all them. heck not epl is just f.. annoying. im glad i have goltv, i would switch sports if i only had ping pong epl on my tv. at leas they have seria a and primera argentina on fsc now.
I don't think that's the right comparison, because some people view college sports as a step towards the NFL/NBA and thus watch it to see who will be the up and coming stars in the NFL/NBA. Others might argue that NCAA is just as good of quality as NFL/NBA (what's going to be a better game coming up? Green Bay Packers vs Detroit Lions or Oklahoma vs Florida? ... what was a better basketball game recently? Oklahoma City Thunder vs Washington Wizards or Michigan State vs Texas? I'd have to go with the NCAA games to answer both of those) However, FSC broadcasts EPL as well as stuff like Colombian league. Some people still watch the Colombian league. For EPL/MLS, unless the two are being played at the same time then I don't see how broadcasting one will (negatively) affect the other. If anything, casual fans who stumble across the EPL broadcasts may be more inclined to watch MLS as the EPL match may pique their interest in the sport in general.
I will say, once in a while, ESPN should put a ManU game, a Chelsea Game, a Real Madrid game, an AC Milan game, a Boca game. Showing only EPL would only kill MLS and EPL is not even the best league out there. I personally hate it. EPL would be good for soccer but not for MLS. If anything, nah, dont put EPL, MLS is only a few years from them, is not that hard to master the simple ping pong game. There is only 4 teams with a lot of fans in the US on epl, so there is not reason to have a wigan vrs reading game.
How on earth would puttling the PL on ESPN kill the MLS? I must say that having ESPN, GOLTV and FSC, I am fortunate to be able to watch what I want. But if the game doesn't interest me no matter if it is Bundesliga or PL or Serie A or La Liga - then I won't watch it. ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and all their other 20 channels they have play NBA and NFL and hot dog eating contests and Iron Man competitons and I don't watch them any more than I would watch an MLS game or La Liga matches between Real Murcia and Celta de Vigo or any other games that don't call my attention. The people that will watch these PL games will not do it because they were transformed by ESPN but because they want to watch it to begin with. People will watch what they want no matter what - if its not available on TV, there is always a live stream on the internet!
You could crack soccer in the US tomorrow and it would take only 1 man, like an Abbramovich and he would have to take a 1-2 billion dollar hit (one thing that makes me laugh about all these billionaires is most of them just horde and do **** all with their money) There is already two factions of fans in the USA, one type are patriotic and homely, even if their team is weak compared to Epl,la liga, its their team. The other type want the best served to them on a plate or they dont bother why? because they pays the money. It would take sweetening the English FA, Football League & Uefa (thats where the 2 billion comes in). Now imagine a 70,000 seater stadium between Queens & Brooklyn with a retractable roof (ala millenium stadium) Imagine New York City FC playing in the premier league,imagine them playing Barcelona in the Champsleague or going to wembley for the FA Cup. The team would have to start in the Championship, and it would mean an extra team gets relegated to division 1 which is why they would have to have their fall softened. New Yorks games could be fixtured in bunches, 2 at home then 3 away then vice versa (and anyone who could afford this ludicrous venture could afford a reconditioned concorde or the new super sonic jets to have teams from europe into new york quicker then people travelling from NYC to LA). Bring in Players like Rooney, Villa, Messi the 5 million people in Queens & Brooklyn alone would flock to this club, but when you take Manhattan, The bronx, North Jersey & the rest of long Island your taking about population close to that of England, This club would be huge. All this is just a far fetched pipe dream Im just saying if you give Americans the best product, a New York based EPL team would become as big as any American sports team, I say that because I truelly believe a London Based NFL team, playing at Twickenham with a catchment area of 18 million people would thrive and survive (it's going to happen in the next 20 years) like I said it's a pipe dream but all it would take is a very rich man with vision and NYC would be SOCCER CITY USA.
The capital of soccer in the US is already LA, so new york can be the second one. as far as espn and epl, they can do whatever they want, epl has crappy soccer and espn has unprofessional fat broadcasters so they can both go to h... I got goltv so i dont give a crap what kind of crappy soccer, jim romes puts in. im interested in MLS, USL, and PDL, oh yeah and college soccer, oh yeah and my lieague and la liga and seria a are straight. the heck with espn, goltv is the best anyway. goltv needs to have a contract with usl, mls and college soccer and everything would be perfect. just perfect.
stop being such a kid I think seria A is boring but I dont wine on like you. And a New York based epl team would blow LA away as the capital
It's the answer for the short-breathed glory-hunters who ritually call into Fox Football Fone-In to pretend they're deeply entrenched in English soccer culture.
and once the club is 20 years old and has a trickle down effect on mls? eventually I could see a New York epl side withdrawing to the mls once mls has grown enough.
La Liga has made a name for themselves not just bc Real Madrid has domianted the European competition, but bc Barcelona manage to bring the best street soccer players out of latin america. Seria A may be boring to you, but you love EPL so what good can I expect from someone who knows this much about soccer. Fly to LA on a Saturday or Sunday, guess what you are going to see from the plane? Baseball stadiums and parks packed with soccer games and fans. Fly to New York any day of the year and guess what you see? an empty baseball field in every corner. New York is too much of a baseball city I think. Been there, done that. ESPN makes me want to puke when it comes to soccer like I say, if EPL is going to bring Matt and Joe to the soccer stage, go for it, good luck teaching them the worse way of playing soccer at a high level. I love goltv and I think is time for goltv to go after the average "joe" and take some MLS games, they already put Bundesliga on tv, and Bundesliga is much more better soccer than EPL. Goltv needs to support college soccer, usl and pdl even if they dont make any money, they need to support more american soccer. The USNT game vrs Mexico needs to be on ABC or NBC, yes that game is HUGE and its bigger than any EPL crap, it means history... MLS needs to jump into Copa Libertadores, they also need to make a real super liga bringing boca and real madrid and sao paolo and they need to show the american public that we have really good soccer in las americas, we dont need any more epl crap, fsc isnt enough? They have epl like all day, its sad.
what an ignorant little boy you are,it's obvious you are anti english. well from now on im anti you with your crappy cheating latin style slowball, oops thats a stereo type for yer Pitty the world champs are english
It's probably the least contentious part of the whole idea, but why would the football league let them jump straight into the championship? When talk of Celtic & Rangers moving to the english league crops up now and then, the same point is usually made, as if they can see why they couldn't get a free pass into the premier, but see no problem getting one a division further down. They could, of course, take over Milton Keynes and move them to new york (The NYMK Dons?) which would be rather funny, just to hear the MK complaints.
the football league would not turn down a 1 billion dollar investment into its members especially when so many need the money.
like i said rich the only way it would happen is with alot of sweeteners and palming the premierleague would cost a hell of alot more