The English Premier League is taking off stateside. Especially Liverpool FC, and especially in New York City. The New York Times did a story about Brooklyn hipsters, particularly in the ultra-trendy neighborhood of Williamsburg, where there’s been an influx of Liverpool FC fans. Or people adopting the Reds as they currently sit atop the Premier League table and have a 85% chance of winning the league.
It’s a good read, even though the article comes off extremely elitist and it works in every hipster stereotype possible; whenever possible.
With fan interest booming, soccer is no longer the Kylie Minogue of the sporting realm: huge everywhere but here. After years of being greeted as the Next Big Thing that wasn’t, the sport (particularly England’s Premier League, with its enhanced presence on American television) has become a conversation topic you can no longer ignore.
This is particularly evident in New York creative circles, where the game’s aesthetics, Europhilic allure and fashionable otherness have made soccer the new baseball — the go-to sport of the thinking class.
I do love me some Kylie Minogue, not just looking at pictures of her scantily clad, but also her music. I’ve always found her tunes to be underrated. So I’m loving that Kylie Minogue analogy. Premier League is taking off in America partially due to the launch of Fox Sports 1 and especially the expansion of NBC Sports Network. NBCSN paid a ton of money for the broadcast rights to every PL match in America, and with it they’ve created a lot of content that accompanies it, getting us Yanks familiar with “football.”
And FS1 has broadcast a lot of Champions League games that featured a side from England’s top flight. American MLS, Major League Soccer, has become just as popular with American youth as MLB, Major League Baseball. However, it’s the EPL that’s the soccer of choice here in the USA. We regard the Premier League to be the best professional league in the world.
And with Liverpool FC likely to win the title, then perhaps they truly are the best team in the world? And this author is a Manchester United supporter; so you’re reading a MUFC supporter saying that.
More from the New York Times on why EPL is going mainstream stateside:
Now, cable television is filled with soccer: Spain’s La Liga, Germany’s Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A and Mexico’s Liga MX. On the Internet, fans can follow matches from the Italian second division, check out Brazilian highlights on YouTube, and take in the latest gossip for VfB Stuttgart. In fact, Mr. Bennett has become a leading evangelist for American soccer converts through his popular Men in Blazers soccer talk show on Grantland and SiriusXM, which he hosts with Michael Davies.
“It is often said that baseball blew up in America in the age of radio, and the NFL rose to dominance once television took over,” Mr. Bennett said. “Soccer is the perfect sport for the Internet era. American fans can follow games and instantaneously track information from global leagues both big and small, feeling as close to their favorite teams as if they lived within a thrown beer of their stadium.”
Several reasons for the fetish for English soccer in particular: the Premier League’s ubiquity on television, the lack of a language barrier. And, of course, there is garden-variety Anglophilia.
When I saw the press screener copy of the ESPN 30 for 30 Hillsborough I was blown away. The 30 for 30 series is stellar, and Hillsborough was the best one by far. Maybe the best product ESPN has ever given us, in my opinion. I’m not the only American journalist who feels that way about the film. It’s another avenue to increase American awareness for Liverpool FC and the Premier League in general.
Something for me to explore here in “the second city” I’m sure Chicago has a similar sizable Liverpool FC supporter section. Of course, I’ll be seeking out my own kind first; the Chicago MUFC supporters.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also a frequent guest on national talk radio. Banks is a former contributor to NBC Chicago and the Washington Times, who’s been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)