I'll tell you why American stadiums rule while European stadiums drool: It's more common for stadiums in America to receive public funding than European stadiums. Oh sure, the Europeans pride themselves on their welfare states, BUT THOSE GUYS SUCK WHEN IT COMES TO CORPORATE WELFARE! "Give me a taxpayer funded stadium or I will move this team anywhere else" have said many American sports teams owners. And that's why American stadiums are so much better, because how awesome the stadium is does not have to have any relation to how good the team's record is, it's based mostly on how cozy the relationship is between owner and municipal government officials.
The number of ways that American sports are quite "European" (salary caps, more-centralized ownership structure, substantial government oversight) while European sports are quite "American" (the opposite of all that) is truly funny.
The advertisements seem very American to me, and it dates back a ways in some unexpected ways. My dad was stationed in Denmark in the army and in 1969 he was discharged and he spent a few months just driving around Europe. He went to a bull fight in Barcelona and there was a Coca Cola banner in the bullfighting stadium, he even took a picture of it. Nothing quenches the thirst of a matador better than a delicious Coke product!
I’ve always found it wild how in the US, “Big 4” sports teams have (mostly) kept their kits focused on the team’s brand, while Euro footballers are all walking around sporting more corporate logos than a NASCAR driver.
Nothing more American than the idea of promotion/relegation. "Oh, so you're a fifth-tier club wanting to play with the high rollers? Well, you basically have to win four competitions if you want to get there, and until you do, you won't have any of the advantages or opportunities available to you that the richest clubs can afford. It's probably impossible unless you can be friends with some celebrities like Wrexham over there. Anyway, good luck on your attempts at upward mobility!"
It's all the damn Yankees fault (literally and truthfully this time) Yankees winning the AL pennant 15 times in 17 years between 47 and 64 due to having more money and a better reputation than everyone else (unless you were black post integration towards the end of this streak, then you went to the NL, but that doesn't help other AL teams beat the Yankees), so Yankees offered more money to the most talented youth to get them in their farm system, and since there is no free agency at this time, Yankees had more talent than anyone else because their money and their reputation was better (I don't blame the players, why would they not want to go play for the team that pays enough to be rich, when no other team does that). Resentment of this built up across other fanbases, and baseball being the most popular sport in the US at the time meant this got the politicians in those areas involved, murmurings in congress about revoking the antitrust exemption for the MLB started picking up steam in congress, so MLB went and instituted the draft to put a stop to that. other sports that had followed the European model (basically Hockey) followed suit.
NFL already had a draft, but that draft was instituted when college Football was more popular than NFL and NFL's antitrust agreement with congress involved not directly competing with college football, so there the draft made sense right out of the gate.
This does not happen un Europe because all of the best teams compete in the champion's league, and the best way for a team to compete in that is to have all of the talent in the country's league concentrated on to one team. So fans of other clubs at least have an outlet where they support the superteam in their country in the champion's league over teams from other countries, which prevents fans from getting pissed that one team is above others enough to force a change. Throw in that due to the financial rules (their salary cap equivalent) needs to be flexible and variable enough to be able to apply to all of the different European leagues to put them on the same rules so they can be enforced equally (otherwise Court of Arbitration for Sport would toss it), and the only real way to do that is something like what they have which is financial fair play (which is basically sports clubs need to be break even, they can't spend more than they get in revenue so an oil baron richer than god can't just buy all of the best talent without anyone else being able to compete). Thus, there is not enough incentive within a league to push for more equality within a league in Europe, and they can't impose equality throughout Europe either.
This is actually a case of showing that Americans actually know in what ways European style systems are good (they are the best way for the small market teams, AKA the little gut, to win right now), and also that the Europeans now in what ways the US systems are better than Europe (being strong enough to have the best and beat the other guy).
In conclusion, the differences are the fault of the DAMN YANKEES.
I'm sensing a lack of compassion for beloved billionaire team owners. How are there net worths going to increase if they don't fleece the public for a new stadium subsidy every 5 years?
That's unfair. Most brand new stadiums are not declared obsolete until they're approaching their 20th year. I guess we don't yet know how to build anything to last longer than that. Someday.
Dillon: It's shocking (but not surprising) how easy and cheap it is to "buy" local politicians. The DC mayor gave away over $7 billion dollars of taxpayer money to the owner of the Washington Commanders. All while the District is closing schools and cutting jobs because the District is broke. The total giveaway is potentially more, no one really knows. And it doesn't matter! I suspect I know where her next job will be after she leaves office.....
