Recently I was talking wiht some friends about the differences between FIFA and the NFL when it comes to advertising. The general comment was that NFL fans do not want to see corporate logos on the team uniforms. They just feel at some level it is a sellout and do not understand why European and other soccer teams do it. NFL fans are even uncomfortable with logos on or around the field. Something corporations pay huge dollars for. The NFL maintains strict control over the uniforms, and actually has someone at each game to make sure each player adheres to the uniform code on the field and sideline. Fines are levied for not conforming.
I agree that watching a FIFA match has a different look and feel to it because of the corporate logos on the uniforms as well as in the names of some of the teams, but the reality is it is needed. The NFL enjoys large TV contracts supported by advertising. And there are plenty of advertising breaks, the quarter, 2 minute warning, change of possession, timeouts etc. The reality is the soccer has none of these breaks. There really is no stoppage of play before the half etc. There are no timeouts, commercial breaks (the NBA has TV timeouts even). Therefore there really is no real estate or time to put commercials in. As a result to support the TV contract and the revenue of the team/player contracts, they have sold what they have, which is visible logos on hte uniform itself. In essence since the signage on the sideline and on the field is a similar deal to what an NFL team could get, the lack of TV Spot sales has to be made up for somewhere and that somewhere is on the uniform. Perhaps longterm this could become a revenue stream for the NFL, but I hope not, it really does give the league and actually all of our sports leagues, a unique look as opposed to overseas. The revenue model for soccer is just fundamentally different because of the structure of the game. And let’s not kid ourselves that their superstars make any less money than NFL superstars, it is just not true. With those payscales, teams need to maximize their revenue over and above ticket sales to pay competitive player salaries. The real challenge is that their is no salary cap in soccer in Europe, so the team that generates the most revenue can really afford better players. The stakes are higher as well since a team that finishes poorly in the league, can be sent down to a lower level league. Kind of like the Kansas City Royals being sent to AAA ball for poor performance. Now THAT would be really interesting to adopt in the US!!!
Ok, it has been a crazy year in the BCS. It seems that every time a team is ranked first or second, it immediately loses. This year has really challenged the ranking system. But let’s think about this, does LSU or Ohio State really deserve to be in this game? All year I heard LSU fans talk about because the SEC is so tough, LSU deserves to be there, also because they are LSU after all and it seems that fan base feels playing for national championships is their birthright. But the reality is, when is really counted, they lost! TWICE! Overtime or not they lost! Ohio State is nearly as bad, playing one of the worst non-conference schedules I can remember, and they still have a loss! The Big 10 just isn’t what is used to be. I think this year is as bad as 2004 when Auburn easily should have played USC for the title, and somehow Oklahoma did. I just don’t get it. Enough of these schools that feel that because they are who they are they should always be in the national championship game. That’s why coaches at those schools don’t last long (such as why the hell would Arkansas fire their coach after all the success they had? He was obviously so bad he was unemployed for an entire day!). And why when you talk to coaches they will quietly admit some of the big name schools are actually terrible jobs to have. Alabama, Nebraska (who else is enjoying the year they had!), Notre Dame, the list goes on. Bring on a playoff system! I would love to see Hawaii, who is undefeated but really hasn’t played anyone, take on Missouri, or LSU. Who else can really test those teams? Virginia Tech and Missouri? THAT would be fun! Or a team that got hot at the end USC, could they put a playoff run together…we will just never know….
But can the big name (and name only) branded schools just not keep telling us how much better they are than everyone else? The numbers just don’t add up. The current system just rewards playing crappy schools out of conference and scheduling your toughest in conference games early, so you have time to recover if you lose one…
