SINKRATZ
PhD in Analogy
I think what I’m hearing is the PAC should take this opportunity to create a super league in soccer in anticipation of the demise of football in America. Our thinking is just so far ahead of the SEC right now!!
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Official realignment thread - SEC formally invites OU and Texas to join the conference in 2025
The craziest thing about hockey is Ive never met someone who didn’t like it, they all love it when they watch it but it’s hard to get them to do that. It’s sort of the anti baseball where you either hate it or love it. I think the NHL can definitely grow as a sport if the market things right because it’s an amazing product, even on tv.
Too late
Judge rules against foreign league games in U.S.
A U.S. District Court judge has ruled in favor of the USSF, dismissing the anti-trust portion of a lawsuit filed by soccer promoter Relevent Sports.
SINKRATZ
PhD in Analogy
Sorry, *collegiate super league. The soccer equivalent of SEC football.Too late
Judge rules against foreign league games in U.S.
A U.S. District Court judge has ruled in favor of the USSF, dismissing the anti-trust portion of a lawsuit filed by soccer promoter Relevent Sports.www.espn.com
Why does watching the highest quality college football make someone a sucker?
241Volcanos
Well-Known Member
You think the 95% of population that doesn’t watch hockey just hasn’t ever seen it?
No I’m saying that a ton of people don’t watch/follow hockey but when they have watched it or went to a game in the last they enjoy it. It’s a huge marketing issue, imo because you can’t deny how awesome the sport is.
Because I think you then need to ask the question what the difference between CFB and the NFL is.
Why does watching the NFL make someone a sucker?
SINKRATZ
PhD in Analogy
Baseball has a pacing problem that purists don’t mind but will always result in a swath of people who hate it because they think it’s boring. Golf is similar in that most people love it or hate it.
I see more people who are just totally ambivalent to Hockey - they might go to one game every couple years when their friend talks them into it but they won’t watch it on tv and don’t really care to invest any energy in being a fan. If you’re not from an area where hockey was part of your childhood, I think it’s very difficult to get a casual sports fan into hockey which is why I think that sport have limited upside.
Because some people at least still pretended that college football wasn’t about money like the NFL.
Exactly. Those ambivalent people who go to a game and like it but never ever watch again, it’s a weird issue to me because plenty of people like sports they weren’t around growing up.
SINKRATZ
PhD in Analogy
Let’s say the SEC added tOSU and Michigan along with whoever else it wanted and created a super league in college football and invited CU to join - I think there’s a real argument about whether a program like CU could really be successful in that scenario. If there was real parity and we could compete, awesome sign me up. But if not, would CU be better off as a punching bag in that league or accepting that the landscape of college football has moved away from CU and we’re better off being competitive in a lesser league?
SINKRATZ
PhD in Analogy
It’s a novelty to those people. They had fun going to the arena and appreciate the skill, but don’t know any of the players (most of whom are foreign), don’t quite understand the rules, they don’t know anybody who plays it around them, they don’t have fond memories going to games or watching it growing up, so they move on to what they know better.
But again, look at how fast European soccer is growing with foreign players that no one knows. I have seen a ton of people watch hockey on tv for the first time and say that was cool and then go on with their lives and never think about it again. There is a clear disconnect there. The rules argument is bogus, it’s not that hard and the announcers explain everything to you. Going to games as a kid doesn’t mean ****, again just look at soccer.
I guess my issue is the use of the word “sucker” to describe someone who watches people play who get paid to play football.
CU’s been a punching bag for almost two decades with no actual means to compete with the top teams in the Pac 12, let alone the SEC/BIG, so I don’t think much would be different.
However, in your scenario, they would be 1/24 or 32 teams in a league where all the top recruits would want to play, and they would have a lot more money and resources at their disposal than they do now. In theory, CU’s recruiting should pick up substantially to at least be somewhat in line with the league peers (average - still not close to Bama, etc). This is also all under the assumption that this new league that only competed among itself wouldn’t have NFL-style rules in place that helps with competitive balance. Regardless, does that really make someone a sucker for wanting to watch that? Are Kentucky, Ole Miss, Miss St, Arkansas, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Indiana, Purdue, Rutgers, Maryland, and Illinois all suckers for being the punching bags for the SEC/BIG elite right now?