"To hell with the soccer—let’s let this fight determine once and for all which is better: the United States, or the countries people have long fled to come to the United States."
Your love of The Simpsons really shines through in lines like these, hahaha.
It’s rich if Europeans have an issue with stadium naming rights. When I turned on the Champions League final apparently it was Qatar Airways playing Emirates.
"If you ask me, there are no better sports fans in the world than employees of a law firm that booked at $40,000 suite for a mandatory work event. Their vague awareness that some sort of sports event is happening as they try to score facetime with the boss makes the atmosphere absolutely fucking electric."
The prawn sandwich brigade, as Roy Keane described them:
It's probably similar with the Knicks, but being a Toronto Maple Leafs fan is hell because this group of people makes up the entire front section of the arena, all the while regular fans are priced out and those who can get in the doors are treated like second-class citizens (good luck watching warmups near the luxury seats!). The fans particularly fortunate enough to get good seats- presumably by selling a kidney- are liable to be shushed for the crime of acting like a fan by someone checking work emails on their BlackBerry. It's basically a graveyard outside of weekend games and playoffs, where actual fans have more of a hope of getting in the building....IF they can afford it, that is. Most people end up going to road games in nearby cities (eg Montreal, Ottawa, Buffalo, Detroit) because the cost of travel, etc. is still cheaper than going to a home game!
I thought it was hilarious when U.S. billionaires started buying Premier League teams while salivating over the "market inefficiency" of tickets priced too low and chicken coops begging to be torn down at the British taxpayers expense.
Then they found out the Brits don't play that game! Ha Ha Ha! Heck, they still have special reserved discount ticket sections for seniors! What? They actually care about humanity? Yup! They're still burning the Glazer family in effigy and it's wonderful.....
At a festival 20-odd years ago, I met an enterprising young fellow who'd spent 20 minutes working his way to the front of the crowd so he could throw a bottle of piss at the act who was on next, which was 50 Cent. Makes you proud to be British.
I can tolerate the ridiculous prices but when did it become necessary to blare music at ear-bleeding volume? I look around and the younger crowd at which the hip hop or whatever genre is presumably directed are showing no signs of enjoyment either. I miss the stadium announcer saying “thiiiiird down” or whatever and having enough peace and quiet to taunt the visiting team.
I know stadiums are often financially deranged, politically suspicious, and spiritually about three bad meetings away from becoming a shopping centre with floodlights. I know all that.
But I can’t quite bring myself to be anti-stadium, because the best ones aren’t really buildings. They’re memory traps. They’re where a city goes to shout itself hoarse, where strangers briefly agree to become a single many-headed idiot, where childhood gets stored in concrete steps and bad hot dogs and the weird holy panic before kick-off.
A stadium can be ugly, overpriced, morally compromised, and still somehow hold the exact shape of a day you didn’t realise you’d spend the rest of your life trying to keep. That’s the annoying thing. We build these giant ridiculous bowls for sport, and then they accidentally become temples to fathers, sons, noise, weather, disappointment, belonging, and all the other stuff that refuses to fit neatly on a balance sheet.
Capitalism has a wonderful arc, where things get better and better, after which they get worse and worse. We're in the later stage for professional sports in the US. Just like private equity owned businesses, professional sports is here to extract the maximum dollars out of your pocket. And don't confuse wanting your money with wanting to please you. Is playing NFL games in Europe for your benefit? How about Bad Bunny at the Superbowl -- not for you either.
There is a top level sporting event which always has tickets available, and at $25 pp plus $2 service fee, you can bring the family and have the most amazing time. Nope, not telling what or where.
I'll tell you why American stadiums rule while European stadiums drool: It's more common for stadiums in America to receive public funding than European stadiums. Oh sure, the Europeans pride themselves on their welfare states, BUT THOSE GUYS SUCK WHEN IT COMES TO CORPORATE WELFARE! "Give me a taxpayer funded stadium or I will move this team anywhere else" have said many American sports teams owners. And that's why American stadiums are so much better, because how awesome the stadium is does not have to have any relation to how good the team's record is, it's based mostly on how cozy the relationship is between owner and municipal government officials.
The number of ways that American sports are quite "European" (salary caps, more-centralized ownership structure, substantial government oversight) while European sports are quite "American" (the opposite of all that) is truly funny.
