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NFL: A warning to the Premier League

9 min read
by Erling Oster
Predicting the future of Premier League football NFL fan, American, and Tottenham Hotspur supporter Erling Oster, summarises some of our fears of modern football.

Alcohol, automobiles, and erections have trashed my precious NFL, and they are coming for the Premiership. And no amount of drinking, driving or screwing is going to save you.

vlcsnap-2011-12-05-22h02m37It is alarming, how could three things, so useful and noble, ruin another splendid thing? Television, that’s how.

It could be argued that the NFL would not exist today without TV. The NFL was not the most popular football in the States, let alone our most popular sport until the Super Bowl era, which began in 1967, nearly 50 years into since the sport’s inception. Until that point college football was the only truly credible football in America and the “postgraduate game” of the NFL was teetering on the brink of collapse. But, like Anakin Skywalker or Robert Johnson, they struck a deal with the devil and that cloven footed son of a b***h was television.

Now American TV has a yet another concubine, every single Premier League game, every single week is televised in the United States. In fact it is cheaper and easier for me to watch a random Crystal Palace Eagles game than it is for me to catch a random Philadelphia Eagles game from my home in Western Pennsylvania. This is not a good sign for the English football, and here’s why:

[linequote]If the money was right do you not believe that games could potentially be broken into quarters to increase advertising opportunity?[/linequote]

As TV ascended to its perch atop all media, it pulled the NFL up along with it, making it the juggernaut it is now. But the devil demands tribute. Over 30% of an NFL game telecast is adverts, specifically for Bud Light, Chevy trucks and Viagra. The first quarter of the recent semi-finals Play Offs, 15 minutes of game time, took 37 minutes to complete. During that time there were no less than six commercial breaks totaling almost 12 minutes. This doesn’t include in the commentators reminding me to watch TV shows The Big Bang Theory and Elementary. And the first quarter is typically one of the faster ones. You almost have to watch the game with a bucket to vomit into.

And what are the fans in the stadium expected to do while commercials bombard the viewers at home and a game that should take two hours finishes in four? Is that supposed to be okay? Because it feels like they know the only things we have more loyalty to than our families are our teams, and the League will flip us over and degrade us to prove it every match day.

I understand that the networks pay exorbitant amounts of cash for the rights to air the games, I get it. For that reason every single decision made by the NFL seems to be in the service of television. Now these same decision makers are one-by-one wriggling their way into ownership of Premier League teams.

If it seems as if the NFL doesn’t care about their fans in attendance, that’s because they don’t. Imagine the revenue from gate receipts is like the change jar you keep on your dresser, then the television contract and merchandise sales are like your annual salary. The NFL is more concerned with reaching new fans than they are with pleasing the fans they already have. That’s why regular season games are being played in England and Toronto, that jar of coins is only so big, but the television profit potential, like your account, is virtually unlimited. And you grow your television market by playing actual games in those regions. And so I am worried for the future of the Premier League.

Now there are inherent differences with televising American Football and Association Football, of course. Chief among those is the greatest ally of the fans of the traditions of the game: the running clock. It’s almost unthinkable that Sky Sports would leave a Premier League game in progress to sell stiffy pills. But I’m sure they’re working on it… and sadly there’s a ready made solution available to get around the issue the unstoppable clock, and that’s split screen commercial breaks: The match shrinks to a window in the corner for a minute or two while the advert runs on the bulk of the screen. Indeed this is already happening before games, currently being bought up by betting companies displaying in game odds, even those relatively new to the betting market.

If the money was right do you not believe that games could potentially be broken into quarters to increase advertising opportunity? That obviously would be a disaster to the traditions of the way the game is played. Admittedly, at this time, it’s highly unlikely to happen. Sky Sports is pumping an obscene amount of money into screening football.

In fact the entire game in England is propped up by the money Sky pumps into it; they’re the lifeblood of the Premier League, the players, the agents, and the clubs. Because of this they have power, and a huge amount of sway, which is why you see fixture changes and the 3pm Saturday games become an ever rarer thing. So if Sky come calling for four quarters rather than two halves, is the Premier League really in a position to say ‘no’? And with BT Sport and Al Jazeera able to compete, and as we’ve seen with th Champions League rights, beat Sky for coverage, the situation can only get worse.

What about Prem games in America or China? There was little outcry in the US when regular season NFL games were shipped overseas. In fact for the recent Super Bowl I didn’t care whether Seattle and Denver played in New York or New Delhi because there’s no match day experience. The ‘tradition’ in the NFL is mainly manufactured, as is the crowd noise. There is an illusion of full stadiums for many games, at many stadia, but this is a myth more often than it is fact. When the New Orleans Saints were building the Superdome in the early 1970s, the owner had all the seats painted random colors so the half empty stadium would look full on TV.

[linequote]As TV ascended to its perch atop all media, it pulled the NFL up along with it, making it the juggernaut it is now. But the devil demands tribute. Over 30% of an NFL game telecast is adverts[/linequote]

Conversely, football’s popularity in Britain was built on attending matches. Local derbies and regional rivalries from the lowest tier all the way up, created an allure early on that still lives today in spite of the corporate paint job, and the inflated ticket prices for these fixtures.