The issue with hockey, as you mentioned, is marketing. They do a horrible job of marketing their stars. Tampa Bay just won back to back Cups and was the Presidents trophy winner a year before that and I couldn’t name a single player on that roster, prior to this years Finals. Like baseball, it’s regional with its rooting interests because there’s also very few nationally televised games.
SINKRATZ
PhD in Analogy
American kids all over the country play soccer, and their parents played soccer as kids. The same isn’t true about hockey.
The cost of entry is super low in soccer - poor kids all over the world can play it. The same isn’t true for hockey.
Everyone I know has been to a soccer game - either as a player when they were kids, or as an adult watching their kids play. I can count on one had the number of people who have attended a hockey game in their lives - that connection matters.
Top European soccer hasn’t been as accessible on TV in America until recently. The same isn’t true about hockey it’s been on TV for years and huge swaths of Americans don’t care.
Professional soccer, particularly in Europe, is a glamour sport, hockey is not. European soccer is filled with handsome, tan, millionaires dating super models and vacationing on mega yachts. Hockey players are disproportionately pasty, white Eastern Europeans who speak little english and have dental problems. Which is more appealing in today’s social media landscape to attract youth to the sport?
Or this…
Ronaldo has over 300M IG followers, the NHL MVP (McDavid) has less than a million. One of the best players in the NHL for the past decade, Sydney Crosby, doesn’t even have an IG account. That has an impact. (And yes I realize that gif is Crosby, not McDavid).
I really jumped on the college baseball train this year. It’s awesome…and I haven’t watched pro baseball (other than the Cubs in 16) since about 1994.
With the NIL, the over/under for a car dealership in College Station getting involved vs. a local restaurant chain in Baton Rouge for the commitment of a 5 Star wunderkind to TAMU vs. LSU is about one season. And with legalized sports betting, the over/under for an attempted game rigging scandal is probably 3 seasons. These likelihoods write themselves and my interest in the entire P5 shebang will wane strongly if not disappear completely. Too much non-football low lifer-ery will seep into the everyday heart of the sport and the fans will become unwitting accomplices, i.e. suckers.
On the other hand I can take the scenic drive to Laramie up thru Hwy 287 and look for the next Josh Allen or Chase Roullier and hear the faithful sing “Cotton Eyed Joe” during the 3rd Quarter…
(Not to mention snag a couple of burritos from the Taco John’s.)
Yak, my point is that if NIL can’t work as the optimists intend it to, it will become the death knell of college football. And not to be a cynic, but I’m pretty certain that without some strenuous regulations, the NIL is built almost certainly to be abused, especially in recruiting.
True but...
It didn't scare me back in 1995-1997 when I played high school football. Today with all of that information, I doubt I would have gone out for football if I had to do that all again. The pool of players will be smaller for sure but still big enough to carry the sport forward even if it becomes more regionalized.
Same here. Going to give hockey one more try this season.
I didn't fully pay attention to NCAA baseball this spring but how much shorter are they than MLB games? I'm looking at ESPN+ and the recent CWS games on demand are 3 hours each. UNC baseball moved from the WAC to the Summit...I might check out that baseball team next year.
SINKRATZ
PhD in Analogy
I’d argue that having recognizable, marketable stars is hugely important in marketing a sport. Star power is a huge driver in a sport’s popularity, see what Tiger did for golf in his heyday.
But ok, for comparison the defending Champions League winner, Chelsea, has over 17M Twitter followers, while the 2 time defending Stanley Cup Champion TB Lightning has just under 750k.
1) Soccer sucks. 2) Going to Laramie to watch football instead of Folsom is disgusting. 3) College football is changing, but it’s not going away. CU will be fine. Jesus
ahoelsken
Well-Known Member
Nikita Kucherov.
Not sure what your point is.
I don't watch G League.
College hoops could very well be going down a path that would kill it for me.
In the States maybe. People care about their clubs more than individual players here.
Chelsea aren't even the biggest club in London, FWIW.
SINKRATZ
PhD in Analogy
I’m talking about the States. European soccer clubs are 100 years old and have a century of history and attachment to a region/city/neighborhood because they don’t relocate the way American pro sports franchises do. One third of the teams in the NHL were founded since 1991. The NHL has very few marketable franchises, and even fewer marketable stars.
That's fair.