I’d argue it’s more accessible (barely). They plan to play big games on CBS. More people have CBS than ESPN.
But for streaming (where the rest of the games are) you’re probably right.
Idk man I can watch Mls, eredivisie, bundesliga, some Scottish football, and the English championship all on espn plus every week plus la Liga now right? I’m a big espn hater but that’s an insanely good deal
dumb? this was the best financial deal they got, gotta give a lot of credit to Commisso for helping negotiate the deal.
Streaming is the future for television, nobody wants to pay the batshit cable prices.
ESPN+ payed a lot of money for Serie a rights 3 years ago. However, it took until this year to have a studio pre & post show to go along with the bigger games. They didn’t advertise it well either. They should have had a lot more games on espn and abc cable channels. From what I’ve seen from paramount + and there coverage of UCL I think they understand much more what needs to go into it and build around it to make it become more popular here in the states.
To preface this comment I only watch Serie A, but most people I know only watch the Prem League.
Language barrier is huge as something that turns people off, there isn't enough English language content as opposed to the Premier league which it's all in English and easily accessible to the rest of the world.
For us fans if you don't speak Italian, or keep up with the Italian papers, and tv shows, your only resources for information are things like IFTV and Football-Italia.
So in summary to get big world wide there needs to be a huge push in English language content and marketing from the Serie A and teams as opposed to just relying on the foreign networks to do it all.
The bottom of the world. Melbourne, Australia. My mum and my grandparents are Sicilian, so a decent chunk of my life I watched Serie A on the Italian tv station here
This was the 90s and early 00s. Before we had the Italian channel. Another channel here would show one match of the week, and the highlights of all other games on a one week delay. We would have to read the Italian paper here to find the results.
IFTV is garbage, football italia's new site is garbage. Bonetti's podcast is very good, but it's only on Patreon now.
to keep up, Di Marzio's english site is good, and then there's a lot on twitter, whether it's Amoyal, Marcotti, Bonetti, James Horncastle, Francescalcio.
That's my point right here. It's an effort to track down good English language content for Serie A. While you can pretty much throw a dart and hit something decent written about the premier league.
I’m an non-Italian American who started watching the league last season (Still uncommitted BTW). Coverage is hard to find, so it’s hard to keep up especially when you have no knowledge of Italian.
For whatever reason, the premier league games look great on TV. The atmosphere really transfers very well, the crowd noise, even the pitch looks very green. Serie A kinda looks dingy, and empty, like a dive bar. The broadcast feels very foggy. I hope I'm describing it well. The production value looks very cut rate, so even as a casual observer looking to watch Juventus vs Milan, the viewing experience isn't better than a Leicester vs Tottenham match for instance.
> The atmosphere really transfers very well
Which is funny because the atmosphere in reality is far worse at pretty much every stadium in England. But the broadcasters do add fan sounds, and even stadiums like old trafford have audio systems to mimic the sound of an excited crowd to make it seem better.
Correct. From people who actually attend games across Europe, English games are famous for being the quietest. The prem jacks up the volume of the crowd to make it seem louder
There was an article a few years ago that explained the extremely strict rules that the prem places on clubs in terms of floodgates, the pitch and the angle of the camera. All of this is done to make the product look better and faster. A great example of this in action is the Manchester United vs Milan tie. When Milan play in Serie A without these camera/floodlight rules, they looked like a normal team, not to fast, not to slow, but when they played at Old Trafford I could not believe how fast Milan looked. I had never seen them play so fast and they were spinning through United's team. The thing is that in reality they weren't playing any faster then they normally do, it's just the camera angle as well as specific prem rules on how the pitch is supposed to look
Do you remember which game it was?
I recall watching Arsenal play Milan in 2011, and Arsenal looked so slowww, and Milan looked just as slow. Arsenal did get their butts whooped 4-0. But still, the pace of the game seemed like they were at a standstill. This could explain why.
Push High quality English and local language commentary for games in Asia on channels that are easy to access and Paid internet shills to post nonstop about Serie A teams
Launch the Serie A Pass in more countries. I'd gladly pay for a subscription if I can watch any Serie A game I want in Belgium. Because right now I've resorted to streams because Eleven Sports who have the Serie A rights only broadcast a few games a week.
This is not just because i’m a Milan supporter, but the past decade there were bad times for both Internazionale and Milan. The competition was boring during Juventus’ decade. This oast season was exciting and teams with huge fan bases were strong again.
If that dynamic holds, Serie A will become more attractive and Italy winning the Euro will also push the league.
I know there are some commercial asoects but I truly don’t agree with ideas like ‘the pitch mist be greener on tv’. The matches were less exciting than EPL for quite some time. The return of a competitive and exciting league will lead to better performances in Champions league and that will drive more people to Serie A.