The advertisements seem very American to me, and it dates back a ways in some unexpected ways. My dad was stationed in Denmark in the army and in 1969 he was discharged and he spent a few months just driving around Europe. He went to a bull fight in Barcelona and there was a Coca Cola banner in the bullfighting stadium, he even took a picture of it. Nothing quenches the thirst of a matador better than a delicious Coke product!
I’ve always found it wild how in the US, “Big 4” sports teams have (mostly) kept their kits focused on the team’s brand, while Euro footballers are all walking around sporting more corporate logos than a NASCAR driver.
Nothing more American than the idea of promotion/relegation. "Oh, so you're a fifth-tier club wanting to play with the high rollers? Well, you basically have to win four competitions if you want to get there, and until you do, you won't have any of the advantages or opportunities available to you that the richest clubs can afford. It's probably impossible unless you can be friends with some celebrities like Wrexham over there. Anyway, good luck on your attempts at upward mobility!"
Promotion and relegation would be perfect for NCAA football. Will never happen but I’d love to see it.
It's all the damn Yankees fault (literally and truthfully this time) Yankees winning the AL pennant 15 times in 17 years between 47 and 64 due to having more money and a better reputation than everyone else (unless you were black post integration towards the end of this streak, then you went to the NL, but that doesn't help other AL teams beat the Yankees), so Yankees offered more money to the most talented youth to get them in their farm system, and since there is no free agency at this time, Yankees had more talent than anyone else because their money and their reputation was better (I don't blame the players, why would they not want to go play for the team that pays enough to be rich, when no other team does that). Resentment of this built up across other fanbases, and baseball being the most popular sport in the US at the time meant this got the politicians in those areas involved, murmurings in congress about revoking the antitrust exemption for the MLB started picking up steam in congress, so MLB went and instituted the draft to put a stop to that. other sports that had followed the European model (basically Hockey) followed suit.
NFL already had a draft, but that draft was instituted when college Football was more popular than NFL and NFL's antitrust agreement with congress involved not directly competing with college football, so there the draft made sense right out of the gate.
This does not happen un Europe because all of the best teams compete in the champion's league, and the best way for a team to compete in that is to have all of the talent in the country's league concentrated on to one team. So fans of other clubs at least have an outlet where they support the superteam in their country in the champion's league over teams from other countries, which prevents fans from getting pissed that one team is above others enough to force a change. Throw in that due to the financial rules (their salary cap equivalent) needs to be flexible and variable enough to be able to apply to all of the different European leagues to put them on the same rules so they can be enforced equally (otherwise Court of Arbitration for Sport would toss it), and the only real way to do that is something like what they have which is financial fair play (which is basically sports clubs need to be break even, they can't spend more than they get in revenue so an oil baron richer than god can't just buy all of the best talent without anyone else being able to compete). Thus, there is not enough incentive within a league to push for more equality within a league in Europe, and they can't impose equality throughout Europe either.
This is actually a case of showing that Americans actually know in what ways European style systems are good (they are the best way for the small market teams, AKA the little gut, to win right now), and also that the Europeans now in what ways the US systems are better than Europe (being strong enough to have the best and beat the other guy).
In conclusion, the differences are the fault of the DAMN YANKEES.
I'm sensing a lack of compassion for beloved billionaire team owners. How are there net worths going to increase if they don't fleece the public for a new stadium subsidy every 5 years?
That's unfair. Most brand new stadiums are not declared obsolete until they're approaching their 20th year. I guess we don't yet know how to build anything to last longer than that. Someday.
Dillon: It's shocking (but not surprising) how easy and cheap it is to "buy" local politicians. The DC mayor gave away over $7 billion dollars of taxpayer money to the owner of the Washington Commanders. All while the District is closing schools and cutting jobs because the District is broke. The total giveaway is potentially more, no one really knows. And it doesn't matter! I suspect I know where her next job will be after she leaves office.....
"To hell with the soccer—let’s let this fight determine once and for all which is better: the United States, or the countries people have long fled to come to the United States."
Your love of The Simpsons really shines through in lines like these, hahaha.
> I will lean into broad-brush statements and crude cultural stereotypes, especially about the French
You kind of overpromised and underdelivered on this one.
Apologies -- I'll make up for it in the future!
Kirk Woll: Yes! Definitely left meat on the bone.....
It’s rich if Europeans have an issue with stadium naming rights. When I turned on the Champions League final apparently it was Qatar Airways playing Emirates.
There's also a reasonably good chance the stadium itself was named after a third airline.
