Sounds like bad management somewhere down the line, no matter how far Bolton Wanderers fall (if they do) there will always be 'other' clubs to replace them. A very good friend of mine supports Maidstone, he has followed them since League two, expulsion because of bankrupcy (the last club to go bankrupt before Bury 27 years later), reformation into the Kent County League Fourth Division in 1993 (village football!) and subsequently progression through the non-league pyramid all the way back to the conference! Unfortunately they've subsequently dropped back a division but are doing OK so far this season, it could be that 30 years after bankrupcy Maidstone Utd return to where they were when they went bankrupt in the first place! Maidstone Utd didn't have a devine right for league football, perhaps before long Bury or hell, even Bolton Wanderers could find themselves plying their trade in Lancashire County League Division 4?
It's not like watching paint dry for teams that are on the cusp of whether they make the playoffs or don't.
Oh, so since our major sporting leagues are 4 of the top 7 grossing in the world everything is working fine. Cool. And damn this SJ and KC playoff match is awesome. Would've been a shame if SJ would've just been left for mid table squalor. Crazy how much better it'd have been if SJ didn't have a chance to be in this match amirite??!! Exciting in it?!! Tim Melia privy would have stopped every PK instead of stopping every PK if he was in a pro/rel leave .... Oh wait
Always cartel, it's like people just drop words not knowing what they mean and how the thing they admire is actually one as well....
Switching to one-leg playoffs has made a huge difference to the level of excitement and has made the regular season placings so much more important.
Well, it looks like a team that finished 8th out of 12 was a penalty shootout away from eliminating a team that had the best record in its division. Rather illustrates my point about the relative meaningless of the regular season.
Playing away at the best team in the Conference was their punishment for coming 8th (the number of playoff places was expanded due to the short season).
Some "punishment" when they were just a penalty shootout from progressing after being worse than over half the teams in their division.
Btw I see 12/20 Liga MX teams made the playoffs this season and I think so far the higher seeded teams have gone through to the quarter-finals.
And there you go, Portland deserved everything they got for their approach to the game including not practicing penalties.
This is just crazy talk now: the NBA is huge worldwide. The NFL is enormously popular, even in the UK. I have had multiple coworkers over the years (my office is based in Birmingham) that follow the NFL far more than I do. I mean, there’s speculation every year of the Jaguars moving to London. I doubt it will happen, but they clearly believe there is a market for it.
That's why you play the games ... ... now where have I heard that before ? Too bad we didn't just let these teams squander for half a season (or more) and just let the MLS CUP be a two - three team horse race. I mean, we could have avoided the insanity that happened this weekend and completely erased the thrilling shootouts and exciting even for neutrals matches we had. Shame we let all that happen. Quick question ... how is "top grossing" measured? Follow up, how is it that said measure would be so large? Thanks.
Means it makes money, I believe the NFL makes good money but 98% of that money comes from the US (330 million people!) whereas the Premier League makes good money but 50% of it comes from overseas. The US has been tremendously successful in exporting all kinds of popular culture with the exception of its sports, it's certainly not for want of trying either the UK has been bombarded with US attempts to establish its sports leagues 'over here' for decades, at the expense of millions of dollars no doubt, but you have to ask yourself why is it that American films can find European fans so easily and yet the NFL, despite EXTREMELY aggressive sales pitching doesn't seem to hardly scratch the surface? In other words why does the Premier League succeed across the globe where the NFL doesn't? I look at the NFL as more 'showbiz' than sport (which is fine if that's what you want).
Hmm, could it have anything to do with the fact that American films air whenever the cinema wants to show them, vs. the marquee NFL matchups kicking off at midnight GMT?
NBA is hugely popular, especially in Asia. It's overseas rights deals are worth $450 million. That's not a much as the EPL or La Liga but it's greater than Serie A ($437M) or the Bundesliga ($292M). Edited: MLB rights in Japan alone are worth $80 million a year.
Maybe it's because soccer is far more popular than American football in most countries? I don't know about you, but I watch both MLS and European football because I like the game, not because of the league formats...