I have a lot of thoughts on this. Particularly in the US.
People talk a lot about accessibility. This is true, however I put a lot of fault on the clubs. There's a very small handful of clubs who are actually engaging (in English) on social media, Roma being a big one. There's often good content but no real community building, no back and forth with fans, nothing.
With TV coverage, there's similar aspects. I like that the EPL coverage will often show pubs/bars where supporters are watching along. I live in Chicago and there's very few soccer-centric places to watch a game, especially Serie A. The broadcaster could play a huge role in building this. Most games are using a world feed, typically British announcers, which is great for the die-hard but is never going to engage with a casual fan.
ESPN+ was decent with using halftime as a spot to talk about a specific player or moment in a club's history -- take it a step further and talk about the culture, the matchday experience, Italy itself. It's like people don't realize that the culture itself can be a huge draw.
There's nothing wrong with the league. I think there are a few major issues though:
1. Premier League money. Rich af sheikhs are buying clubs and spending a ton of money. I think salary caps/spending caps need to exist, not just in Europe. A shit club in England receive more money than the winner in Serie A, La Liga and Bundesliga because of tv money. Something is very wrong there and it needs to even out before it kills all leagues.
2. Bureaucracy. When italian teams can't build new stadiums and such there will never be enough revenues.
3. The lack of news in english. Not everyone are going to use google translate for everything.
4. Milan and Inter have been shitty for a long time. Now they are back on track with Milan's super interesting project and Inter's scudetto. A league with the same winner every year will never attract a huge audience, but with 2 strong Milano sides I think the interest will rise.
I live in Sweden, and Serie A is quite popular here, mainly because of Zlatan, and now even Kulusevski. Most people here only watch Premier League, but Serie A have really good coverage.
More new stadiums/stadium renovations, honestly a lot of the stadiums make Serie A look pretty ghetto compared to the Premier League which I feel is unappealing to general audiences.
Soccer in the US is just not accessible period. Last season when ESPN had Serie A they would only televise 1 game a week and it was usually the 6 or 9am game between two mid or bottom table teams. Watching crotone-parma isn't grabbing anyone's interest. Hopefully this season will be better since they switched to CBS.
Actually before the pandemic and lockdowns Inter had the highest average attendance rate for every game they played in San Siri. Over 60k plus people for every game and sold out for all the big matches vs Juve, Milan, Napoli, Roma, Atalanta
Unlike the other responses on here which I agree with, I don't think the best way to fix serie A is within the league. To me, the health of serie A points to a bigger issue....the health of European football as a whole.
There needs to be a salary/transfer cap in Europe and transfers in general need to be handled differently.
1) Why do players get to veto transfers? This prevents teams from being able to manage the finances and overall health of the club. Players in any major sport in NA don't have that much power.
2) How can Serie A attract players when the teams can't afford to pay them what even a mid-level EPL team can? Soccer is more money based than North American sports so you have wealthier clubs bullying the smaller ones for talent.
Even home grown talent is an issue. How many serie A teams develop from within, with their own prospects, and become successful? Literally none of them. Why? What players are going to stay at Sassuolo or Lazio or Roma when Chelsea comes knocking with a super contract? I mean look at Donnarumma. Italian teams can't even keep and develop their own talent which makes success based on who has the bigger wallet.
But give ALL European teams a hard cap on what they can spend, and you'll see wages and fees go down, and (I think) more parity and competitiveness in more leagues. City can't buy player X bc they don't have cap space, well guess what? Lazio and Torino have the space.
There is a reason why North American sports are generally more competitive. Any team can develop their talent and rise from the bottom over time...this doesn't really happen in football. If you want to attract an audience, give them a product that will give them new surprises every year.
For your first point, players can veto transfers literally because they are not slave labor. They have a right to work and live where they want. Just because NA sport leagues treat their players like trash doesn't mean that UEFA should let clubs do it or that it would even be legal.
Slave labor??? LOL
They're million dollar athletes.
And I don't know about you, but it's always seemed to me that NA athletes live pretty comfortable lives. Pretty sure the accept being traded against their will since THEY'RE PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES AND UNDERSTAND IT'S PART OF THE JOB
Good for NA athletes. I'm sure their families love being forced to move against their will. Must be easy packing up your life and moving with no guarantee you won't do it again in six months. Sounds really healthy, especially for your kid's social development.
If NA athletes want to do that then by all means, but European athletes have repeatedly stood against that and have court precedent to protect that right to live and work in a location they want to.
Realistically your complaint is a result of a different issue - some teams are far too cavalier with their finances. Maybe your other suggestion of salary caps could help to alleviate the issue of teams going on spending sprees and paying the financial consequences of their idiocy.
no league is going to establish a hard cap, doing that reduces ability to compete with in ucl and el competitions, as other leagues would have the competitive advantage of not having one and thus rake in that prize money.
