Many of us have heard about the brawls that can take place in a pub in England if there is a soccer match that is going on. The soccer hooligans take all of the adrenaline and passion for the team that they love and try to slam it into the person closest to them.
All of the drama that is created by just one match could surprise someone who is not familiar with how into a match these fans can get, though these fans are not just in Europe. There are many that are in the United States as well, and the number could be growing.
According to the LA Times and Sports Illustrated, NBC Universal had a winning bid of $250 million for rights to air all 380 matches of the Premier League for three years.
The first match set to air on Aug. 17 was to be Swansea City versus Manchester United. The match was reported to have brought in “the highest overnight rating of 0.8 in U.S. history for a Premier League opening weekend match,” Ken Schott of the Daily Gazette’s weblog wrote.
The high ratings of the first match could only be the beginning of a small hype or something much larger. Jon Miller, the President of Programming at NBC and NBC Sports, seems to feel that it may be something that will spread quite fast in the U.S.
“I think this is going to be a very viral grow,” Miller says to BusinessWeek. “People are going to be talking about it.”
Other people seem to also feel that the U. S. is starting to want in on the action of the Premier League. Rebecca Lowe, the NBC Premier League host, commented on what may be bringing in the interest of the Premier League to the U.S.
“(Americans), when they are traveling out of the U.S., see what the game is going to the rest of the world,” studio host Rebecca Lowe said to the Washington Post. “Perhaps they are starting to think they want a piece of that.”
There also may be some who are still unsure about how bringing in the Premier League to the U.S. can affect the Major League Soccer. It could be a good thing to bring in some competition for the Major League Soccer to go against, and create something for the U.S. to talk about.
It’s not all about just being able to have something else that can be added to list of pastimes, but also something that people can use to help improve themselves in the sport.
“The English Premier League being televised, it’s the best thing that could have happened to educate everybody who’s watching the difference in styles, because every country’s got a different style,” Larry Aguiar, LPC’s men’s soccer coach, said.
The differences between the Major League Soccer and the English Premier League are quite vast, so one may wonder about how well the English Premier League may translate over to the U.S.
“It’s getting there little by little, but it’s getting there,” Jesus Alejandro Ruiz, a sophomore on the men’s soccer team at LPC, said.
It may not be an immediate take over, but it seems it may get people talking in the months to come as more matches are aired.