Most fans of this podcast watch the Premier League more than any other league in the world, including the league of our home country. Even the hosts of the show admit that they’re much more knowledgable about the Premier League than any other football league, and I’m the same way. Most of us have a favorite English team by now, and its following in America continues to skyrocket each season. This begs the question - why do Americans love the Premier League so much?
English
News Flash: We speak the same language in the United States of America as they do in England. No shit, right? It sounds so simple, but I believe the fact that we can understand the players, managers, media, and fans make it much easier to follow for us. Even foreign players and managers adapt and learn to speak English. Speaking the same language is going to give the Premier League a huge advantage that other leagues might not have - naturally, it’s going to be harder for me to follow the Italian league if I don’t speak Italian and don’t understand the players or media covering it (I know there are English-speakers that cover non-English leagues, but they aren’t as accessible like the Premier League). This is a good segway to my second point.
Accessibility
It is evident that there is more coverage of the Premier League on NBC Sports than any other foreign league in America. NBC has done a solid job showcasing big games each week on their networks while the rest of the games are available to watch through their premium membership (NBC Sports Gold). Meanwhile, it is tougher to watch other leagues as comprehensively. The Bundesliga is covered by Fox but doesn’t offer the abundance of games like NBC, while Bein Sports (Who?) has exclusive rights to La Liga in North America. Essentially, you have to go on Reddit to watch Barcelona play in the Spanish league. ESPN is stepping up its game and featuring all Serie A games with their premium content, but free Italian games are far and between with ESPN. I don’t even know who owns the rights to the French league off the top of my head, so that shows how poor their coverage is overseas.
To put it plain and simple, NBC Sports and the Premier League have such an edge in America over any other league (even our own). It is much easier to regularly follow a league in any sport when you know exactly what channel it’s going to be on, and you know you’ll consistently have easy access to viewing games.
Brits love America, too
It is evident that the love goes both ways. I write this shortly after the NFL concluded its annual journey to London that consisted of four games - two at Wembley Stadium, and two at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Tottenham’s stadium has a retractable football field and is the first arena outside of the states to feature an American-football specific structure. There’s no way they did this solely to host two games a season - there is a long-term goal of landing an NFL franchise. Building the NFL-specific specs is a huge gamble and financial burden now, but it is clear Tottenham sees the growing popularity of the NFL in England and chose to take action sooner rather than later.
Whatever the reasons may be, it is clear that the Premier League has an upper hand in American soccer culture. This sport is growing like crazy here, and each American generation will expand the Premier League’s audience that much more. NBC Sports has hosted Premier League Fan Fests in cities like NYC, Boston, and Austin, all with outstanding turnouts. Expect these Fan Fests to become more frequent as Americans continue to fall more in love with England’s league.
Author: Living in Southern California, Robert Sweeney has been a fan of soccer since he played as a young child. Since then, he’s become a diehard Tottenham and US National Team fan. Rob enjoys writing about the impact soccer has had on his life in hopes that it betters others as well. Twitter: @robsweeney11