European football – or soccer as most Americans call it – appears to be headed away from its roots, aimed at taking the ‘American’ approach to sports. As American sports continue reaching new heights in revenue each year, they have caught the eye of the European sports world, who wonder if they can reach similar, if not greater, levels of success. European sports business owners find themselves asking how they are part of a league that is more popular, has more fans, and has more viewers yet does not reach near the profits of their American counterparts.
The most important part in deciding if it is time to change how sports business is handled in Europe is comparing themselves to the world's most financially successful sports businesses. In the case of the English Premier League, their audience reached 4.7 billion people in 2023, according to SportingPedia. Meanwhile, the Super Bowl, the biggest NFL game by far, reaches 260 million people worldwide and an average of 17.9 million viewers for regular season games in 2023. Despite the large difference in viewership, the NFL has a much greater revenue than the Premier League, almost recording twice as much revenue per year, which leaves a desire for the Premier League to grow financially.
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To solve their problem, the Premier League and its clubs look to take a more American approach to their business and become the highest-revenue sports league in the world. As they strive to achieve this goal, they face many concerns about how to change their sport without upsetting and losing some of their fans.
Changing How They Do Business:
One important option the Premier League must consider changing is the basic building blocks of their league. Since the existence of the Premier League, they have had rules that the bottom three teams each season get relegated, and the top three teams from the league below get promoted. This brings excitement to fans of all teams, no matter how big or how small their organization is, because technically, their club could work their way up and win the title one day.
However, this isn’t the actual possibility as in the 32 years of the league, there have only been 7 different winners, and four of the teams account for 29 of the 32 championships. Yes, the NFL and NBA have been dominated by certain teams, but not nearly to that extent. This leads to the question of how can the Premier League become more competitive, helping to generate more revenue.
The main change that would help achieve this goal would be implementing the ‘Americanized’ fixed league system. Every major American sports league operates under this system, which ensures that teams do not get relegated. It provides owners and stakeholders security, which in return, allows them to invest more of their money into their team, making them more competitive.
Currently, in the Premier League, the bottom-feeder teams, who understand they are at risk of relegation each year, believe that it is not worth pouring in loads of money and resources to sign players to big contracts, improve facilities, and market their team, as they deem it too risky with the possibility of relegation looming in the back of their mind. By implementing a fixed league system, the so-called bottom-feeder teams would be willing to spend more money, making the league more competitive, as they know they are locked in the league.
Another possible strategy that European sports leagues should consider implementing from American sports is the idea of holding a draft. Currently, European leagues have academy programs where they develop young talent. The best of these players go to the most successful club’s academy, giving them an unfair advantage. And for the players who develop into stars at the lesser academies, they tend to be bought out by the large and successful clubs, giving them another advantage over the majority of the league. Implementing the draft strategy gives all teams in the Premier League equal access to the young talent and future stars of their league, making the league more competitive and thus providing more revenue.
Another positive impact that the draft would have on the league is the revenue it generates from the event itself. For example, in the U.S., the NFL draft is an exciting moment for both fans and organizations, as it provides them hope for the next season, even if their team struggled previously. It is a very popular event to watch both in person and on TV and generates revenue for both the league and the host city. For instance, last year’s NFL draft in Detroit generated the NFL 160 million dollars, and the city of Detroit 97 million dollars. If the English Premier League implemented something similar to the NFL Draft, it is fair to assume that they could have success similar to the NFL based on their enormous fan base.
Finally, one other ‘American’ sports idea that the English Premier League could contemplate implementing is having an event similar to the Superbowl. Currently, the Premier League does not have any playoffs or championship games, instead, the winner is decided based on their record and their play throughout the entire season. Having playoffs and a championship can be seen as controversial for the Premier League since it may cause the regular season games to be less meaningful, leading to star players sitting out for rest, which is an issue in some American sports.
However, that would likely not be the case since the Premier League is more than twice as short as the NBA season, where this issue mostly occurs. The regular season would have to be shortened to give time for the ‘American’ style playoffs, which also helps maintain the importance of the regular season games. Then after the regular season, it would implement an NFL, MLB, and NBA style playoffs, where the top teams make the playoffs, and the playoff team with the best record would go against the playoff team with the worst record, with the winner advancing to the next round. They would follow this process until just two teams were remaining, and they could have a championship and make it a Superbowl-esque event.
Data provided by Veronika Bondarenko based off of 2022 Superbowl, The Street
With the Premier League reaching a larger audience than the NFL, creating a Premier League Championship could possibly make a similar, if not greater, revenue than the NFL’s beloved Super Bowl. They could expect to reach numbers identical to those above eventually, however, it may take a few years to reach that level, as it took the NFL years to make the Super Bowl what it is today.
The English Premier League is the most popular sport in viewership, yet it does not land close to the top in revenue. Whether fans like it or not, sports teams are more than just sports: They are businesses in the entertainment industry. Because of this and the opportunity to improve the financial aspect of the league, fans should be aware that there is a possibility for major changes to be made in one of the most beloved sports leagues across the globe.
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