With only 32 teams for a population of 300 million, most NFL fans will go their whole lives watching their ‘home team’ on television, visiting the stadium only a handful of times. Growing up in Alaska as a Steelers fan it was out of the question to see a game in Pittsburgh, four time zones away. Even Seattle games, the closest NFL city, were untouchable. With such long distances between NFL cities, it stands to reason that a vast majority of the population forged their relationship with their club on TV.

Compare that with the Premiership and the Football League’s combined 92 teams, any of which could be in the top flight in a 3 year span. Now consider that the 60 million souls in England reside in an area roughly the size of Pennsylvania, a medium size American State, just one of 50. You can buy season tickets for away games with your clubs in Britain. You would need your own airplane to do that in the States.

Unlike American football, television was a supplement years after football in England was already beloved, not the driving force to its domestic success. Attending a football match in person is simply more possible in England. Consequently the relationships that British fans form with their local teams are more personal than in the US, and in turn more susceptible to damage when games eventually emigrate from the home grounds and show up on foreign shores. Remember the 39th game mooted a couple of years back?

Spurs recently announced their summer tour of America to tune up for the season with some friendlies against MLS competition. But is it really beyond the realms of reality to think that in a few short years before these two games are actually league matches? It must sound too perfect when the club owners get together and Manchester United/Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Malcom Glazer says:

United can host Spurs in Florida to open things up, while Liverpool and Fulham play in Boston then we switch.”

What Glazier is getting at is the first international break in the first few weeks of a new season. So in effect, match day fans will apparently not notice domestic games starting in September.

The sport in the United States that most closely resembles football in Britain is American College Football. It has a vibrant stadium atmosphere; it has strong regional rivalries, tiered divisions of play and history dating back to the late 1800s. The allegiances formed by university students for their schools is what I can best equate the passion football fans in the UK express for their club at the arena. The NFL is void of that by and large.

Sure they will fix the camera on the 400 pound bald guy with his shirt off in Buffalo and nipples that could carve a Michael Jackson statue (I hear they’re one short at Craven Cottage, I could get you his number), but he is the exception. If the cadre of NFL guys that have slipped into the Prem think they can come in and export games I would hazard to guess that they will be met with stiffer opposition. Opposition like StubHub is facing.

As if the TV facial and the exodus of games weren’t’ enough, ticket brokers like StubHub are threatening the intimate relationship of club and fan at grounds like the Lane. You know what’s scary about that? It is totally normal for any live event in the US to be almost completely run through StubHub. I actually never considered that there was another reality until I heard the anger on The Fighting Cock podcast when StubHub bellied up to the bar in north London. If you can fight it, fight it because like your unemployed step dad, once he’s dug in on your couch he ain’t leaving without a restraining order. Any game or concert worth attending is bought out in minutes by ticket broker zombie computers to be resold to the actual public. The thing is that I forgot there was any other way of doing it.

It’s kind of a bizarre-o-world circle of life for the NFL fan: the prohibitive costs of games, the ones that are still left in country, keep you out of the stadia and force you to retreat to the television for your football where you can get drenched with light beer and erectile dysfunction adverts. I wish there were signs that this wasn’t headed your way, I really do. All I can tell you is keep your beer dark and your dicks hard as long as you can, because there will come a day when you forgot they ever were.

All views and opinions expressed in this article are the views and opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of The Fighting Cock. We offer a platform for fans to commit their views to text and voice their thoughts. Football is a passionate game and as long as the views stay within the parameters of what is acceptable, we encourage people to write, get involved and share their thoughts on the mighty Tottenham Hotspur.

14 Comments

  1. Iain
    05/03/2014 @ 8:29 pm

    Very interesting piece. Already TV is demanding ridiculous kick-off times. Four quarters is probably some way away but not unthinkable.

    Good beard too.

  2. Joe
    05/03/2014 @ 8:39 pm

    Yeah, both leagues are hurting real bad. The NFL and Prem League have never been more popular because of television. I just wasted 5 minutes of my life

    • Iain
      05/03/2014 @ 10:19 pm

      I’m sure no-one else will notice the waste.

    • Dan Mac
      06/03/2014 @ 8:48 am

      More popular – doesn’t mean better. Re-read with your brain switched on and you might not find the read a waste!

    • kporter946286
      06/03/2014 @ 4:19 pm

      Joe, Do you watch NFL. Day by day real fans are loosing interest and the causal fan who couldn’t name more than 5 fans is becoming the norm. Ask NASCAR how over-saturation and fing the real fans over is working for them. And just wait till Prem League is plagued with the horrible non-stop commercials the NFL has. You are correct that from a CORP side neither league is hurting for money and that is not the point of the article. The point of the article the NFL sucks to watch and soon if the Prem League follows the NFL plan, it will suck to watch too.

      • kporter946286
        06/03/2014 @ 4:33 pm

        Players not fans, post edit

  3. Wilboid
    05/03/2014 @ 9:11 pm

    Great read! Very interesting to get your viewpoint from over there.

