Two big finals this week and
Barcelona / Manchester United
The Barcelona vs. Manchester United final has certainly stirred up football fans across the World Wide Web.
It's been interesting to go from site to site reading the different comments and its
amazing how there doesn't seem to be an "under-dog" in this match-up. These two sides, while having contrasting styles of play are hugely competitive and it should be a humdinger of a final.
I backed Barcelona to win either 2-0 or 2-1 but I don't have any real loyalty on the line here so I'll sit back and let the respective fans scrap it out.
Chelsea / Everton
There is no question who the under-dog is in this game and I got some pretty handy odds backing Everton for this final.
After Villa got knocked out I have tentatively switched my allegiance (for this trophy only!) to Everton so hope they give Chelsea a bit of a surprise...
Monday, May 25, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
The Premier League – A ticking financial time bomb?
By: Tom Mallows
We have all done it – or at least those who don’t have a subscription TV service anyway. You want to watch the big game and can’t make it to the nearest pub to watch it so you go online. There you will find hundreds of sites offering live streams for virtually every game - including ones that aren’t on live TV in your country.
It is this growth of online streaming that could see the Premier League bubble finally burst. This is because the one thing that caused the explosion in popularity in the game and sustained it over the past 17 years has been TV money. Each TV deal runs into billions of pounds and has allowed clubs to spend lavishly and push the league to the top of the tree in terms of entertainment.
The TV companies knew they were onto a winner and so knew they could get away with pushing subscription prices up. The football clubs were also aware of this and so each TV deal grew and grew. More money meant more profit both for the TV companies and the football clubs.
But with the rapid growth of online streaming, and the improvement in internet technology, how long will it be before customers cancel their subscriptions and turn on their laptops?
After all why pay when you can get more choice online for free?
It is similar to what happened with the music industry and file-sharing. The record companies did their utmost to shut sites such as Napster down to try and counter this new threat and maintain their healthy profits. Similarly the Premier League battles to shut streaming sites, but as one closes another opens up - the internet is too big a space to manage.
So what effect will this have on the Premier League? Well first off the TV companies will lower their offer when they next come to the negotiating table. Without the broadcasters' millions the foundations on which many a club's shaky financial structure is built will be removed. You only have to look at the fate of clubs in the Championship and below who recently dropped out of the Premier League. The likes of Charlton, Leeds and Southampton couldn’t sustain their spending without TV money. Even those with billionaire owners beware – watch them drift away when it looks like your club is no longer a profitable business venture.
To try and arrest the economic slide, the clubs will then seek to maximise their revenue by selling an individual product rather than as a League. Clubs like Manchester United will seek to negotiate their own TV deal, perhaps using their own TV channel to stream games online. This is fine for the ‘big four’ but what about those in the bottom half of the league with smaller fan bases?
I can only really see a maximum of eight clubs earning enough money from an individual TV deal to survive. But how exciting is a league with just eight teams?
To preserve the Premier League the excessive and irresponsible spending has to stop either now or at the administrators' request when the TV deal finally implodes. If not it seems a safe football bet that the self-styled ‘greatest League in the world’ could go bankrupt.
We have all done it – or at least those who don’t have a subscription TV service anyway. You want to watch the big game and can’t make it to the nearest pub to watch it so you go online. There you will find hundreds of sites offering live streams for virtually every game - including ones that aren’t on live TV in your country.
It is this growth of online streaming that could see the Premier League bubble finally burst. This is because the one thing that caused the explosion in popularity in the game and sustained it over the past 17 years has been TV money. Each TV deal runs into billions of pounds and has allowed clubs to spend lavishly and push the league to the top of the tree in terms of entertainment.
The TV companies knew they were onto a winner and so knew they could get away with pushing subscription prices up. The football clubs were also aware of this and so each TV deal grew and grew. More money meant more profit both for the TV companies and the football clubs.
But with the rapid growth of online streaming, and the improvement in internet technology, how long will it be before customers cancel their subscriptions and turn on their laptops?
After all why pay when you can get more choice online for free?
It is similar to what happened with the music industry and file-sharing. The record companies did their utmost to shut sites such as Napster down to try and counter this new threat and maintain their healthy profits. Similarly the Premier League battles to shut streaming sites, but as one closes another opens up - the internet is too big a space to manage.
So what effect will this have on the Premier League? Well first off the TV companies will lower their offer when they next come to the negotiating table. Without the broadcasters' millions the foundations on which many a club's shaky financial structure is built will be removed. You only have to look at the fate of clubs in the Championship and below who recently dropped out of the Premier League. The likes of Charlton, Leeds and Southampton couldn’t sustain their spending without TV money. Even those with billionaire owners beware – watch them drift away when it looks like your club is no longer a profitable business venture.
To try and arrest the economic slide, the clubs will then seek to maximise their revenue by selling an individual product rather than as a League. Clubs like Manchester United will seek to negotiate their own TV deal, perhaps using their own TV channel to stream games online. This is fine for the ‘big four’ but what about those in the bottom half of the league with smaller fan bases?
I can only really see a maximum of eight clubs earning enough money from an individual TV deal to survive. But how exciting is a league with just eight teams?
To preserve the Premier League the excessive and irresponsible spending has to stop either now or at the administrators' request when the TV deal finally implodes. If not it seems a safe football bet that the self-styled ‘greatest League in the world’ could go bankrupt.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Sports - changing world order
I believe quite strongly that a combination of the IPL and the economic (financial) crisis will fundamentally change sport across the globe. I'm probably going to say a few things that are going to be considered a little controversial but it's something I've been intrigued by for quite a while now.
Broadly speaking up until a few years ago the financial power of world sport remained in two major power centres - the US and Europe (Specifically the UK).
Even now the big money in rugby, soccer, motorsport and golf still emanates from these parts... but I don't expect that to last.
Some predictions:
- I expect in five years time that Bangladeshi cricket will have overtaken English cricket in the test and One Day International rankings
- Argentina rugby will be stronger than the European nations within seven years
- In less than a decade I don't believe that the English premiership will be regarded as the leading football league in the world
- Clubs like Manchester United, Barcelona and Chelsea will be competing with clubs from places like South America, the US and Asia in a global league in the not too distant future as opposed to the UEFA tournaments.
- Bit of a wild one but I believe that South Africa will have one competitive football team in this tournament in ten years
- I believe that the premier rugby competition - which will usurp the Super 14 - will be played out of either South Africa or Japan inside the next seven years and will work along the same lines as the IPL cricket system with either a bid or draft offering to pick sides.
- Motorsport will be dominated by Chinese and Indian manufacturers and representatives and the Middle East and mainstream Asia will host most of the glamour races
- Support for international brands such as the Springboks, All Blacks, Proteas, Wallabies etc will decline over the next ten years with cross-border franchises attracting greater support.
Obviously there are a lot of people who don't want to hear about the changing global world order but at the end of the day it is a numbers game - China, India, the rest of Asia and Brazil to some extent are growing rapidly at all levels...
- Look at what China achieved at the last world Olympics
- Look at the support the IPL has attracted - it's HUGE money and prestige that far outweighs what the international cricket boards can afford to pay their players.
- F1 used to be the domain of the European manufacturers... suddenly the likes of Toyota are coming in and the Middle East is pouring money into development of tracks and teams - things are going to look very different in a few years time...
Does it sound like lunatic fringe stuff or do you think there is some merit to it all? Would love your input?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
