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The Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Dallas Mavericks 96-99 and broke a record on 7 February 2011.
The record?
The record?
The one for the longest losing streak in NBA history. That day the Cleveland Cavaliers lost their 25th game in a row in the aftermath of their loss of LeBron James. What did it cost them?
Other than embarrassment, not a whole lot because LeBron James came back some years later and took them to a title.
If a team in European Football had had a run of losses that bad, they would have been relegated.
Clubs like Leeds, Juventus, AC Milan, Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool have all been relegated from the top tiers of football at some point and this constant fight for survival is what helps keep European football vibrant.
The Cleveland Cavaliers lost 25 straight games and stayed in the league because the league is a closed system that focuses on protecting the investment of a small group of people and achieves this by not making it possible for teams to get in via sporting achievement.
That is what the ESL would turn European Football into and it should be firmly resisted.
UEFA and FIFA are hardly saints to be sure but this American abomination has no place outside their own shores.
UEFA and FIFA are hardly saints to be sure but this American abomination has no place outside their own shores.
Some people have gotten carried away with the sums being thrown around by the ESL promoters but they should look closer and ask questions on exactly how these monies would be earned.
First off, The US is effectively a continent.
First off, The US is effectively a continent.
A continent with a sports industry that has leagues that aren't really fragmented by state and divisions.
The NBA, MLB, and NFL don't have state leagues or lower divisions so the money is a Continental budget only available to an average of 30 clubs in each league.
The NBA, MLB, and NFL don't have state leagues or lower divisions so the money is a Continental budget only available to an average of 30 clubs in each league.
But Europe has >1000 clubs and 37 Professional Leagues. The only way to get an NBA-style budget in Europe is to destroy the national leagues that represent actual Countries.
Europe is not the US. The US leagues declare these large amounts because the American Sports Industry is a closed market where you have 1 league getting most of the revenue for the entire sport in the continent.
The NBA has 30 clubs and gets most of the advertising revenue for Basketball on the continent. The same situation exists for the NFL and MLB.
European Football will forever be too fragmented to deliver an advertising market like the NBA or NFL for a small group of clubs because the different countries have their own leagues that also have different divisions.
It is useful to know that the American Sports Economy throws up figures that are misleading if not placed in the right context. For example, the NFL's revenues are usually around the $20 billion mark but it covers a nation of roughly 350 million people.
The EPL has roughly 4 billion Euros in revenue but England has 55 million people so on average, they actually earn similar per capita while the EPL achieves its own revenue goals while competing with over 60 other European leagues and four local competitors.
So when you get excited about the scale of American Sports Finances and the figures being thrown around by the ESL promoters, just remember that people in many American states can't earn a living playing football or most other popular sports simply because their states don't…
…have professional leagues.
The US has 50 states but there are just 24 MLS clubs in the US.
England alone has 69 professional clubs.
Instead of Europe copying the US, one would wonder if there isn't a benefit in the US switching to a UEFA-style format.
The US has 50 states but there are just 24 MLS clubs in the US.
England alone has 69 professional clubs.
Instead of Europe copying the US, one would wonder if there isn't a benefit in the US switching to a UEFA-style format.
A format where the states have leagues with the top 2 in each league playing a UCL-style tournament. It could be either that or the US embraces a standard league system with promotion-relegation.
How much talent is the US wasting by having just 30 clubs for their major sports? The NFL regular season has just 17 games in it and lasts for four months while not having teams in over 20 American states.
How much talent is wasted? How much economic development could the states get from having professional leagues in all these sports?
The NBA has 30 teams. California alone has four NBA teams. New York has 2. Florida has 2. Texas has 3. But over 30 American states don't have NBA teams.
It's not a balanced situation.
The US should be the ones copying Europe on this.
It's not a balanced situation.
The US should be the ones copying Europe on this.
The US is definitely an industrial giant but at this point, its biggest exports are not tangibles made in its farms or factories.
Its greatest exports now are intangible cultural products that range from media services to actual mindsets. Some of the exports have been incredibly useful but some are a bit problematic and need to be looked at a bit closer.
It's funny how life turns.
It's funny how life turns.
Conventional wisdom says Europe is usually associated with limited social mobility while the US is believed to offer a wider range of opportunities for talented hardworking people.
Europe is the place associated with monarchies but recently the USA has in some ways started embracing patterns that create systems that have the DNA of Monarchy.
The ESL is nothing but an attempt to create a European Football Monarchy where leadership is primarily achieved via lineage instead of achievement.
That is all it is and it's already in place in the US and for some reason, the Americans have decided to have the rest of the world embrace it.