Give me my unlimited breadsticks and circuses!
"If you ask me, there are no better sports fans in the world than employees of a law firm that booked at $40,000 suite for a mandatory work event. Their vague awareness that some sort of sports event is happening as they try to score facetime with the boss makes the atmosphere absolutely fucking electric."
The prawn sandwich brigade, as Roy Keane described them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vBai4W6TrI
It's probably similar with the Knicks, but being a Toronto Maple Leafs fan is hell because this group of people makes up the entire front section of the arena, all the while regular fans are priced out and those who can get in the doors are treated like second-class citizens (good luck watching warmups near the luxury seats!). The fans particularly fortunate enough to get good seats- presumably by selling a kidney- are liable to be shushed for the crime of acting like a fan by someone checking work emails on their BlackBerry. It's basically a graveyard outside of weekend games and playoffs, where actual fans have more of a hope of getting in the building....IF they can afford it, that is. Most people end up going to road games in nearby cities (eg Montreal, Ottawa, Buffalo, Detroit) because the cost of travel, etc. is still cheaper than going to a home game!
I thought it was hilarious when U.S. billionaires started buying Premier League teams while salivating over the "market inefficiency" of tickets priced too low and chicken coops begging to be torn down at the British taxpayers expense.
Then they found out the Brits don't play that game! Ha Ha Ha! Heck, they still have special reserved discount ticket sections for seniors! What? They actually care about humanity? Yup! They're still burning the Glazer family in effigy and it's wonderful.....
Great, spot on description of Britains fans and its stadiums!
I always wondered why people watch soccer, then I accidentally watched the U.S womens team destroy Japan WHILE DRUNK and found the answer!
Put me down for Team Vomit Trough. The lack of bathrooms is really not a problem if you remember to retain your empty beer cup.
Plus your piss-cup doubles as a projectile to hurl at an opposing supporter while shouting some sort of incomprehensible ethnic slur.
At a festival 20-odd years ago, I met an enterprising young fellow who'd spent 20 minutes working his way to the front of the crowd so he could throw a bottle of piss at the act who was on next, which was 50 Cent. Makes you proud to be British.
I'd probably leave out the ethnic content but I find "fucking wanker" works just fine.
Casual!
As long as you remember that it no longer contains beer.
The authentic traditional recipe for pig’s vagina includes suet and oatmeal, and NOTHING ELSE.
The beer was cheaper at Doc Martin stadium in West Ham.
I expect you actually mean "less expensive." Nothing is cheap anymore, except maybe dirty deeds.
ronetc: I saw what you did there! 👍
I can tolerate the ridiculous prices but when did it become necessary to blare music at ear-bleeding volume? I look around and the younger crowd at which the hip hop or whatever genre is presumably directed are showing no signs of enjoyment either. I miss the stadium announcer saying “thiiiiird down” or whatever and having enough peace and quiet to taunt the visiting team.
I know stadiums are often financially deranged, politically suspicious, and spiritually about three bad meetings away from becoming a shopping centre with floodlights. I know all that.
But I can’t quite bring myself to be anti-stadium, because the best ones aren’t really buildings. They’re memory traps. They’re where a city goes to shout itself hoarse, where strangers briefly agree to become a single many-headed idiot, where childhood gets stored in concrete steps and bad hot dogs and the weird holy panic before kick-off.
A stadium can be ugly, overpriced, morally compromised, and still somehow hold the exact shape of a day you didn’t realise you’d spend the rest of your life trying to keep. That’s the annoying thing. We build these giant ridiculous bowls for sport, and then they accidentally become temples to fathers, sons, noise, weather, disappointment, belonging, and all the other stuff that refuses to fit neatly on a balance sheet.
At least the Official Song for the 2026 World Cup isn't total rubbish, which is always good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcnDmrtj6Sk&list=RDfcnDmrtj6Sk&index=1
Capitalism has a wonderful arc, where things get better and better, after which they get worse and worse. We're in the later stage for professional sports in the US. Just like private equity owned businesses, professional sports is here to extract the maximum dollars out of your pocket. And don't confuse wanting your money with wanting to please you. Is playing NFL games in Europe for your benefit? How about Bad Bunny at the Superbowl -- not for you either.
There is a top level sporting event which always has tickets available, and at $25 pp plus $2 service fee, you can bring the family and have the most amazing time. Nope, not telling what or where.
I recommend the web site Field of Schemes to you. Quite the insight on stadium finance and welfare for billionaires