Here is an article written for my blog on The-Latest.com regarding the ever-increasing boundaries of sport. Read it below, by clicking my link in the top-right of this website or by clicking here!
WITH news that the Football Association Premier League in Britain is looking into expanding its national borders to find larger audiences further afield, one must consider the impact of recent developments in sport and the changes they will bring.
Last September, in a piece for American sports website Atomic Sports Media, I wrote about the National Football League’s International Series at Wembley Stadium, pitching would-be Super Bowl champions, the New York Giants against the would-be worst team in the American football calendar that year, the Miami Dolphins. Little did I know that many of my predictions would come true.
The success of the game, as low-scoring as it was, was unparalleled. In fact, two weeks ago, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced another London game between the San Diego Chargers and New Orleans Saints.
After the NFL announced their first game, the NBA and NHL scheduled games in London to extend the boundaries of both basketball and ice hockey. The NHL converted the Ralph Wilson Stadium in New York State into a 72,000-seater arena for a hockey game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres.
The net result of the latter? The biggest television audience share for the National Hockey League in 10 years.
And now, to fulfil what originally seemed to be a rather average prophecy, the Premiership is looking to expand to foreign soil.
It would only seem fair to play any game in one of three places: the United States, South-East Asia or the Middle East. All three have huge audiences for merchandise, media sales and, perhaps most importantly, advertising.
This is what infuriates most fans: the greed element. Many seem to forget that sport is possibly the biggest business in the world.
Most of the limelight has been taken by Premiership managers, fans and directors arguing against this potentially revolutionary move. Many forget the people who will really suffer - lower league teams, who are already struggling to consolidate their promotion to the Premiership to stay for just one season.
Lower clubs, including my team Hartlepool United, already have little or no chance of making it big, aside from the lucky teams, most recently Bristol City.
Perhaps the Premier League bosses do not realise the effects the proposed changes to their domestic game will have on the tiered system - after all, no American sports have it. If anything, American sports pride themselves on a fair and balanced game, reflected in their need for a draft system that gives the worst teams first choice.
It makes many question whether or not the Premier League cares any more; after all, since the split in the early 1990s, the economic divide between them and the Football League has become greater and greater.
It may only be a matter of time before promotion and relegation between the Football League and Premiership becomes severely limited, or abolished completely, thus mimicking the American model.
One thing is for sure, however - whatever turns out the most profitable outcome will no doubt be the future for football in this country. Until other issues concerning the future of the Premier League are fully addressed by the media, we may never know.
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