Scottish Soccerball in the US

[RabidGiraffe]

For the posters out there who live in the US, what’s the level of coverage and interest in Scottish football?  Do any of the TV channels cover it regularly?  Is any individual or organization extolling its virtues and introducing your average US soccer enthusiast into the Scottish game?

We have a few Scottish clubs that are at least part owned by Yanks or they have a controlling interest.  Our owner is US based and has strong ties with a MLS club who are our “partners”. Dundee United’s owner is American. The yank who owns Bournemouth is investing in Hibs.  The former Netflix CEO is investing in Motherwell.  There are other cross Atlantic ties I can’t remember.

Do you think there’s an enthusiasm for the Scottish game that could see large sums of dollars pumped into it at sufficient levels that would see the SPFL make changes in order to pander to the US market?

The angle I’m looking for is if there’s a way to use foreign interest in our game to change the current format in an effort to break the duopoly of the ugly Glasgow cuntfest?  Could it be used to break the current demand Sky makes for four bigot-offs a season, expand the league to at least 18 teams and redistribute the prize money/finances more evenly to make our league more competitive and interesting as a sporting spectacle?

 

[RUL]

Nobody in America gives a fuck about Scottish football. Mind Cormack moved our games hoping to get tv coverage and nobody was interested.

[Ke1t]

1 hour ago, RabidGiraffe said:

For the posters out there who live in the US, what’s the level of coverage and interest in Scottish football?  Do any of the TV channels cover it regularly?  Is any individual or organization extolling its virtues and introducing your average US soccer enthusiast into the Scottish game?

We have a few Scottish clubs that are at least part owned by Yanks or they have a controlling interest.  Our owner is US based and has strong ties with a MLS club who are our “partners”. Dundee United’s owner is American. The yank who owns Bournemouth is investing in Hibs.  The former Netflix CEO is investing in Motherwell.  There are other cross Atlantic ties I can’t remember.

Do you think there’s an enthusiasm for the Scottish game that could see large sums of dollars pumped into it at sufficient levels that would see the SPFL make changes in order to pander to the US market?

The angle I’m looking for is if there’s a way to use foreign interest in our game to change the current format in an effort to break the duopoly of the ugly Glasgow cuntfest?  Could it be used to break the current demand Sky makes for four bigot-offs a season, expand the league to at least 18 teams and redistribute the prize money/finances more evenly to make our league more competitive and interesting as a sporting spectacle?

 

Zero interest in our league in the US. 

would be like us taking an interest in some Peruvian Sunday League that focuses on Andean villages of under 5000 inhabitants. 

Could go into the whys and whatnots, but the bottom line is that the best we could hope for is real partnerships with parent clubs from the US, rather than us being a dumping ground for their shite players, or a dodgy half-way house to circumvent some FIFA rule.

 

 

 

[maryhilldon]

1 hour ago, RabidGiraffe said:

 Is any individual or organization extolling its virtues 

What virtues?

[Russell]

Lived here for near 20 years and pretty much the only time an interest is shown is World Cup time. Majority of folk I know who are interested are ex pat South Americans (doctor pal of mine is Colombian and fucking hates Morales with a passion, mostly for offensive ethnic reasons).

And for anyone that does have an interest, they can watch live games from EPL, Italy, Germany and Spain as well as MLS. Every midweek European game is shown live too from Champions League to Conference League (literally every game) as well as Wrexham being pimped on national sports shows. As far as Scottish games, one of the channels inexplicably has a deal that shows Championship games with the occasional Premiership game thrown in. All of this to say, for any Yank with a remote interest in 'soccer', there are far more entertaining options available than Scottish football.

Another consideration is your average American sports fan has 3 teams - basketball, American football and baseball and their seasons are spaced out throughout the year. Right now basketball is coming towards the end of it's season, when it ends baseball takes over, when baseball ends American Football takes over so there's always a team to follow. Add to that, college (which they call university) sports is huge and again has different sports throughout the year.

In conclusion, Americans in general don't care about fitba as they've been brought up on other sports but if they did it wouldn't be the beautiful Scottish game that would reel them in.

[madjockmcferson]

nah. there is zero interest. i usually say i support the team SAF managed before manchester united and that maybe gets a nod or 2. that said, they were probably just being friendly. all the other comments from US peeps here are 100% spot on and say it better than i could

[Ke1t]

I will say, I had a house full of Yanks watching the World Cup Final, France Argentina, and they were glued to the telly for the duration.  The concensus when it was over was, "Okay... now we get it. That was fucking incredible."

That was peak fitba, though. There's very little relation between what they saw that day and any game involving Aberdeen Football Club. 

 

 

[Helmet]

But but but what about the 50 million hun fans worldwide? They’re the world’s most successful club! huge support in the states! etc etc

Seems pretty obvious that Scottish football will be of zero interest anywhere outside of Scotland given the general standard is shite and the competitions are completely stitched up by two teams.

[1903Fitba]

The guffs don’t even care about Scottish football, why would the yanks?

[Helmet]

23 minutes ago, 1903Fitba said:

The guffs don’t even care about Scottish football, why would the yanks?

