Super Leagues Aren't Dead. They're Only Resting.

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

― Mark Cuban

As I noted several books ago, NHL owners are free-market crusaders operating like socialists. They firmly believe in a profit for their efforts. God bless ‘em. But to guarantee that profit they insist on salary caps, equalization schemes and no outside competition. Hey, nice work if you can get it.

The same goes for their brethren in the other major sports leagues across the globe.  From the NFL to FIFA, they want to play on the high wire. But they insist on having a net below to rescue them should adversity strike. 

The latest example of this wishy-washy capitalism was the meteoric rise and fall of the Europe Super League which, like a Messi left footer, flew just wide of the goal the past two weeks. Put simply, the signature franchises of all the European soccer leagues— save German’s Bundesliga— sought to carve out a lucrative niche for themselves in a Super League.

The idea was to honour their obligations to their current leagues while concurrently creating a lucrative separate league amongst themselves, a permanent version of the Champions League competition that operates at the moment (with the top four teams in each league playing an elimination competition). 

The Super League project was overseen by Real Madrid President Florentino Perez, who’d signed up Barcelona and Atlético Madrid in Spain,  Juventus, AC Milan and Inter Milan from Italy and Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham.

Adding resentment to the proposal was the presence of four teams owned by American and Russian billionaires. These clubs had lined up a major sponsor and were prepared to take their league to market by 2024. The projected profits from the venture were enormous.

The blowback from the spurned teams, fans and soccer federations was instantaneous and bitter. The abandoned clubs could see their financial cash cows pulling the rug from beneath them. Fans saw it as a breach of faith. The federations, which don’t exist without the money generated by the top clubs, saw their power gone.

Quicker than you could say Bobby Charlton, the English clubs pulled out of the proposal when government took time from screwing up Covid-19 to threaten legislation against the breakaway teams. For now, the dream is dead but not buried.

As I said in my 2019 book Cap In Hand, anyone imagining this will be the end of such big footing is fooling themselves. ”Given the current circumstances," the Super League said in a statement, "we shall reconsider the most appropriate steps to reshape the project, always having in mind our goals of offering fans the best experience possible while enhancing solidarity payments for the entire football community." 

Why the push? Simple. The product is now global, not national or regional. Fans around the world, who support the sport with TV, digital and logo revenues, only want to see the star teams and star players. Teams are brands, and their merchandise is sold across the world. The Super League was going to be Broadway and everyone else regional theatre.

"How much money is enough?” ask fans. “We only want what the market says we’re worth”, say the renegade clubs putting on their capitalist hats. In a global sports marketplace the top brands are going to find fewer and fewer reasons to play cash cow to their traditional partners when they can reap a fortune by finding their true value in the world market.

The accelerant for global market expansion will be betting. With the U.S. now allowing sports betting in any state that wishes it (Nevada was the sole outlet till 2018) the small fire has become a conflagration. The profits from partnering with gaming will be staggering for the clubs who grab the opportunity.

The sports-watching experience will be being revolutionized by in-game online wagering plus partnerships between leagues and gambling outfits. Imagine wagering from home on the results of the next game, the next period, the next shift. Or from a seat in the arena or stadium. Enabled by the leagues themselves Pro sports is about to become a vast video game where fans stay home and brand marketers run the product.

The only things standing in its way is the romance and tradition of the current setup. The English clubs who supported the Super League had to overcome loyalties that stretch back to the origins of the game in factories, unions and towns in the late 1880s. For now it was a step too far.

But the breach has been made. As we can see in the NBA super teams are now the rule, not the exception. The concept of carrying a group of financial weak sisters is losing its appeal to the owners of the 20 or so major clubs. With the sport played globally they’d rather tap into the profits of Europe or Asia than rework a stale formula imposed by salary caps.

It’s also happening in MLB, another sport with a global footprint. Large markets are coming to dominate the supply of top athletes. What if these teams decide they want to compete with Tokyo, Seoul or Mexico City in a global super league funded by multinational corporations?

With the NFL or MLB potentially expanding internationally, this separation of big brands from hangers-on will continue. But it needn’t mean the death of most clubs in the team sports.

As I wrote in Cap In Hand  the long-term solution is to allow clubs to play at the level their market can afford— something soccer in Europe currently does. How can a fan In Edmonton or Kansas City or San Antonio pay the same prices as fans in NYC, LA, Chicago or Toronto? How can they keep their young stars when a super franchise comes calling with lucrative opportunities?

Ultimately they can’t. The money will be too big. But they can continue to function in leagues of comparable markets. And when that happens the Super League will seem like a logical conclusion to market problem.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author of Cap In Hand is also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, his new book Personal Account with Tony Comper is now available on http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx