spacecadet
Well-Known Member
Thought it would come to this. Got the perfect matches for them. Yank red shirt cartel and their poodles from Spurs makes a horrible four teams for them.
The Premier League’s American broadcast partner NBC will push top-flight clubs to play a couple of matches on the opening weekend in the United States.
The NBC agreement from 2022-28 is the Premier League’s most valuable overseas TV deal, worth £2 billion, and so clubs will know the financial benefits that matches in the US would bring — but also that they would provoke a big fan backlash.
Pressure for such fixtures appears to be building, especially after Fifa dropped legal action aimed at preventing a similar move by Spain’s La Liga.
Jon Miller, NBC Sports’ president of acquisitions and partnerships, told The Athletic: “At some point in the future, I would love to see a couple of Premier League games open the season here in big stadiums on our opening weekend.
“And I know that’s something that we’ll continue to push for because I think that there’s an American audience here that would like to see regular season games. But in the meantime, we’ll continue to work with the Premier League to do everything we can to make the games available to as many people as possible.”
In March, Casey Wasserman, one of the biggest powerbrokers in world sport, predicted that competitive football matches between English clubs will be played in the US in the next ten years.
Wasserman, the chairman of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics organising committee and founder of the Wasserman sports and entertainment agency, said: “If you had a Manchester United v Chelsea match in New York or a Real Madrid v Barcelona in Miami, those levels of games in American cities — real games that count — it could be massive. I would be shocked if it didn’t happen.”
While playing regular-season games in the US would delight Premier League clubs’ American fans, the reaction is likely to be the opposite among their English counterparts
LEONARDO MUNOZ/AFP
The Premier League has resisted moves to play competitive matches abroad after the angry reaction to the “39th game” plan in 2007 killed off that idea. The league’s chief executive, Richard Masters, did accept last week that the decision by Fifa to drop its legal action in the US had changed the picture.
He said: “The door looks ajar potentially in America but it’s not part of our current plans.”
At the beginning of the season, Masters told reporters that, “I don’t think we’re really any nearer a game abroad.”
He added: “I was here in 2007 when the ‘39th game’ was launched. I’m very much aware of the reaction then and I’m not entirely sure that people’s views have changed.
“What is interesting in the States is that in the US there’s a much more liberal view of what sports can do. You can move a franchise between cities, you can do all sorts of things. But football in this country has a different cultural reference point and we need to be aware of that and respect it.”
The Football Supporters’ Association had a strong response to the idea of fixtures outside of England. They made their objection on X, formerly Twitter, saying: “We defeated Game 39 in 2008 and we’d attack any attempted revival with a full blown, two feet off the ground, studs to the knee tackle.”
The Premier League’s American broadcast partner NBC will push top-flight clubs to play a couple of matches on the opening weekend in the United States.
The NBC agreement from 2022-28 is the Premier League’s most valuable overseas TV deal, worth £2 billion, and so clubs will know the financial benefits that matches in the US would bring — but also that they would provoke a big fan backlash.
Pressure for such fixtures appears to be building, especially after Fifa dropped legal action aimed at preventing a similar move by Spain’s La Liga.
Jon Miller, NBC Sports’ president of acquisitions and partnerships, told The Athletic: “At some point in the future, I would love to see a couple of Premier League games open the season here in big stadiums on our opening weekend.
“And I know that’s something that we’ll continue to push for because I think that there’s an American audience here that would like to see regular season games. But in the meantime, we’ll continue to work with the Premier League to do everything we can to make the games available to as many people as possible.”
In March, Casey Wasserman, one of the biggest powerbrokers in world sport, predicted that competitive football matches between English clubs will be played in the US in the next ten years.
Wasserman, the chairman of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics organising committee and founder of the Wasserman sports and entertainment agency, said: “If you had a Manchester United v Chelsea match in New York or a Real Madrid v Barcelona in Miami, those levels of games in American cities — real games that count — it could be massive. I would be shocked if it didn’t happen.”
While playing regular-season games in the US would delight Premier League clubs’ American fans, the reaction is likely to be the opposite among their English counterparts
LEONARDO MUNOZ/AFP
The Premier League has resisted moves to play competitive matches abroad after the angry reaction to the “39th game” plan in 2007 killed off that idea. The league’s chief executive, Richard Masters, did accept last week that the decision by Fifa to drop its legal action in the US had changed the picture.
He said: “The door looks ajar potentially in America but it’s not part of our current plans.”
At the beginning of the season, Masters told reporters that, “I don’t think we’re really any nearer a game abroad.”
He added: “I was here in 2007 when the ‘39th game’ was launched. I’m very much aware of the reaction then and I’m not entirely sure that people’s views have changed.
“What is interesting in the States is that in the US there’s a much more liberal view of what sports can do. You can move a franchise between cities, you can do all sorts of things. But football in this country has a different cultural reference point and we need to be aware of that and respect it.”
The Football Supporters’ Association had a strong response to the idea of fixtures outside of England. They made their objection on X, formerly Twitter, saying: “We defeated Game 39 in 2008 and we’d attack any attempted revival with a full blown, two feet off the ground, studs to the knee tackle.”