We’re in a great time for football.
At what other time in the span of footy-dum would it be possible for an American to write a weekly column for a team in London, albeit a smaller club, and be able to watch the old League Two in said country?
Only this one, and that’s what is key. The sport has grown so much around the world in the last five years that it brings people into the sport with not only differing views, but ways of life to support the game.
Part of this could be due to the ‘Football Manager’ culture (something I have touched on before) by managing a virtual team and then looking in on them in real life. Or it could be the fact that we can get to so many matches digitally that it’s creating fans. Think of it this way, there’s a Watford fan group in New Enggland and as far as I can tell there’s very little connection between the two. Plus there are supporter groups in every city with footy bars in each.
This isn’t even accounting for the NBC Premier League coverage that just came about in the last year.
The genesis of this is that we’re able to create fans for the smaller clubs now here in the States faster than we were used to. And this will bring more money into the sport in the UK. I know of at least one club specific podcast here in the State’s that’s not a top four team (Cottage Talk on Blogtalk) which is on Fulham. Think of that, we can watch and love the ‘lesser’ teams.
There are too many people who gravitate to the sport and to the big four or six teams because it’s what they get to see. Too many times people go for the easy way out in the sport, and before I get going too far on this, yes I’m a Liverpool fan but that’s because of Kenny Dalglish and Jan Molby. So I’m not completely out of the grand scope of this debate either.
Football needs to find the next generation of football fans. With the explosion of ready made outlets for the sport we can see Crystal Palace become a bigger club in the eyes of fans in the United States. Or we could see another CP Balitmore or CP St. Louis. But I digress.
The explosion of fans for each team will bring more money into each team and give them more money to buy players.
Maybe I’m stating the obvious here, but think of it, United States and Canada are now open to all the clubs in England. Well within reason, I don’t assume Blyth is going to be having a great amount of fans from the colonies per say. But this opens up people who have moved over who were fans. Also you can look at teams who were good in the past like Preston and Wolverhampton and find out more about them.
We’ll get more people interested in the sport and the past. Maybe you’ll also get more journalists in the sport and we’ll see the bring a fresh approach to the sport.
Just like this blog does.
Article written by Stephen Brandt
