Quote:
Originally Posted by PocketsAintFull
@skipaway
The US has plenty of lower level leagues though.
I disagree because competition is the first priority for any sport, imo. In the English Premier League - which itself is the richest 20 teams in any given year - the majority of clubs have no hope of even competing for the league, even over multiple seasons, unless they get bought out by a super rich owner.
At least in top level US sports, that is generally not the case, and coming to US sports as a UK fan, it creates exponentially more interest.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t problems with the closed franchise system, not at all (the Red Sox letting Betts go is a good example imo) - but the controlled environment for competition is priceless imo. World soccer has all the same runaway rich owners, with no structures in place to deal with it. Any team that manages to move up through the pyramids to any significant level does it with a large financial injection, for the most part.
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The lower level leagues in the US are completely blocked out, unlike the typical pyramid system teams can go up and down.
In England it's definitely NOT the richest clubs always in top 20. That's how the US system works. In England, a club can go up and down a lot even with a consistent fan base.
The US "runaway rich owner" situation is way way worse, since it's all the top league owners are super rich, and they close out any chance for people to join them.
"Financial injection" is a topic that makes the American clubs look even worse. Not only are the club owners already very rich and not in danger of competition, they create systems to limit spending therefore there is no financial risk for them and there is no risk of them not being able to compete. American teams exist for the profit of owners. England teams exist to win, and other than American-owned England teams, most of them are either community projects or owner vanity projects, meaning most of the money go back to the club instead of the pocket of owners.
Rich owners is way less of an issue for sports than owners that focus on enriching themselves through sports.