Domestic Leagues

**bigmac** · 22/05/2007, 9:14 AM

In Emmet Malone's IT column today

Originally Posted by Emmet Malone

The interest of significant sections of the population in the game is evident from the huge numbers who play and the substantial revenues paid to cable stations here who show games from Europe and South America. The indifference of the media and wider public to games that take place on their doorstep, however, is all too obvious.

He is talking about the profile of football in New York, but I was struck by how apt this comparison is to Ireland and probably many other countries. Is this a worldwide problem, that "fans" have turned into "consumers" and a "revenue stream"? I'd imagine that most of the established European countries don't have this mentality, but there must be a hell of a lot of places where the barstooler is king.

**BohsPartisan** · 22/05/2007, 9:17 AM

But the US has baseball, American Football and Hockey already, its a crowded market.

**bigmac** · 22/05/2007, 9:27 AM

Originally Posted by BohsPartisan

But the US has baseball, American Football and Hockey already, its a crowded market.

That's true, but the point that I took from the article was that there is already a huge football market, it's just that it's not interested in MLS, only in Serie A, EPL or La Liga.

**MariborKev** · 22/05/2007, 9:36 AM

I spent four months travelling through Africa at the end of 06 and the Barstooler is completely king over there.

The Premiership, La Liga et al is beamed in and yet when we tried to get to local games, no-one knew where to go/when the games were on/the cost etc.

I felt like I was back home.....

**Sumac** · 22/05/2007, 11:47 AM

It could be that most people want to watch games at the very highest level. Personally I don't think it comes close to the real thing of actually being at a game (even at a lower level). But people to prefer to watch live sport are generally in the minority in my opinion.
Even in England when it comes to the top four. People all England follow Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal but only a samll percentage of these actually try and go to games regularly.