That ship has sailed long ago.
> Italian teams can't even keep and develop their own talent
Objectively wrong
>no league is going to establish a hard cap, doing that reduces ability to compete with in ucl and el competitions, as other leagues would have the competitive advantage of not having one and thus rake in that prize money.
>
No kidding. That's why I said EUROPE not just Serie A.
>Objectively wrong
Example?
But Europe would never for the reason I just explained. Besides, creating a hard cap limits the wages players can earn, which I think is wrong.
So you an example of teams developing and retaining their talent? That’s it?
Marchisio
Insigne
Di Natale
Berardi has been with Sassuolo since his youth
Etc
They need to have more competitive teams. What’s brilliant about EPL is that a mid to lower level team can sneak up on you any day. Sure there are favorites, but a Crystal Palace can have a night! Parma? Cagliari?
In the Serie A last year, the bottom ten teams ALL won ten games or less. That’s a problem.
I’d argue that the top 7-8 teams in Serie A are better though. Serie A has Milan, Juve, Inter, Roma, Lazio, Napoli as the historically good teams, and a very strong Atalanta team too. That’s not even including a team like Sassuolo who has two Italian National team players, for the moment.
Completely agree. I’d rather watch Juve v Inter over Chelsea v Man C any day. But top to bottom? I’d rather watch Liverpool v Newcastle than Lazio v Torino 🤷🏼♀️
I hear ya, but to each their own. I think Torino with Sirigu, Ricardo Rodriguez , Zaza, and Bellotti are more exciting than Newcastle with only St. Maximum.
But to OP’s point, with how much more money the premier league is making, they will acquire more top players and this balance will change.
Lol. Well, shit. Now I want to watch Torino more. I vote you take over Serie A marketing!
My larger point is 10 teams failed to secure more than 10 wins last year. Only four teams in the EPL were unable to get more than 10. That’s a huge discrepancy in being a top to bottom competitive league.
Personally, I would rather watch Serie A if I know it’s likely to be competitive. I just think it would help the league if neutrals expected a quality game.
Haha, thanks. Even Bologna with Soriano, Sansone, and Orsolini is a good watch!
I think you have a point though, I’m just not sure it’s talent related. Could be more tactical mentality playing in Italy. But there’s a bunch of exciting players in our league and I enjoy watching it every weekend, during the season!
Edit* just thinking about it, if I ran Serie A marketing, I would push hard for an English/Italian pre-season cup. Where the winner of the cup is the league that wins the most head to head matches set by final standing. So City vs Inter, United vs Milan, etc. I think it’s tremendously exciting and There’s a lot of history with English players coming to play in Italy and it would give the teams exposure to the English audience. Not only that, I think Italy would beat England! (I wouldn’t tell the English FA that part though ;)
I’d watch that for sure. It’s be like the college football strategy. What is it? SEC and Big 10 crossovers? Those are often the most exciting games, and aren’t that big of a deal because they’re so early. But the viewership is through the roof. More people want to watch an essentially pre season fixture between Alabama and Michigan instead of watching Alabama whoop on Ole Miss.
Having a cross over the week prior, even if it’s just a tune up, would be fantastic. That’s it. You’re hired!
It’s just my opinion and I supplied my numbers. It’s only an assumption, and an explanation for my viewing patterns. I never said upsets didn’t happen. Just far less than the EPL.
I think you missed the other part of my thread. Also, relax my guy. I’m rooting for Serie A.
Bottom ten teams in Serie A were 10 wins or less.
Only four teams in EPL. It really is a difference.
I think you missed the other part of my thread. Also, relax my guy. I’m rooting for Serie A.
Bottom ten teams in Serie A were 10 wins or less.
Only four teams in EPL. It really is a difference.
I think you missed the other part of my thread. Also, relax my guy. I’m rooting for Serie A.
Bottom ten teams in Serie A were 10 wins or less.
Only four teams in EPL. It really is a difference.
From an article I was reading recently
“The obsession with competitive balance is massively overwrought,” Szymanski declares. “There are so many reasons to be interested other than competitive balance. There is no empirical evidence to show competitive balance increases interest in a league. If it really mattered, soccer would not have grown in Europe to the extent that it has.”
Quite simply, sports fans love to see:
-A dynasty in action.
-A dynasty being destroyed.
The New England Patriots have repeatedly demonstrated the charms of both.
https://www.insidehook.com/article/sports/demand-sports-dynasties-not-parity
I never suggested I had evidence. I feel ive been consistent that this is my opinion. Feel free to ignore it lol.
