In order to promote the Premier League in New York, the broadcaster NBC has assigned every team a different area of New York, for those residing there to follow, and thus feel a sense of the 'tribal' nature of English football fans. Southampton have been allocated the Tribeca and Chinatown districts. So if you now anyone from these areas, they are now Saints fans. It's an interesting idea. Maybe whoever broadcasts foregin sports in UK could do the same with regards American football or basketball etc.
Only the Americans..... They are happy to move franchises to different cities and said city will just embrace them like they've been there forever.
I think it's more that the Americans are big sports fans (at least their own) and what they embrace is being able to see top level sport in their town/city/state. We are very lucky the number of top football clubs we have in a small geographical area (relatively) that we will never have their problem.
Hopefully we'll now get Martin Scorsese and Bobby De Niro, both big supporters of the Tribeca Film Festival, as fans. In fact, how about a Scorsese movie about Saints rise from League 1 to the top of the pile, starring De Niro as Nicola Cortese?
I like the Southampton section of the map is red and white stripes, not just plain red. Noo Yoik! I'm walking here!
And when said club gets relegated, they will instantly adopt a new club next season! Will the clubs who stay up stay allocated to the same areas or do they start again next season from scratch? It's an odd idea but hell Nicola, get those shirts over there, knowing the Americans, this could be easy money!
I lived in Brooklyn for a couple of months there, will I support West Brom today then?!Just back from there this week and I didnt see any of these advertisements anywhere
Isn't Brooklyn the Cardiff bit? I thought the West Brom area was Queens. Sunderland get all of the Bronx. It hasn't exactly been portioned out evenly!
Surely Americans embracing the game can only be a good thing? They may not do it exactly like us, but boy are they bonkers for sports.
Football is more popular out there than before (fuelled by kids growing up after playing it at school) but it is still a minority sport. An imaginative way to increase interest.
Why doesn't Chelsea NY, get Chelsea? The campaign is a little silly, but NBC is pulling out all the stops. I am certainly not complaining. Used to have to pay $15 a month for Fox Soccer channel just to get 2-3 games live a week. Now I get every single game streamed for free. It's fantastic. No more dodgy firstrowsports streams for me!
