US 'should host Premier matches'

[llamafarmer]

West Ham non-executive chairman Eggert Magnusson says the Premier League should consider switching games to the USA to boost its global profile.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7063261.stm

Behave yourself Eggy! If this ever happens it will be the ultimate sell-out of the game we love. The business is already becoming more important than the sport, but this would be the final nail in the coffin for me!

 

[LSUY]

I can see the Premier League unofficially agreeing to have an overseas game by the end of the season. A lot of the chairman's want rid of Richard Scudamore and replaced with someone that will sell the Premier League to different nations through overseas games.

There is no point in hosting one in the USA because our football season clashes with the NFL season and the Baseball playoffs so few people will care.

Also who do we send over. Man Utd won't give up a home game, nor will Arsenal or Liverpool. Chelsea might. Chances are we would have to send a Wigan, Bolton or Derby team over.

Personally I'm against the idea. This is about greed and not expanding the game. Though I'm not surprised because has the Premier League and the clubs in it ever cared about the fans?

 

[Spurs4Life23]

Why America? It takes ages to get there and no top clubs would want to give up a home game (as teemu said). It is a stupid idea although I can see it happening unfortunately. It will backfire though - Derby, Bolton or Wigan are hardly great ambassadors for the quality of teams in the Premiership.

 

[paulspursman]

the americans dont give a shit about english football or football in general on the whole

would further destroy the game imo. no team would agree to this and for it to have any affect it would have to be a game that involved Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool or Chelsea facing each other

 

[Rocksuperstar]

American sportsmen and women, especially league based sports, are used to travelling half way across the world for each game - they introduced the North/South or East/West divides to try and reduce some of the gruelling travel schedules way back when, but it's still a proper road trip between games (also maybe explaining the idea behind having loads of games in a series with each team you visit, as they do in Baseball).

With that in mind, the away support is always going to be minimal, so the revenue isn't so much of a concern to the teams when on their travels. Equally, when they are at home they have the six games, or whatever, with attendances way higher than the average premiership crowd, meaning they can raise funds to see them through til the next time they get games at home no worries.

With all that in mind, it's not half as much of an issue for a couple of American Stupidball teams to travel over here for a game, whether it be exhibition or league, it doesn't make a ton of difference.

Another thing to consider - whereas we view Football as "our game" and Stupidball as "their game", the yanks consider Stupidball "their game" and Football "a girls game" on the whole, so where there may be a lot of Stupidball followers in the UK, theres likely far less Football fans concentrated in any one area enough to warrant sending a squad there.

Silly idea, not financially viable and, as stated above, you'll never convince any of the big drawing teams, like Man U, who are already as popular as they're going to get over in the US, to give up a home game in front of their faithful.

Can't see it happening myself.

 

[fieryjack]

I`m sorry but that is one of the stupidest things i`ve heard which means it will probably happen especially when sky get to hear of it.

 

[LSUY]

Silly idea, not financially viable and, as stated above, you'll never convince any of the big drawing teams, like Man U, who are already as popular as they're going to get over in the US, to give up a home game in front of their faithful.

Chelsea would. Roman has been attempting to break into the US market for ages now but Man Utd still remain the bigger of the two there - hell I think even we are a bigger team there then them, at least we get mentioned on the NFL website unlike Chelsea.

I could see Chelsea playing a home game there but it won't be against a big team because Liverpool, Arsenal and Man Utd won't risk there title challenge on this one marketing event.

I would love to see the Glazers attempt to tell Ferguson he would have to give up a home game next season to play in New York instead. :lol:

 

[tony0379]

that must the most wank statement ive ever heard

 

[KentuckyYid]

Tottenham v Arsenal in Louisville please ray:

 

[Rocksuperstar]

Until the World Cup gets the same kind of hype and coverage as the Superbowl Football hasn't got a chance over there though, KY.

You can testify what it's like when the Superbowls on, right? A few years ago i went around my mates house as he was well into Stupidball and was a big Broncos fan, so he wanted to stay up and watch it at, i dunno, what was it, 3am over here?

The only thing i can compare it to is the opening ceremony of the Olympics, but without so much emphasis on art and movement, more pyros and rawk :lol:

The entire counntry tunes in, it's broadcast to bajillions of people across the world and companies will blow an entire years budget on one thirty second advert during the halftime break. It's just immense.

The World Cup - it came, it went, 18 Americans in a bar somewhere got excited. It barely got more than about an hours coverage at any time other than when the US were playing and tons of them would've gone about their lives completely unaware of this competition taking place that is popular in every corner of the globe excpet there...

 

[hans]

Stupid idea really, though if it was to happen then i could see something like the FA/Carling cup final being played over there as that'd be neutral for both teams.

 

[KentuckyYid]

Until the World Cup gets the same kind of hype and coverage as the Superbowl Football hasn't got a chance over there though, KY.

You can testify what it's like when the Superbowls on, right? A few years ago i went around my mates house as he was well into Stupidball and was a big Broncos fan, so he wanted to stay up and watch it at, i dunno, what was it, 3am over here?

The only thing i can compare it to is the opening ceremony of the Olympics, but without so much emphasis on art and movement, more pyros and rawk :lol:

The entire counntry tunes in, it's broadcast to bajillions of people across the world and companies will blow an entire years budget on one thirty second advert during the halftime break. It's just immense.

The World Cup - it came, it went, 18 Americans in a bar somewhere got excited. It barely got more than about an hours coverage at any time other than when the US were playing and tons of them would've gone about their lives completely unaware of this competition taking place that is popular in every corner of the globe excpet there...

I agree that football isn't important enough over here and probably never will. Although I hear it's the most popular playing sport for kids now...

They do have some cracking stadiums though, even college football has stadiums that hold 100,000 plus. I think it's a college in Tennessee that holds the most with 120,000

 

[Kendall]

Fuck this, there's already a large proportion of people who can't go to games, why make the reminder unable to either?

 

[LSUY]

They do have some cracking stadiums though, even college football has stadiums that hold 100,000 plus. I think it's a college in Tennessee that holds the most with 120,000

The biggest is Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. It holds around 107,000 and has been sold out for every home game for the past 9 years (or something equally stupid).

Tennessee's only holds 104,000.

The best stadium is in Oklahoma. It only holds 82,000 but is called the Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

You can testify what it's like when the Superbowls on, right? A few years ago i went around my mates house as he was well into Stupidball and was a big Broncos fan, so he wanted to stay up and watch it at, i dunno, what was it, 3am over here?

The only thing i can compare it to is the opening ceremony of the Olympics, but without so much emphasis on art and movement, more pyros and rawk :lol:

The entire counntry tunes in, it's broadcast to bajillions of people across the world and companies will blow an entire years budget on one thirty second advert during the halftime break. It's just immense.

That's why I want the FA Cup final to be more like the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is entertainment for the entire day whereas the FA Cup final only entertains for a few hours.

I remember when FA Cup final day use to be an important thing with TV programming starting early in the morning and millions tuning in across the world. Del Piero listed scoring the winner in an FA Cup final at Wembley as his second dream behind winning the World Cup for Italy.

 

[KentuckyYid]

The biggest is Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. It holds around 107,000 and has been sold out for every home game for the past 9 years (or something equally stupid).

Tennessee's only holds 104,000.

The best stadium is in Oklahoma. It only holds 82,000 but is called the Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

quote]


Even so for college teams these are huge stadiums and far bigger than premier league grounds.

Just found this link http://www.collegecharlie.com/stadiums.html