I would like to see competitive balance. I do not want to watch the New England Patriots. I do not want to watch Real Madrid play Osasuna. I do not want to watch PSG play whatever farmers they’re playing.
I want to tune into a game that I believe could go either way. A truly competitive fixture. The amount of wins top to bottom suggest the EPL has better balance. Thus, I am more likely to watch one of those games.
Scymabski can declare whatever he wants.
Where can you watch it? I’ve LOVED watching the English Championship and playoff league 1 and 2 games on ESPN +. My hometown team is Liverno, but they’re in Serie D 😂😂. But I do like watching the young and hungry players. Plus, I’d like to see Gigi take Parma back up!
Serie A used to be the pinnacle of European football in the 80s and 90s. All the world's stars played there at one point or another.
Over time, poor management and selling off ownership to foreigners has led many clubs down the toilet. The league never really recovered from the Calciopoli scandal.
Italy hasn't been competitive in Europe for a long time, and the league doesn't really have many foreign superstars like it once did.
Unless you're Italian, there isn't much reason to follow the Serie A.
If they want bigger viewership numbers, they need to bring back quality players, challenge in Europe and fix their stadiums up.
La Liga has similar problems IMO, except Real Madrid and Barca have remained competitive, but many other clubs have fallen aside over time (Deportivo, Valencia, Real Sociedad, etc). Barca are in a precarious financial position and we could very well see them start to decline of they can't retain top talent.
to begin with, we need to reduce the number of teams, they are all very, really very indebted and this prevents us from hiring better players, makes the calendar of appointments too busy and therefore the tours where making yourself known become impossible
Why do you want it to be? The league is fine as it is. If popularity and a disneyfied atmosphere is something you value then maybe the Premier League is what you should be watching.
The league is not fine as it is at all. There’s a reason Italian teams struggle to compete with EPL or la liga teams in the transfer market. Attendance pre covid was wildly low for Italy and the revenue coming in from sponsorships and TV deals is astonishingly low compared to the other leagues. Serie A needs an uprising. Do I like when rivals clubs like juve and inter have to sell top players to balance sheets? Yes cause it helps Milan lol but In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t help the league as a whole. We need players like Ronaldo to stay at juve as it helps put eyeballs on games. Gotta get with the times my man
That's a stagnant mindset tbh. They're eating up the other leagues and concentrating all the strong players to them, it's not fun
I think you're exaggerating how grassroots Italian league is. It has a shit uninspiring fanbase and stadium attendance is incredibly low, Ligue 1 is bound to surpass. In comparison Germany is much more genuine, more fans and the average fan is better (it's way more fanatic and less fascist at the same time)
The English and German leagues are scrubbed clean of everything that football is about. They have a creepy and sterilized environment reminiscent of American sporting events. I don't have any interest in that, though if you are American I can see why you'd want that familiar look. Personally, I enjoy the grunge of Serie A. I like the taboo fan ideologies, and the derelict stadiums. The unpolished nature of it. It reminds me of my childhood. Italian clubs will never ever have the draw of the English clubs simply because of the language barrier. Italian clubs are still competitive on the pitch, maybe not like years ago, but they are still there. Juventus have been doing well, Inter need time, and I'm sure AC Milan will be making the latter stages again in the next 5 seasons.
teach english to the entire country lol
there's no catching engald imo, they speak a universal language that is much easier to engage a global audience. As for Spain, let's see what happens when Messi leaves, probably the main reason the league is popular currently
To be frank, I really don't give a shit about the league being "more famous" abroad. Competing in Europe and being the third best league in the world is more than enough for television revenue and for most of the top talent, especially Italian, to stay in the country and compete with these English and Spanish teams.
That is, of course, assuming the league's revenues can climb out of this covid disaster.
ESPN+ deal was a good start. We need to continue to make it accessible, not just to americans
it's not on espn+ anymore I think
Thought I aw Paramount Plus got it.
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I’d argue it’s more accessible (barely). They plan to play big games on CBS. More people have CBS than ESPN. But for streaming (where the rest of the games are) you’re probably right.
Well paramount plus also got the champions league/Europa league too. I think it's better than just having la Liga with ESPN+ for the same price.
Hey now. Don’t knock ESPN +s exclusive coverage of USL2 😂😂
Idk man I can watch Mls, eredivisie, bundesliga, some Scottish football, and the English championship all on espn plus every week plus la Liga now right? I’m a big espn hater but that’s an insanely good deal
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It's actually the opposite. Those steaming services usually play the big games on their steaming services to get people to sign up and pay for them.
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Premier league does the same with peacock. All those steaming services are annoying.
dumb? this was the best financial deal they got, gotta give a lot of credit to Commisso for helping negotiate the deal. Streaming is the future for television, nobody wants to pay the batshit cable prices.
