Letters to the Editor
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They've got a point
You're right, and the British fans are right.
And the managers' and players' objections are valid as well. A Premier League side plays 38 club games, plus two domestic cup competitions (a lot of extra games if you get to the final). The top clubs also play in one of the European cup competitions, which typically includes both home and away legs in each round and could take days out of your schedule with travel to the likes of Turkey or Azerbaijan.
On top of that, some players are also on international duty for their countries in friendlies and maybe also qualifying rounds for competitions like the European Championship or the World Cup.
So an extra game, for purely commercial reasons, is a step too far and it's where they should draw the line.
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Premier League still had a soul?
On the one hand, I totally agree with the concerns of the players and managers for the extra game, and the general concerns about the unevenness of a 39 game season...
On the other hand, I'm not convinced this is beginning of the end of the premier league; the first step into a brave new unfair world. It's sort of a joke to complain about the loss of 'equal opportunity' in a league where one team regularly spends 50-100 million dollars every offseason, while others spend 10% that amount. And that's before you start examining the differences in payrolls. In other words, the league is already inherently unfair! (Just like all other european leagues.) Off the top of my head, I believe there are three teams who have won the title in the last fifteen years or so. And the only reason it's three teams and not two is because a Russian oil/mafia billionaire bought Chelsea five years ago...and started spending 50-100 million every summer.
I remember somewhat similar complaints being voiced by the Man U fans a few years back when Glazer was buying the team...you know, "oh, this American...oh, he doesn't know the tradition of Man U...oh, he's going to ruin our team". Don't hear too many complaints now. Wonder why?
In other words, the statement "the league works as a competition because it is fair" completely ignores the nature of a competition in which only 3 out of 20 teams have any chance of winning, and they are the same 3 every year. Unless you truly believe, for instance, that capitalism works as a system because it's fair.
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Yes, Imagine the Outrage
Imagine if a team got to play against the weakest team in the league, who forfeited even the slightest home field advantage by playing what is ostensibly a "home game" in a foreign country. The stronger team, with that advantage, makes the playoffs over other teams that had to play half their games on the road, without the benefit of a neutral site game. Why, they could ride that all the way to a championship!
But, the Giants probably would have beaten the Dolphins in Miami anyway, right?
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who will want to see...
I think one of the big problems with this idea, other than the inherent unfairness it creates in the schedule, is that just because it is the EPL does not guarantee that it's going to be an attraction unless it happens to involve ManU, Liverpool, Chelsea or Arsenal. Whoever is "lucky" enough to get the big name clubs will sell it out and people will want to go see those teams play. Can you imagine Liverpool v Man City in Bangkok? They could fill a 500K seat stadium for that match if such a place existed. But who, in any country, is going to show up to see Birmingham play Portsmouth? Or Blackburn play Derby? Those matches involving the middling or worse teams are unlikely to draw many people.
I also agree that there is a competitive imbalance in the EPL with no salary cap. However, there are always European places up for grabs for finishing in the top 5 or 6 or whatever it is. So even if your team isn't going to win the Premiership at least you have a chance at qualifying for next year's Euro competitions if you have a good season.
I have long thought that American sports are not truly fair competitions for the reasons King has noted. I think a lot of the die-hard MLS fans are really hoping for the day when there are enough teams in the league to go to a single table format where every team plays the others home and away instead of the imbalanced schedule that exists now. But even MLS is not as unfair as all the other pro and big college sports are.
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Money
It seems, here, that we're willing to accept the notion that sports teams make money. In Buffalo, we're all sitting patiently watching the wildly profitable Buffalo Bills play a few games in Toronto because they'll pay something like $1,000 for a ticket.
Outside of a few rumblings on sports radio, we don't care.
Maybe it's because the Buffalo Bills already moved to a different city -- Orchard Park -- for the express purpose of making money. The browns left. Teams move, for money.
But this is a little different, and in some ways the similarities are interesting. England invented football. The US invented American football. And while American football is still almost exclusively an American game, they can't help but watch the way people watch football and wonder how they can get their hands on the money (an estimated 1 billion people worldwide watched Arsenal v Man U in a league game in November).
That leaves fans sitting back and 'hoping' they'll stay in our town.
If we're not going to be outraged, maybe we'll pick another sport instead. Really.
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New Super Bowl Statistic
Here's a way to drum up interest in international games:
So far, every NFL team that has won in London during the regular season has won the Super Bowl.
The road to the Super Bowl goes through London!
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39th game
As it is fans cry bloody murder when in week 38 team A plays a cupcake out of drop zone but also out of contention for a European spot while team B, one point away in the table, has to play a team with something at stake. Spain has a proud tradition of sending suitcases full of cash to teams late in the season. Them's the breaks.
In the interest of fairness, the EPL should play the games late in the season, name the teams at the last minute, and get equitable matchups -- either 1-20, 2-19, 3-18 etc or 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, etc. Can't see it happening for a variety of reasons though...