What if the Pac-12 and Mountain West changed the way college conferences operate by borrowing an idea from European soccer leagues?
What if the Pac-12 and Mountain West changed the way college conferences operate by borrowing an idea from European soccer leagues?
I don’t follow the Bundesliga that closely, but it seems more like fan ownership probably helps avoid some of the worst repercussions that kill off broad interest in any club in Italy or Spain or several other smaller leagues. In Germany, if you go down, it’s still your team, the people in your town literally own it, and I imagine it keeps a core fanbase that’s ready to flare back up and bring out the casual fans again if they get promoted. I’ll defer to you about whether relegation fights and 2 Bundesliga promotion are of much general interest.
In a lot of countries, the top 2-6 clubs are just so desperately far ahead of everyone, and the revenue streams so dependent on the single club itself, that promotion and relegation just doesn’t mean very much. No one (relatively speaking) cares about the bottom half of the table anyway, so why should we care which teams spend the next season in the Eerstedivisie or the Segunda?
You know, it’s an interesting thing you bring up Belgium, because the Belgian Pro League is basically Europe’s version of the Mountain West (strongest league below the top tier). But agreed with respect to fan ownership and interest. Shame this model can’t take off. I suppose colleges are kind of like that, but it’s still a struggle.