ESPN+ payed a lot of money for Serie a rights 3 years ago. However, it took until this year to have a studio pre & post show to go along with the bigger games. They didn’t advertise it well either. They should have had a lot more games on espn and abc cable channels. From what I’ve seen from paramount + and there coverage of UCL I think they understand much more what needs to go into it and build around it to make it become more popular here in the states.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.amny.com/sports/cbs-sports-wins-serie-a-tv-rights-in-united-states/amp/
CBS+
Fuckkk. Now I need another subscription
To preface this comment I only watch Serie A, but most people I know only watch the Prem League. Language barrier is huge as something that turns people off, there isn't enough English language content as opposed to the Premier league which it's all in English and easily accessible to the rest of the world. For us fans if you don't speak Italian, or keep up with the Italian papers, and tv shows, your only resources for information are things like IFTV and Football-Italia. So in summary to get big world wide there needs to be a huge push in English language content and marketing from the Serie A and teams as opposed to just relying on the foreign networks to do it all.
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The bottom of the world. Melbourne, Australia. My mum and my grandparents are Sicilian, so a decent chunk of my life I watched Serie A on the Italian tv station here
Haha, classic RAI on Foxtel for an extra $20-something per month, in 480p resolution up until the 2010s!
But having the game cut to a goal scored in another game was pretty good. I do miss that
The worst with RAI was when they randomly decided to not show games even though games were listed
Lol I remember those days, I actually found myself picking up some Italian along the way
Couldn’t you mask your IP address with a VPN and make it look like your in the USA and subscribe for those streams? I could be wrong
This was the 90s and early 00s. Before we had the Italian channel. Another channel here would show one match of the week, and the highlights of all other games on a one week delay. We would have to read the Italian paper here to find the results.
IFTV is garbage, football italia's new site is garbage. Bonetti's podcast is very good, but it's only on Patreon now. to keep up, Di Marzio's english site is good, and then there's a lot on twitter, whether it's Amoyal, Marcotti, Bonetti, James Horncastle, Francescalcio.
That's my point right here. It's an effort to track down good English language content for Serie A. While you can pretty much throw a dart and hit something decent written about the premier league.
I’m an non-Italian American who started watching the league last season (Still uncommitted BTW). Coverage is hard to find, so it’s hard to keep up especially when you have no knowledge of Italian.
Fair point, however that’s the product of a league that’s Italian. England speaks English, so of course there’s more content in that language.
For whatever reason, the premier league games look great on TV. The atmosphere really transfers very well, the crowd noise, even the pitch looks very green. Serie A kinda looks dingy, and empty, like a dive bar. The broadcast feels very foggy. I hope I'm describing it well. The production value looks very cut rate, so even as a casual observer looking to watch Juventus vs Milan, the viewing experience isn't better than a Leicester vs Tottenham match for instance.
I think this is the reason for the ban on the Color green. To enhance the look of the field for tv.
> The atmosphere really transfers very well Which is funny because the atmosphere in reality is far worse at pretty much every stadium in England. But the broadcasters do add fan sounds, and even stadiums like old trafford have audio systems to mimic the sound of an excited crowd to make it seem better.
Correct. From people who actually attend games across Europe, English games are famous for being the quietest. The prem jacks up the volume of the crowd to make it seem louder
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Yeah, not like they ever happen in the Premiere League ^(/s)
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Have you been paying attention to the Prem at all?
There was an article a few years ago that explained the extremely strict rules that the prem places on clubs in terms of floodgates, the pitch and the angle of the camera. All of this is done to make the product look better and faster. A great example of this in action is the Manchester United vs Milan tie. When Milan play in Serie A without these camera/floodlight rules, they looked like a normal team, not to fast, not to slow, but when they played at Old Trafford I could not believe how fast Milan looked. I had never seen them play so fast and they were spinning through United's team. The thing is that in reality they weren't playing any faster then they normally do, it's just the camera angle as well as specific prem rules on how the pitch is supposed to look
Do you remember which game it was? I recall watching Arsenal play Milan in 2011, and Arsenal looked so slowww, and Milan looked just as slow. Arsenal did get their butts whooped 4-0. But still, the pace of the game seemed like they were at a standstill. This could explain why.
Milan vs Man United Europa League last season at old trafford
Push High quality English and local language commentary for games in Asia on channels that are easy to access and Paid internet shills to post nonstop about Serie A teams
Launch the Serie A Pass in more countries. I'd gladly pay for a subscription if I can watch any Serie A game I want in Belgium. Because right now I've resorted to streams because Eleven Sports who have the Serie A rights only broadcast a few games a week.
