English soccer fans feel about their clubs as much, or more like, we Americans feel about their favorite college team (if we have one) than our favorite pro team.
What's the incentive for people to watch a bottom team in a closed league? Might have to agree to disagree on this one.
The same incentive as watching a mid-table team in an open league. People don't go into a season thinking "we could be in a relegation battle, I'd better get a season ticket".
Playoffs (or continental competition qualifications) can drive interest into the mid-table clubs and relegation can drive interest into the bottom table clubs. The issue here is that there isn't a lot of evidence that relegation actually does drive fan integration for teams that are in the relegation zone. Clubs in the relegation zone tend to (on average) be among the worst in attendance. It's obviously not going to be a smooth line from top of the table to bottom of the table, but bad teams aren't fun to watch play and casual fans aren't really looking to do something they may not enjoy.
When they say "where you grew up", if you live in London, can you be a fan of any London team, or do you have to be the fan of neighborhood you grew up in. Also, if it is neighborhood, if you grew up in the Upton Park district and were a West Ham United fan, do you now have to become an Upton Park FC fan now that West Ham has moved to Stratford??
Well you don't want to be seen on East Ham High Street in Tottenham shirt...or Arsenal...or Chelsea...or Millwall.
I think it depends on the region and sport. I'd rank the most diehard Steelers, Red Sox, Canadiens, etc fan right up there with any college team fan. It's a crucial part of their identity, and they truly live and die with those teams.
Southampton knew rather early on this season they were getting crushed ... and no, there was no signs of any "attainable target" other than "don't be embarrassing" ... they weren't playing for anything for a significant portion of the season. Ipswich was officially done a month out, and Leicester 5 weeks out from the end of the season. What were they playing for? I think one of the big issues for most folks that push or want pro/rel is that they apply absolutes to every single detail when that simply isn't the case. CAN you be playing "for something" to the end? Yes. ARE you? YMMV ...
This is a good point. If we look at a map, and chart out the popularity of college sports (football, basketball, etc) we'll likely find that the areas where College sports are hugely popular, tend to not be in close proximity to their professional equivalent (or the pro equivalent is historically unsuccessful). College Sports fills that void.
I mean we are going back over well worn debates from previous threads but this is the exception. And what the three relegated clubs (and the clubs 4-5 spots above them) experienced was the norm in a closed league.
We'll see. If the three promoted clubs go straight back down again that will be three seasons on the trot. That's no longer an outlier, it's a trend.
It wouldn't surprise me if one of the mid-table teams collapses in way Wolves almost did this season before their late run of form. That might give Leeds or Burnley the chance of establishing a foothold.
https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_...tion-relegation-change-us-soccer-threaten-mls Interesting read. 1. Former MLSer Bobby Warshaw makes an appearance. He wrote a memoir years ago that I read, and it was very good. In all sports we get tons of memoirs from superstars and stars, and those are usually boring. Me, I crave to read about what it’s like for workaday guys. I would read the hell out of an MLS equivalent of baseball’s The Glory of Their Times. 2. Paul McDonough has a quote where he says USL doesn’t have the relevance or the revenues to move forward. Reading the article gave me the sense that someone yelled “Do something!” and someone else said “Here’s something.” 3. They’re hoping for a 15-30% increase in revenues. 4. Stefan Syzmanski gave a quote where he says pro/rel may do great things or it may do nothing. That’s the kind of insight you get when you talk to a fancy schmancy college professor instead of…oh wait, everyone in this thread thinks the same thing. 5. The USL has done very, very little work on answering the dozens of questions/issues implementing pro/rel will require. But the move to pro/rel seems to be about enhancing national revenue, which IMO is a good idea. This is more viable now in the ultra-fragmented streaming world than it was even 5 years ago when cable ruled. 6. The San Diego Loyal never could have made a profit, the whole thing was an attempt to get an expansion franchise in SD.