Loads of Scottish Football fans don’t even care about it, never mind the guffies.

Guy I sit next to at work is apparently a Rangers fan but hasn’t a clue about what’s happening in Scottish football, his only focus is Liverpool/Champions League/EPL.

[RUL]

24 minutes ago, Helmet said:

Loads of Scottish Football fans don’t even care about it, never mind the guffies.

Guy I sit next to at work is apparently a Rangers fan but hasn’t a clue about what’s happening in Scottish football, his only focus is Liverpool/Champions League/EPL.

Aye few lads like that in my office, I do think the two winners in 40 odd years is a big factor as a few times conversations have taken off about how more interested they’d be if they thought anyone bar celtic or rangers could win.

[1903Fitba]

31 minutes ago, Helmet said:

Loads of Scottish Football fans don’t even care about it, never mind the guffies.

Guy I sit next to at work is apparently a Rangers fan but hasn’t a clue about what’s happening in Scottish football, his only focus is Liverpool/Champions League/EPL.

Wrap a chair round his head next time you’re in 

[Helmet]

7 minutes ago, RUL said:

Aye few lads like that in my office, I do think the two winners in 40 odd years is a big factor as a few times conversations have taken off about how more interested they’d be if they thought anyone bar celtic or rangers could win.

There’s a few of them will admit it’s not interesting but far too many of them, including the morons in the media are happy with and endless duopoly and hanging on for a helicopter Sunday once a decade.

Fucking small minded idiots.

[a don in oz]

The US doesn't as a whole give a fuck about much of anything outside its borders (honourable exception being Israel...) so no one would give half a shit about us.

[Dynamo]

Why on earth would they care? It's absolutely shite. Even I switched off Livi v Aberdeen last week. 

[dave_min]

45 minutes ago, Dynamo said:

Why on earth would they care? It's absolutely shite. Even I switched off Livi v Aberdeen last week. 

Did we win? I switched it off at 1-0 Aberdeen

[strachanmcgheegoal]

1 hour ago, RUL said:

Aye few lads like that in my office, I do think the two winners in 40 odd years is a big factor as a few times conversations have taken off about how more interested they’d be if they thought anyone bar celtic or rangers could win.

And in doing so you’ll appease roughly 20% of the paying customers.  Or leave things as they are (or even artificially recreate them phoenix-like) and appease 80% of your paying attendant audience and presumably a similarly biased percentage of tv subscriptions.

Two things.

The 80% don’t exist without the 20%

And the 80% seem to need to win stuff to remain interested.  Like a  prerequisite almost.  Which to any neutral observer might be considered a problem.

[slippers]

I’m the complete opposite I used to quite like the EPL but now hardly watch it at all. Can’t wait for the next dons game hoping we can turn things around (been like that for 4 years). Even though we are absolutely shite.
 

I still honestly believe a club like ours or hearts can challenge the top 2. I know 99% will say I’m delusional but if we can get a quality manager in that would help massively. Get lucky in recruitment and land 3/4 bojan type signings along with 1 or 2 of our shit hot youth prospects excelling at thesame time why can’t we atleast win a cup or 2 and be tight up their arses. Appreciate the chances are slim but if we get the recruitment right and a decent manager I believe we can really close the gap at very least. 

[Big Hat Logan]

10 hours ago, RabidGiraffe said:

For the posters out there who live in the US, what’s the level of coverage and interest in Scottish football?  Do any of the TV channels cover it regularly?  Is any individual or organization extolling its virtues and introducing your average US soccer enthusiast into the Scottish game?

We have a few Scottish clubs that are at least part owned by Yanks or they have a controlling interest.  Our owner is US based and has strong ties with a MLS club who are our “partners”. Dundee United’s owner is American. The yank who owns Bournemouth is investing in Hibs.  The former Netflix CEO is investing in Motherwell.  There are other cross Atlantic ties I can’t remember.

Do you think there’s an enthusiasm for the Scottish game that could see large sums of dollars pumped into it at sufficient levels that would see the SPFL make changes in order to pander to the US market?

The angle I’m looking for is if there’s a way to use foreign interest in our game to change the current format in an effort to break the duopoly of the ugly Glasgow cuntfest?  Could it be used to break the current demand Sky makes for four bigot-offs a season, expand the league to at least 18 teams and redistribute the prize money/finances more evenly to make our league more competitive and interesting as a sporting spectacle?

 

They barely give a fuck about “soccer” in the US, why on earth would they waste money on Scottish football 

[Big Hat Logan]

24 minutes ago, slippers said:

I’m the complete opposite I used to quite like the EPL but now hardly watch it at all. Can’t wait for the next dons game hoping we can turn things around (been like that for 4 years). Even though we are absolutely shite.
 

I still honestly believe a club like ours or hearts can challenge the top 2. I know 99% will say I’m delusional but if we can get a quality manager in that would help massively. Get lucky in recruitment and land 3/4 bojan type signings along with 1 or 2 of our shit hot youth prospects excelling at thesame time why can’t we atleast win a cup or 2 and be tight up their arses. Appreciate the chances are slim but if we get the recruitment right and a decent manager I believe we can really close the gap at very least. 