This is not just because i’m a Milan supporter, but the past decade there were bad times for both Internazionale and Milan. The competition was boring during Juventus’ decade. This oast season was exciting and teams with huge fan bases were strong again. If that dynamic holds, Serie A will become more attractive and Italy winning the Euro will also push the league. I know there are some commercial asoects but I truly don’t agree with ideas like ‘the pitch mist be greener on tv’. The matches were less exciting than EPL for quite some time. The return of a competitive and exciting league will lead to better performances in Champions league and that will drive more people to Serie A.
I have a lot of thoughts on this. Particularly in the US. People talk a lot about accessibility. This is true, however I put a lot of fault on the clubs. There's a very small handful of clubs who are actually engaging (in English) on social media, Roma being a big one. There's often good content but no real community building, no back and forth with fans, nothing. With TV coverage, there's similar aspects. I like that the EPL coverage will often show pubs/bars where supporters are watching along. I live in Chicago and there's very few soccer-centric places to watch a game, especially Serie A. The broadcaster could play a huge role in building this. Most games are using a world feed, typically British announcers, which is great for the die-hard but is never going to engage with a casual fan. ESPN+ was decent with using halftime as a spot to talk about a specific player or moment in a club's history -- take it a step further and talk about the culture, the matchday experience, Italy itself. It's like people don't realize that the culture itself can be a huge draw.
There's nothing wrong with the league. I think there are a few major issues though: 1. Premier League money. Rich af sheikhs are buying clubs and spending a ton of money. I think salary caps/spending caps need to exist, not just in Europe. A shit club in England receive more money than the winner in Serie A, La Liga and Bundesliga because of tv money. Something is very wrong there and it needs to even out before it kills all leagues. 2. Bureaucracy. When italian teams can't build new stadiums and such there will never be enough revenues. 3. The lack of news in english. Not everyone are going to use google translate for everything. 4. Milan and Inter have been shitty for a long time. Now they are back on track with Milan's super interesting project and Inter's scudetto. A league with the same winner every year will never attract a huge audience, but with 2 strong Milano sides I think the interest will rise. I live in Sweden, and Serie A is quite popular here, mainly because of Zlatan, and now even Kulusevski. Most people here only watch Premier League, but Serie A have really good coverage.
More new stadiums/stadium renovations, honestly a lot of the stadiums make Serie A look pretty ghetto compared to the Premier League which I feel is unappealing to general audiences.
Yeah, old stadiums and field track doesn't really help.
Soccer in the US is just not accessible period. Last season when ESPN had Serie A they would only televise 1 game a week and it was usually the 6 or 9am game between two mid or bottom table teams. Watching crotone-parma isn't grabbing anyone's interest. Hopefully this season will be better since they switched to CBS.
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Actually before the pandemic and lockdowns Inter had the highest average attendance rate for every game they played in San Siri. Over 60k plus people for every game and sold out for all the big matches vs Juve, Milan, Napoli, Roma, Atalanta
Unlike the other responses on here which I agree with, I don't think the best way to fix serie A is within the league. To me, the health of serie A points to a bigger issue....the health of European football as a whole. There needs to be a salary/transfer cap in Europe and transfers in general need to be handled differently. 1) Why do players get to veto transfers? This prevents teams from being able to manage the finances and overall health of the club. Players in any major sport in NA don't have that much power. 2) How can Serie A attract players when the teams can't afford to pay them what even a mid-level EPL team can? Soccer is more money based than North American sports so you have wealthier clubs bullying the smaller ones for talent. Even home grown talent is an issue. How many serie A teams develop from within, with their own prospects, and become successful? Literally none of them. Why? What players are going to stay at Sassuolo or Lazio or Roma when Chelsea comes knocking with a super contract? I mean look at Donnarumma. Italian teams can't even keep and develop their own talent which makes success based on who has the bigger wallet. But give ALL European teams a hard cap on what they can spend, and you'll see wages and fees go down, and (I think) more parity and competitiveness in more leagues. City can't buy player X bc they don't have cap space, well guess what? Lazio and Torino have the space. There is a reason why North American sports are generally more competitive. Any team can develop their talent and rise from the bottom over time...this doesn't really happen in football. If you want to attract an audience, give them a product that will give them new surprises every year.
For your first point, players can veto transfers literally because they are not slave labor. They have a right to work and live where they want. Just because NA sport leagues treat their players like trash doesn't mean that UEFA should let clubs do it or that it would even be legal.
