I just wrote about how I don’t like football as much as I used to. I do, however, absolutely adore the other kind of football; you know, the one played with your feet.
The popularity of soccer has seemingly been rising in the United States, and networks have now gone all-in on bringing the best of the game to the U.S. market. Because of this, you can watch more soccer in the United States – Major League Soccer, the Premier League, La Liga, etc. – than you can in England. ESPN has a lot to do with this; they spearheaded the movement by throwing all their resources behind the FIFA World Cup and then adding the Women’s World Cup and the UEFA European Championship to the mix.
However, the Premier League is NBC’s baby now, and they are raising it right. Every Saturday you can watch three matches on television, plus if there are any being on Sunday and Monday, you can see those too. Plus, every other match airs online, so you can theoretically see a piece of every single Premier League match for the entire season – that’s 380 games – while still living just about anywhere in the United States.
I’m a Manchester City supporter, and while the Blues already played in one of today’s featured matches, it kicked off at 7:45 a.m., so I decided to pass on watching this one. That being said, I’m sitting here right now watching Crystal Palace, a newly-promoted side, play host to Sunderland, the definition of a run-of-the-mill, middle-to-bottom-of-the-table club. It would be like watching a baseball game between the White Sox and the Mariners. And yet, listening to the crowd and knowing that this is the best league in the world and is airing on national television in the United States makes it seem like so much more.
Good on you, NBC, for bringing us a world-class product and actually giving it a world-class presentation. I could certainly get used to this. Assuming of course, that City’s matches air a little later in the day.
A Revolution From My Bed 