By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (Jan 16, 2012) US Soccer Players -- Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore's interview with the Daily Mail's Martin Samuel has something for almost everyone. Depending on your constituency, there's something to confirm a position, challenge a view, or generally set you off. In retrospect, those running the Premier League might be wondering why their chief executive bothered. The aftermath is discussion, but not necessarily of the type that flatters the highest level of not just English soccer, but English professional sports.
For American fans, the knock is obvious. The American way of sports business isn't the English way, cross-Atlantic club ownership notwithstanding. For instance, here's Scudamore on North American sports, a quote that's already made the rounds with the expected result:
"I envy America their equality but theirs is an incestuous, contained, domestic world. They have pulled off a trick of putting on a lot of meaningless sport, with nothing to play for, no promotion and relegation, yet still having people watch. The World Series isn't really. It's America and one team from Canada. I wouldn't swap our global appeal."
Ah, the British and their general annoyance at arrogant North Americans using 'world' to describe any championship in which the world isn't invited. It's a fair point when taken in general terms, yet it's the British normally at the forefront of defending the reputation of Dutch, Korean, and Japanese baseball. That's not the important point, it's the global appeal and use of the word 'ours.'
Back in the mid-2000's I went to a sports business conference that had a panel discussion on global appeal of American sports. Representatives from the traditional North American professional leagues talked about how the ramp-ups for building globally didn't start even in theory until relatively recently. The Olympics and national team competitions in hockey weren't the same as clubs playing clubs under the auspices of the leagues rather than domestic associations. They were building what sports like soccer could take for granted.
One of the presenters spoke directly to that point, calling soccer's broader appeal when random fans in far flung parts of the world identified with small clubs in places they've probably never been as a side effect of soccer's popularity. While the North American sports were building connections, soccer and its higher profile leagues and clubs were simply taking advantage of the game's obvious global popularity.
With that in mind, there's the argument that the Premier League took advantage of that obvious opportunity, strengthening connections that already existed rather than building them from scratch. For the Premier League, it's a nonissue. Why focus on building what's already there, instead taking advantage and building up?
It's a competition after all, and one soccer almost has to win by default. The North American sports can make inroads, but soccer is the ultimate insider. Premier League clubs might congratulate themselves on how well they've taken advantage, but those meaningful connections already exists in the minds of the target markets. They simply had to turn on the tap. In some of the most significant markets on the planet, North American sports had to establish the water supply.
Most North American fans know that, along with how lucrative globalization of any brand becomes in continuing growth. The Premier League - global brand that it is - still has to revert back to the hyper local anytime a club's actual community demands better, but in the race for mattering across international borders and datelines they're winning. It's not because of the glories of promotion and relegation, but they're winning. It's the why that rankles their North American counterparts, a historical advantage played up for maximum competitive impact.
Add to that phrases like "incestuous, contained, domestic world" and "meaningless sport" and critics of the North American model might nod along. The rest of us are probably wondering what we're really supposed to be seeing in a mid-table battle in April or May between clubs with nothing to play for. It's not like fans of North American pro teams in most markets continue to fill stadiums for bad teams late in the season.
There's a pragmatism that might just be starting to show at Premier League level where apparently we're supposed to ignore the empty seats. It's certainly something North American owners of English Premier League clubs would recognize and be in an arguably better position to understand. It's also not the story Scudamore, and by extension the Premier League itself, wants to be telling.
What North American sports have done over the last couple of decades is define sports business in practical terms. The Premier League and every league of significant size anywhere in the world benefits by paying attention. That's true even for the Premier League.
Comments, questions, solutions to problems that have yet to present themselves. Please, tell me all about it.
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