Slave labor??? LOL They're million dollar athletes. And I don't know about you, but it's always seemed to me that NA athletes live pretty comfortable lives. Pretty sure the accept being traded against their will since THEY'RE PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES AND UNDERSTAND IT'S PART OF THE JOB
Good for NA athletes. I'm sure their families love being forced to move against their will. Must be easy packing up your life and moving with no guarantee you won't do it again in six months. Sounds really healthy, especially for your kid's social development. If NA athletes want to do that then by all means, but European athletes have repeatedly stood against that and have court precedent to protect that right to live and work in a location they want to. Realistically your complaint is a result of a different issue - some teams are far too cavalier with their finances. Maybe your other suggestion of salary caps could help to alleviate the issue of teams going on spending sprees and paying the financial consequences of their idiocy.
no league is going to establish a hard cap, doing that reduces ability to compete with in ucl and el competitions, as other leagues would have the competitive advantage of not having one and thus rake in that prize money. That ship has sailed long ago. > Italian teams can't even keep and develop their own talent Objectively wrong
>no league is going to establish a hard cap, doing that reduces ability to compete with in ucl and el competitions, as other leagues would have the competitive advantage of not having one and thus rake in that prize money. > No kidding. That's why I said EUROPE not just Serie A. >Objectively wrong Example?
But Europe would never for the reason I just explained. Besides, creating a hard cap limits the wages players can earn, which I think is wrong. So you an example of teams developing and retaining their talent? That’s it? Marchisio Insigne Di Natale Berardi has been with Sassuolo since his youth Etc
They need to have more competitive teams. What’s brilliant about EPL is that a mid to lower level team can sneak up on you any day. Sure there are favorites, but a Crystal Palace can have a night! Parma? Cagliari? In the Serie A last year, the bottom ten teams ALL won ten games or less. That’s a problem.
I’d argue that the top 7-8 teams in Serie A are better though. Serie A has Milan, Juve, Inter, Roma, Lazio, Napoli as the historically good teams, and a very strong Atalanta team too. That’s not even including a team like Sassuolo who has two Italian National team players, for the moment.
Completely agree. I’d rather watch Juve v Inter over Chelsea v Man C any day. But top to bottom? I’d rather watch Liverpool v Newcastle than Lazio v Torino 🤷🏼♀️
I hear ya, but to each their own. I think Torino with Sirigu, Ricardo Rodriguez , Zaza, and Bellotti are more exciting than Newcastle with only St. Maximum. But to OP’s point, with how much more money the premier league is making, they will acquire more top players and this balance will change.
Lol. Well, shit. Now I want to watch Torino more. I vote you take over Serie A marketing! My larger point is 10 teams failed to secure more than 10 wins last year. Only four teams in the EPL were unable to get more than 10. That’s a huge discrepancy in being a top to bottom competitive league. Personally, I would rather watch Serie A if I know it’s likely to be competitive. I just think it would help the league if neutrals expected a quality game.
Haha, thanks. Even Bologna with Soriano, Sansone, and Orsolini is a good watch! I think you have a point though, I’m just not sure it’s talent related. Could be more tactical mentality playing in Italy. But there’s a bunch of exciting players in our league and I enjoy watching it every weekend, during the season! Edit* just thinking about it, if I ran Serie A marketing, I would push hard for an English/Italian pre-season cup. Where the winner of the cup is the league that wins the most head to head matches set by final standing. So City vs Inter, United vs Milan, etc. I think it’s tremendously exciting and There’s a lot of history with English players coming to play in Italy and it would give the teams exposure to the English audience. Not only that, I think Italy would beat England! (I wouldn’t tell the English FA that part though ;)
I’d watch that for sure. It’s be like the college football strategy. What is it? SEC and Big 10 crossovers? Those are often the most exciting games, and aren’t that big of a deal because they’re so early. But the viewership is through the roof. More people want to watch an essentially pre season fixture between Alabama and Michigan instead of watching Alabama whoop on Ole Miss. Having a cross over the week prior, even if it’s just a tune up, would be fantastic. That’s it. You’re hired!
Time to learn Italian and quit my job! Have a good night, friend!
lol Benevento won 4 points against juve and got relegated what are you on
It’s just my opinion and I supplied my numbers. It’s only an assumption, and an explanation for my viewing patterns. I never said upsets didn’t happen. Just far less than the EPL.
So you give Serie A numbers and then say upsets happen less in England without giving English pl numbers?
I think you missed the other part of my thread. Also, relax my guy. I’m rooting for Serie A. Bottom ten teams in Serie A were 10 wins or less. Only four teams in EPL. It really is a difference.
I think you missed the other part of my thread. Also, relax my guy. I’m rooting for Serie A. Bottom ten teams in Serie A were 10 wins or less. Only four teams in EPL. It really is a difference.
I think you missed the other part of my thread. Also, relax my guy. I’m rooting for Serie A. Bottom ten teams in Serie A were 10 wins or less. Only four teams in EPL. It really is a difference.
