Off Topic An American obsession with the relegation

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This Yank has been fascinated by relegation since I first began following English football about a decade ago. You have a lot of "plastics" over here who follow a top five club because they're a top five club, but supporters of other clubs have to deal with the prospect of relegation at some point. I've already been through two cycles of relegation/promotion as a relative newbie Hull City supporter. I have a friend who is a passionate West Ham supporter, who couldn't speak to me about football for weeks after they were relegated.

Promotion/relegation doesn't work in the American sports landscape, one of the primary reasons being television revenue. Take baseball for example. Let's say the winners of the two AAA leagues (highest tiers of minor league baseball) were promoted to replace the teams with the worst records in the two major leagues. That would have resulted in the Minnesota Twins and Cincinnati Reds (the oldest franchise in MLB) being relegated, with the El Paso Chihuahuas and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Rail-Riders being promoted to the majors. That is TV market ranks 15 and 36 replaced by 56 and 92. No one would want that (outside of El Paso and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre). Not to mention the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates finding another team in their midst which to peel away fans.
 
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Newland Tiger said:
How much is that ? And how legal ?
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There are different options, but much cheaper than Sky is the norm. With some subscriptions commentary won't be in English, but with others there is an option to select English. A valid subscription is legal of course. There have been court rulings.

Google is your friend
 
tigerscanada said:
Why not ? In the US & Canada every game is televised live on multiple Cable TV channels. With a suitable recording box you could get through a weeks games in less than 20 hours viewing time per week. In my case it's less as I have 3 TV's in my basement so can watch 3 different games concurrently if they kick-off at the same time, watching others by recording them & viewing later. Plus, said channels air some matches on a delayed transmission. I hardly ever miss a match. Subscribing to TigerPlayer also allows me to watch most of the PL teams matches a couple of days after they played.
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which tv channels would these be?
 
John Ex Aberdeen now E.R. said:
Yes I know that, but I still don't understand for the good of the game and the people who watch it, why they have continued with it.
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Essentially it makes the leagues more competitive and the games more exciting. The draft system means the teams that would have been relegated get the best players next season allowing them to rebuild and become stronger. In the NHL no team has won back to back championships since the late 90's and there's been 10 different champions in 15 years.

Its by no means a perfect system but the entire sporting landscape of the USA is so different to here in the U.K that comparing the two is utterly pointless.
 
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OedipusTex said:
This Yank has been fascinated by relegation since I first began following English football about a decade ago. You have a lot of "plastics" over here who follow a top five club because they're a top five club, but supporters of other clubs have to deal with the prospect of relegation at some point. I've already been through two cycles of relegation/promotion as a relative newbie Hull City supporter. I have a friend who is a passionate West Ham supporter, who couldn't speak to me about football for weeks after they were relegated.

Promotion/relegation doesn't work in the American sports landscape, one of the primary reasons being television revenue. Take baseball for example. Let's say the winners of the two AAA leagues (highest tiers of minor league baseball) were promoted to replace the teams with the worst records in the two major leagues. That would have resulted in the Minnesota Twins and Cincinnati Reds (the oldest franchise in MLB) being relegated, with the El Paso Chihuahuas and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Rail-Riders being promoted to the majors. That is TV market ranks 15 and 36 replaced by 56 and 92. No one would want that (outside of El Paso and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre). Not to mention the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates finding another team in their midst which to peel away fans.
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I find it amazing how transfers are made in north american sports. That somebody can just say 'yeah we've traded you to this team, pack your bags it's the opposite side of the country'. The players don't seem to have much power.
 
Walter Sobchak said:
I find it amazing how transfers are made in north american sports. That somebody can just say 'yeah we've traded you to this team, pack your bags it's the opposite side of the country'. The players don't seem to have much power.
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They're not players, they're commodities. So that's ok then <doh>
 
OedipusTex said:
This Yank has been fascinated by relegation since I first began following English football about a decade ago. You have a lot of "plastics" over here who follow a top five club because they're a top five club, but supporters of other clubs have to deal with the prospect of relegation at some point. I've already been through two cycles of relegation/promotion as a relative newbie Hull City supporter. I have a friend who is a passionate West Ham supporter, who couldn't speak to me about football for weeks after they were relegated.

Promotion/relegation doesn't work in the American sports landscape, one of the primary reasons being television revenue. Take baseball for example. Let's say the winners of the two AAA leagues (highest tiers of minor league baseball) were promoted to replace the teams with the worst records in the two major leagues. That would have resulted in the Minnesota Twins and Cincinnati Reds (the oldest franchise in MLB) being relegated, with the El Paso Chihuahuas and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Rail-Riders being promoted to the majors. That is TV market ranks 15 and 36 replaced by 56 and 92. No one would want that (outside of El Paso and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre). Not to mention the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates finding another team in their midst which to peel away fans.
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I guess another problem with baseball is that most (all?) AAA teams are farm teams for an MLB franchise. El Paso (IIRC) are an associate of the San Diego Padres for example.
 
tigerscanada said:
Well I can do it legally here in Canada, for the price mentioned above. I could Skype my sister/brother-in-law, throw a decent videocam in front of the telly here and they could watch any 3pm game in their living room back in Blighty for free.
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That would be a very low tech solution. Finding out how to stream it to them would be much better.
 
onlyme said:
which tv channels would these be?
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The original source feeds would come from Sky &/or BT and packaged on a number of TV channels in Canada.
The US channels may be configured differently in regions within the US.
Google "PL soccer on US TV" to find out more, but here's the Canadian line up.
Note: "Bein" seems to be getting more into the marketplace>
See the "Your Networks" panel on the right for a full list of the canadian channels
Each channel usually has an HD and regular definition version available in some areas.

http://www.canadasoccertv.ca/
 
ElTigre said:
That would be a very low tech solution. Finding out how to stream it to them would be much better.
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Indeed it might, but only one party would need to pay for the service. Skype to Skype video is excellent quality (and free) if your videocam is up to scratch.
Of course, some drunken bastard might knock the videocam over in excitement, so the recipient might be irritated occasionally. I'd need to select my guests carefully or lock the beer fridge !
Using a VPN service would be a more sophisticated "high-tech" solution to use if the source TV provider has an on-line streaming service ( like the BBC do internal to the UK), but then again, for stability of transmission you'd need to pay for the VPN service. There are questions regarding legality in certain countries regarding VPN usage over international borders.
 
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The draft system is fine, but no promotion and relegation means crappy owners can just keep in power forever.
 
its cos Yanks love drama.
whereas a lot of brits love the way things look and dont like change.
change terrifies people.
<smirk>
 
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