  4. isnotwas
    06/03/2014 @ 9:07 am

    Insightful and potentially prescient article, Mr Oster. You have written on a subject many on this side of the pond have long considered possible, if not inevitable. The Goliaths of remote viewing, on whichever platform of live tv or streaming, with pockets as deep as the oceans have made the viewing of your national sports of Am Football, baseball etc. unwatchable, certainly for me – too many ad-breaks and inundated.with commercial crap that distracts from the game. Perhaps your observations on the importance of local clubs to their local community support base, the relative ease of travelling to “away” games and the ingrained history mitigates against the seemingly inexorable corrosion of what is essentially a game into a commercial behemoth driven by avarice. I took my daughter to her first game when she was 5 years old (the stadium was 10 minutes walk from home) and she attended every home game that season. Now in her 40s, she is still an avid fan and instilling the same passion in her daughter.

    I, and many others, hope you are wrong in this, but don’t underestimate the power of the local people. For evidence of that, please see the reactions of the supporters to the new owners’ proposals at Cardiff City Football Club and Hull City Football Club, both in the EPL.

  5. Alicat
    06/03/2014 @ 9:18 am

    This was an interesting read and there is obviously the potential for a great deal of things that could happen to Premier League commercially in the future. However maybe the NFL being a stand alone league in terms of a world market has lent itself to be exploited to such and extend. Although there are signs that the Premier league could follow suit, one thing that is different is the fact the most countries do have national leagues and FAs. The MLS is a growing entity so are the leagues across Asia, attempts could be made to move league games to other countries in the future but i do think in the long term it wouldn’t have the backing of these FA’s. The Premier league and television are a worrying alliance that seem to have all the power, but they do need the FA and league on side and it could keep them honest to a point where Premier league games aboard at least would be very unpopular and unrealistic. FIFA again maybe not a widely popular organisation, but they would be charged with keeping the integrity of national leagues across the world. These may not be barriers to Premier league games going abroad, but they would be huddles that would have to be overcome, something i don’t think the NFL had, but i could be wrong.

  6. N17 dizzi
    07/03/2014 @ 10:21 am

    Four quarters is not a goer, there would be riots. Also, the Premier League is governed by FIFA I believe; Prem/Sky cannot summarily decide to change the rules of association football for one league based on commercial interest.

    I agree the betting advertising whilst the players line up is a subversive way of familiarizing viewers to it, ready for the announcement of in game ads.

    BT and SKY fighting it out is a good thing, the company that keep our televised matches clear of spam, gets our money!

  7. jan
    07/03/2014 @ 10:22 am

    sorry, but i find this to be rubbish, you’re comparing apples with pears. Tradition and loyalty are 2 things english football has in infinite supply when compared to american football and that’s what’s keeping the game safe from radical changes. American football clubs come and go, they move to another city, they change names, badges, colors. Try taking a big english club and moving it to another part of the country and try to make it gain following and support, see what happens… I think that we can all agree there’s a big probability of riots in the city where the team initially played and a lot of “who-gives-a-fuck”-ism in the city where the new team is moved. If that new team will gain 5 fans a year, the experiment could be named a success. Although this may seem irrelevant to the content of the article, it isn’t. It’s exactly this sense of tradition and loyalty that will stop radical changes from happening, because english fans are not paper fans, they’re made of rock and they will not put up with any kind of shit. They decide to split the game into 4 quarters, you know what happens immediately? fan boicots. empty stadiums, people watching cartoons instead of the football match.. British fans can and will do that, americans will just say “well, bummer, turn up the volume and pass me another bud! Go Springfield Marmots!”

  8. M. Gareth Johnson
    08/03/2014 @ 12:14 am

    Good piece.. I have several comments.

    1 – NFL has a salary cap and no relegation. This creates a stable environment for owners to invest and for teams to be competitive. In truth, any NFL team is 3 years away from winning a Super Bowl if they draft well and hire a good coach. If the Premier League is truly going to go the route of the NFL they would have to do away with relegation. That would be the signal that it was over. I don’t see that happening because there is just too much tradition in English football.

    2 – TV Money will drive changes in the Premier League, BUT, most of the TV revenue for the league is going to come from an audience outside of England. Don’t have the numbers but I am fairly certain that more people in America watch EPL than English fans. Because England is such a dense island I think there will always be fans attending the stadiums and the atmosphere will continue to be the same.

    3 – Football is just a different sport than American football. If you look at the MLS, they do very well selling out stadiums. ESPECIALLY when they have stadiums built for football and not massive bowls designed for American Football with tracks everywhere. But MLS does crappy on TV. I think that is in part because attending a football match in person is fun. You sing, you don’t have to wait for commercial breaks, it ends roughly when you expect it to. Attending an NFL game is boring as shit. There are tons of commercial breaks, the stadiums are built so you are far from the field. it is just a crappy over commercialized experience to watch an NFL game.

    So, to conclude. Premier League is safe as long as they still have a good stadium experience and they don’t eliminate relegation. If either of those things happen though, I would get worried.

    #COYS #RIP Daren Alexander

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