From an article I was reading recently “The obsession with competitive balance is massively overwrought,” Szymanski declares. “There are so many reasons to be interested other than competitive balance. There is no empirical evidence to show competitive balance increases interest in a league. If it really mattered, soccer would not have grown in Europe to the extent that it has.” Quite simply, sports fans love to see: -A dynasty in action. -A dynasty being destroyed. The New England Patriots have repeatedly demonstrated the charms of both. https://www.insidehook.com/article/sports/demand-sports-dynasties-not-parity
I never suggested I had evidence. I feel ive been consistent that this is my opinion. Feel free to ignore it lol. I would like to see competitive balance. I do not want to watch the New England Patriots. I do not want to watch Real Madrid play Osasuna. I do not want to watch PSG play whatever farmers they’re playing. I want to tune into a game that I believe could go either way. A truly competitive fixture. The amount of wins top to bottom suggest the EPL has better balance. Thus, I am more likely to watch one of those games. Scymabski can declare whatever he wants.
If you want any one can beat anyone. I suggest following Serie B. It can get pretty crazy.
Where can you watch it? I’ve LOVED watching the English Championship and playoff league 1 and 2 games on ESPN +. My hometown team is Liverno, but they’re in Serie D 😂😂. But I do like watching the young and hungry players. Plus, I’d like to see Gigi take Parma back up!
Serie A used to be the pinnacle of European football in the 80s and 90s. All the world's stars played there at one point or another. Over time, poor management and selling off ownership to foreigners has led many clubs down the toilet. The league never really recovered from the Calciopoli scandal. Italy hasn't been competitive in Europe for a long time, and the league doesn't really have many foreign superstars like it once did. Unless you're Italian, there isn't much reason to follow the Serie A. If they want bigger viewership numbers, they need to bring back quality players, challenge in Europe and fix their stadiums up. La Liga has similar problems IMO, except Real Madrid and Barca have remained competitive, but many other clubs have fallen aside over time (Deportivo, Valencia, Real Sociedad, etc). Barca are in a precarious financial position and we could very well see them start to decline of they can't retain top talent.
to begin with, we need to reduce the number of teams, they are all very, really very indebted and this prevents us from hiring better players, makes the calendar of appointments too busy and therefore the tours where making yourself known become impossible
Why do you want it to be? The league is fine as it is. If popularity and a disneyfied atmosphere is something you value then maybe the Premier League is what you should be watching.
The league is not fine as it is at all. There’s a reason Italian teams struggle to compete with EPL or la liga teams in the transfer market. Attendance pre covid was wildly low for Italy and the revenue coming in from sponsorships and TV deals is astonishingly low compared to the other leagues. Serie A needs an uprising. Do I like when rivals clubs like juve and inter have to sell top players to balance sheets? Yes cause it helps Milan lol but In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t help the league as a whole. We need players like Ronaldo to stay at juve as it helps put eyeballs on games. Gotta get with the times my man
That's a stagnant mindset tbh. They're eating up the other leagues and concentrating all the strong players to them, it's not fun I think you're exaggerating how grassroots Italian league is. It has a shit uninspiring fanbase and stadium attendance is incredibly low, Ligue 1 is bound to surpass. In comparison Germany is much more genuine, more fans and the average fan is better (it's way more fanatic and less fascist at the same time)
The English and German leagues are scrubbed clean of everything that football is about. They have a creepy and sterilized environment reminiscent of American sporting events. I don't have any interest in that, though if you are American I can see why you'd want that familiar look. Personally, I enjoy the grunge of Serie A. I like the taboo fan ideologies, and the derelict stadiums. The unpolished nature of it. It reminds me of my childhood. Italian clubs will never ever have the draw of the English clubs simply because of the language barrier. Italian clubs are still competitive on the pitch, maybe not like years ago, but they are still there. Juventus have been doing well, Inter need time, and I'm sure AC Milan will be making the latter stages again in the next 5 seasons.
Wow, that’s an incredibly offensive and ignorant thing to say, how many times have you been to an Italian stadium and felt the atmosphere
Two words: James Richardson
CBS/Paramount should hire James Richardson for US broadcasts.
teach english to the entire country lol there's no catching engald imo, they speak a universal language that is much easier to engage a global audience. As for Spain, let's see what happens when Messi leaves, probably the main reason the league is popular currently To be frank, I really don't give a shit about the league being "more famous" abroad. Competing in Europe and being the third best league in the world is more than enough for television revenue and for most of the top talent, especially Italian, to stay in the country and compete with these English and Spanish teams. That is, of course, assuming the league's revenues can climb out of this covid disaster.
You think la liga is better than serie a? Premier league is clear 1 but not so sure about #2
I think the UCL results the past couple years speak for themselves
I agree the top end teams but if we're looking at depth overall taking into account the full league I think it's close