So sign 3/4 of the best players we’ve had in decades? Sounds realistic 

[slippers]

53 minutes ago, Big Hat Logan said:

So sign 3/4 of the best players we’ve had in decades? Sounds realistic 

Unlikely but possible we sign 3/4 very good players. The hope with a new manager and head of recruitment is we do a lot better than last season. Assuming we have a very healthy budget this summer too. Trying to be a bit more positive. It’s persuading our first choices that’s been the issue. Hopefully Jimmy/Gunn combo is better at it than Robson/Gunn was. 

[RabidGiraffe]

11 hours ago, slippers said:

I’m the complete opposite I used to quite like the EPL but now hardly watch it at all. Can’t wait for the next dons game hoping we can turn things around (been like that for 4 years). Even though we are absolutely shite.
 

I still honestly believe a club like ours or hearts can challenge the top 2. I know 99% will say I’m delusional but if we can get a quality manager in that would help massively. Get lucky in recruitment and land 3/4 bojan type signings along with 1 or 2 of our shit hot youth prospects excelling at thesame time why can’t we atleast win a cup or 2 and be tight up their arses. Appreciate the chances are slim but if we get the recruitment right and a decent manager I believe we can really close the gap at very least. 

I admire your optimism.  Maybe, just maybe, if everything aligned perfectly in the current system then, perhaps, with a huge amount of luck, we could win the league, or at least make it a three horse race for a season.

On the other hand, I am pessimistic.  Wherein lies the origins of my original post.  I don't see how anyone other than the bigot brothers benefits from the current set up.  There is no desire from within the Scottish football mafia to change it, regardless of how bad that is for our game as a whole in the short, medium, and long term.  That is why I was pondering (clutching at straws more like) if there was sufficient interest from outwith Scotland to force change.  Given the current level of US ownership and investment in some Scottish teams (which could continue to increase), is there an opportunity for these outside forces to push for change?  It would appear from the comments from some of the US based posters (thanks for your input gentlemen), that I am indeed clutching at straws in hoping that US investment might be an agent for positive change.

[fine-n-dandy]

Get European games on paramount & a few other games plus re-runs

even show championship games 

[fine-n-dandy]

17 hours ago, Russell said:

Lived here for near 20 years and pretty much the only time an interest is shown is World Cup time. Majority of folk I know who are interested are ex pat South Americans (doctor pal of mine is Colombian and fucking hates Morales with a passion, mostly for offensive ethnic reasons).

And for anyone that does have an interest, they can watch live games from EPL, Italy, Germany and Spain as well as MLS. Every midweek European game is shown live too from Champions League to Conference League (literally every game) as well as Wrexham being pimped on national sports shows. As far as Scottish games, one of the channels inexplicably has a deal that shows Championship games with the occasional Premiership game thrown in. All of this to say, for any Yank with a remote interest in 'soccer', there are far more entertaining options available than Scottish football.

Another consideration is your average American sports fan has 3 teams - basketball, American football and baseball and their seasons are spaced out throughout the year. Right now basketball is coming towards the end of it's season, when it ends baseball takes over, when baseball ends American Football takes over so there's always a team to follow. Add to that, college (which they call university) sports is huge and again has different sports throughout the year.

In conclusion, Americans in general don't care about fitba as they've been brought up on other sports but if they did it wouldn't be the beautiful Scottish game that would reel them in.

As I said previously ^^^^ paramount show a lot of European football, including Scottish 

[alscotoz]

On 4/13/2024 at 6:34 PM, slippers said:

I’m the complete opposite I used to quite like the EPL but now hardly watch it at all. Can’t wait for the next dons game hoping we can turn things around (been like that for 4 years). Even though we are absolutely shite.
 

I still honestly believe a club like ours or hearts can challenge the top 2. I know 99% will say I’m delusional but if we can get a quality manager in that would help massively. Get lucky in recruitment and land 3/4 bojan type signings along with 1 or 2 of our shit hot youth prospects excelling at thesame time why can’t we atleast win a cup or 2 and be tight up their arses. Appreciate the chances are slim but if we get the recruitment right and a decent manager I believe we can really close the gap at very least. 

I'm one of the 99%

[dave_min]

6 hours ago, alscotoz said:

I'm one of the 99%

Pfffft.

I wanna be in the minority.

[maryhilldon]

On 4/13/2024 at 9:57 AM, Big Hat Logan said:

They barely give a fuck about “soccer” in the US, why on earth would they waste money on Scottish football 

Yeah, we've established that. Thanks for your input though.

[Big Hat Logan]

1 hour ago, maryhilldon said:

Yeah, we've established that. Thanks for your input though.

lol I posted that 5 days ago or so on a thread specifically asking for opinions on yanks and Scottish football.

Someone’s rattled 

[maryhilldon]

1 hour ago, Big Hat Logan said:

lol I posted that 5 days ago or so on a thread specifically asking for opinions on yanks and Scottish football.

Someone’s rattled 

You only repeated the conclusion everyone had already came to, it was a pointless contribution. And why would i be rattled? I wasn't involved in the conversation, i only just read the thread earlier.