General Soccer Thread

[thrill]

Those dorks in New York and New Jersey actually getting into brawls before every "derby" as well as them calling it the New York "derby" are, in my opinion, the worst that MLS has to offer the culture wars.


And the "PUTO" chant.

[Gashouse]

http://soccer.nbcsports.com/2016/07/21/ ... yptr=yahoo

Worst own goal ever - by my local Minnesota United

[Tambourine Man]

And Balotelli is gone to Nice. The bus will not return to England.

[themiddle54]

Dude was a colossal bust. Liverpool was reportedly ready to pay him to stay home if a transfer deal wasn't struck. What did he have, 2 goals in 2 years?

[Tambourine Man]

Maybe? thrill mentioned a few years ago that he was a lot like Terrell Owens, but now he doesn't produce squat. Anyway, I hope he pulls it together.

[mtcefc]

The money in football now has gone beyond stupid. There are players now who earn more in a month than some fans will earn in a lifetime.

It is absolutely obscene, one of the big time agents Mino Railola has "earned" more money this summer shifting on some of his players (Pogba, Ibrahimovic and a couple of others) than arguably the best player in the world Cristiano Ronaldo has earned playing for Real Madrid.

I gave up going to watch Everton last October after missing 3 home games in 19 years for various reasons. A part of it being fans who actually go to the games here are the last to be thought of while they sell this product around the world.

They have started having games now on Friday nights, which is fine if you like football, but the first game they had on was Manchester United at home against Southampton. A quick google says that is a 4 hour drive without traffic, anyone who has any knowledge of british roads knows the last place you want to be on a Friday afternoon is a motorway.

Of course, people don't HAVE to go, and I have exercised my right not to. But when I was growing up football was something to look forward to at the weekend. You worked all week and Saturday was meant to be a break from the mundane working routine.

Now, the fixtures get released, Sky TV here get hold of them, you have to arrange your life around when they decide to show a game. Everton play Sunderland away on Monday night of the 12th of September. If anyone wants to go to that they are going to have to take a half day off work and get home around 2am on the Tuesday morning.

Plus, the fan experience compared to baseball is terrible, you pay too much for a ticket, you cant drink in your seat, you are treated as cattle.

It absolutely stinks.

[thrill]

They don't give a [expletive] about the fans because they're completely sold out as a TV product.

But a huge reason the EPL is an attractive TV product is the fan atmosphere.

I wonder how long this push and pull can continue?

[mtcefc]

They don't give a [expletive] about the fans because they're completely sold out as a TV product.

But a huge reason the EPL is an attractive TV product is the fan atmosphere.

I wonder how long this push and pull can continue?

They must be feeding crowd noises into the coverage because I would say the atmosphere at most games are terrible. I started watching West Brom v Middlesbrough last week and it was the most boring, tepid, souless excuse for a sporting event I have ever seen.

There are rare occasions where the games are excellent (The Arsenal V Liverpool game the other week), but even at Arsenal, the atmosphere is dead.

I realise there is a certain irony of me saying this, but a lot of the crowd at places like Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool etc are tourists. People who will come, spend money in the shop, buy the shirts etc.

A bit like me when I come to St Louis!

The common man can't afford football anymore, if someone wanted to take their family you are talking £150 on tickets before you start on anything else.

I hope the bubble does burst and things can calm down a bit. I believe in the "fan zone" at Everton they have a van selling Prosecco and not far away a van taking donations for the local food bank.

[thrill]

LANDON BACK

http://www.si.com/planet-futbol/2016/09 ... rement-mls

[themiddle54]

I don't think you're going to see a money bubble in the EPL any time soon. The TV money is too great, and while there's a fixed number of seats in the stands for every match, there's not a fixed number of televisions you can get to tune in. While the roots of the game are in provisional leanings and in-person attendance, the game, like the world, is so globalized now that having a focus that's friendly to ticket buyers over TV viewers is probably too much to hope for.