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Why hasn't there been a new major sports league?

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Re: Why hasn't there been a new major sports league?

#61

Post by travisjungroth »

klooney wrote: post #50
freedomben wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tfa directly addresses LoL. > LoL Esports: loses hundreds of millions of dollars annually, exists solely as a marketing mechanism to get people to play the actual game

If viewership is high, does that matter? Football loses hundreds of millions of dollars for Proctor and Gamble, if you look at it a certain way.

It’s a good point. You can view the unprofitable leagues as having one main sponsor, and then it’s just a matter of accounting. Profitability may not be a good metric.

Re: Why hasn't there been a new major sports league?

#62

Post by pekim »

petesergeant wrote: post #10

Is there any market in the world where rival leagues of the same sport compete in the same geographic location? Maybe there aren’t new leagues because Americans don’t care enough about new sports? Further, it’s the teams, not the leagues that make money, which I didn’t pick up in a brief skim of the article. Why would any team want to join an rival league? League monopoly seems like the natural fit, and let the compe…

Darts might not be considered a sport, but the British Darts Organisation [1] and the Professional Darts Corporation [2] co-existed (somewhat acrimoniously) for nearly 30 years.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Darts_Organisation (BDO)

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Darts_Corporation (PDC)

Re: Why hasn't there been a new major sports league?

#64

Post by barbazoo »

LocalH wrote: post #55
barbazoo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best for who though? There just is no one size that fits all. Personally I would be happy in a more equal socialistic society but I recognize that others prefer the individuality and excitement of playing the game of chance in our capitalist system. What I’m looking for is perhaps more at a smaller level of local community, not “state” level.

Best for the largest percentage of people. Clearly, pure capitalism isn't that. But so isn't pure communism, or pure socialism.

There isn’t even a single true implementation of either of those isms. They’re just broad categorizations. I would say communism isn’t even the same broader category.

Re: Why hasn't there been a new major sports league?

#65

Post by dexterdog »

travisjungroth wrote: post #60
dexterdog wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would make debate a sport. My rule is that it has to have a ball, a race or a fight. I guess you could argue that debate has a fight.

Gymnastics, javelin, high jump, long jump, target shooting, figure skating…

I don't consider those sports. They are mostly games like darts. Competitions that are won by arbitrary judging are their own category of thing. I know fighting sports are judged when there is no KO or concession, but that's why they say don't leave it to the judges because that is not a true win.

Re: Why hasn't there been a new major sports league?

#66

Post by Balgair »

5555624 wrote: post #19

> Fans only want to watch the very best players. Without TV money, new leagues can’t match salaries, and cannot attract top talent. Is there enough "top talent" to fund a new league? Take American football: there are more players in high school, than college, because the game gets faster and better; the same goes from college to the NFL. The game changes, too; so. success in college doe not mean success in the NFL. T…

Top talent is also going to these lesser leagues. Mason Cox was a top NCAA basketball player and got recruited to play AFL in Australia. There's quite a pipeline now because that. Same goes for Australia to US football kickers and punters.

Most of these sports are so variable that they qualify as 'unkind' learning environments, per David Epstein's work. Meaning that a large variety of other education is preferable. Patrick Mahomes is a great example. His baseball training has made him a great quarterback.

Point is, if the sport is sufficiently 'unkind' then any player from other sports should be just fine transferring over

Re: Why hasn't there been a new major sports league?

#67

Post by tzs »

cogogo wrote: post #42
itsdavesanders wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because it’s not a “US league?” I might consider F1 in that case as it has gained in popularity a lot, and technically it’s owned by a U.S. company, but I’d never think of it as a U.S. league.

I think OP’s point is that the demand is being met elsewhere. The Premier League has exploded in popularity in the US because of accesible TV. It is easier than ever to watch foreign sports and you do not have to deal with local blackout garbage.

As someone who isn't much of a sports fan but will occasionally watch, I've found Premier League more interesting than US major leagues because of the promotion/relegation system.

With US leagues once it becomes clear what teams are in contention for winning the championship that year, games between the rest teams become a lot less interesting.

With Premier League, teams are fighting for the championship, just like in US leagues. The team that finishes #1 is the champion.

But they are also fighting to get into the next UEFA Champions League season. UEFA Champions League is a league for the top clubs from several European country top leagues. The top 4 Premier League finishers make it (so the Premier League champion and the next 3 teams).

There's also a fight for the #5 spot, because that team gets into the Europa League group stage.

Meanwhile the teams at the bottom of the Premier League are also fighting. The teams that finish in the last 3 places get kicked out of the Premier League!

They get moved to the the EFL Championship League. (Not to be confused with UEFA Champions. UEFA Champions is the league with the best teams from Europe. EFL Championship is a league for UK teams that are not quite good enough for Premier League).

Those 3 teams that get kicked down to EFL Championship League are replaced with the 3 top teams from EFL Championship League. (And it doesn't stop there...there are 7 more levels of leagues blow EFL Championship League, with promotion/relegation between each adjacent level).

Premier League has 20 teams and with 5 top spots to fight for and 3 bottom spots to fight to avoid you can get a long way into the season with 3/4 of the teams still having either a realistic shot of making the top 5 or in danger of not staying clear of the bottom 3.

Re: Why hasn't there been a new major sports league?

#68

Post by JohnFen »

dexterdog wrote: post #58
JohnFen wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The surprisingly emotional debate of "is it a sport or is it a game" has been around from the moment we invented the category of "sports". I don't think it will ever be definitively settled, because the difference is cultural, not technical, and cultural attitudes change with time and location. Personally, the technical-ish definition that makes the most sense to me is "if it's a competition and people are gathering…

That would make debate a sport. My rule is that it has to have a ball, a race or a fight. I guess you could argue that debate has a fight.

> That would make debate a sport.

True. I left out "athleticism" but should have included it. I just took that as a given.

That said, I don't think the idea of debate being a sport is entirely ridiculous. The Olympics had poetry as an event for 40 years or so...

Re: Why hasn't there been a new major sports league?

#69

Post by foxglacier »

LocalH wrote: post #52
foxglacier wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People tried picking the best bits of capitalism and communism and they ended up with fascism. Maybe it's fine what we have now which is capitalism with piles of restrictions and government spending to fix all the little bugs that've been discovered over time. I'd say society is too complex for some invented -ism to just magically work.

I guess it depends on where in the world you are, but where I am capitalism is ruling the roost and destroying everything in the process, just like the other pure isms

Where are you? Shenzhen? Somalia? Don't say America because that has wildly distorted markets just like everywhere else I know.

Re: Why hasn't there been a new major sports league?

#70

Post by victorbjorklund »

hakfoo wrote: post #45
victorbjorklund wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yea, betting on the script. Like betting on the content of a new book coming out.

I suppose there's an X-factor in wrestling in the live physicality of it. There could be planned story events that can't be delivered due to injury or physical error. If a wrestler breaks a leg or seriously dislocates something mid-performance, it's going to be difficult to justify slapping a belt around them at the end. With "One Life To Live", that sort of surprise is less likely, and they can reshoot it if necessa…

Yea, I guess you could also bet on wether a stage actor in a musical will get hurt or not.
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