Cleveland Browns owner to take over Aston Villa
The latest rumblings about the sale of Aston Villa have the owner of the Cleveland Browns, Randy Lerner, taking over the Premiership side.
It might not seem like it on the surface, but this is great for American soccer. Lerner is the second American billionaire to show this kind of interest in soccer. It is only a matter of time before these investors realize that there is a fertile market in the U.S. just waiting to be exploited.
It will be interesting to see how Villa fans react. Will it be a calm, measured response or will this be Malcom Glazer redux?
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It is only a matter of time before these investors realize that there is a fertile market in the U.S. just waiting to be exploited.
If there really are a bunch of billionaires out there who love soccer, they could easily saturate the market with it until regular ol’ Americans start to obsses over it. With proper resources, I have to believe it’s pretty easy to fabricate a trend in this country.
But my guess is that wouldn’t make a lot of true soccer fans happy. They’d probably prefer that people come to soccer as a truly interested fan, not as someone duped by American’s excellent marketing machine.
What do the ThroughBallers out there think? Is a spectator a spectator, or would it annoy you if soccer exploded in America simply because it was the hottest trend of the moment?
There are already plenty of “true” soccer fans out there that annoy me…so I guess it wouldn’t make no diff to me.
Is a spectator a spectator…?
It’s a great question. I’d like to believe that the game would convert a casual observer.
To your broader point: You are absolutely right that enough money can create enough buzz to convince people that they should care. What that says about our culture, I’m not sure…
I don’t think Villa fans will mind at all if it means their team will again be competitive, and they will have an owner willing to spend actual money buying players. This is a fanbase that has been abused over the years in spite of the fact that they are big enough to be a mid-major in the EPL, but Doug Ellis and company plus some poor managerial choices have submarined any thoughts of it.
So basically, this isn’t like Glazer at all – this is a chance for a good group of fans to get their hope back.
To hearken back to Josh’s post about the movie about the New York Cosmos, there is your answer right there.
Throw enough money at several old, world-class players and you can fill the seats. (Insert David Beckham or Ronaldo here).
The thing is, as much excitement as this brings, it doesn’t really help “develop” anything, as you can tell from the Cosmos no longer existing. Do they make other players better? Maybe, but the lure of America is the commercialism and not the level of play.
The fact that big businessmen like Glazer and others are looking overseas to do their investing says a lot of what they think of the money-making opportunity here in America. LIkewise, a lot of the top talent from America is playing in Europe.
Also is the completely bizzare draft situation with the MLS. A team can train you in their camp from the age of 14 but then have to enter them into a draft to possibly be drafted by another team. That’s the equivalent of training Wayne Rooney at Everton but then having to put him up in a draft after he’s become the youngest scorer in the premiership and being unable to get any monetary comensation for his development when someone else takes him in the draft. Ridiculous, and also no good way of developing a team from a youth system up.
Rant over.
[...] Well, it looks like we can put to bed the rumors about Cleveland Browns owner, Randy Lerner, buying Aston villa. [...]
[...] When the rumors started flying about Cleveland Browns owner, Randy Lerner, taking over at Aston Villa, I wondered if Villa fans would take kindly to the American ownership or if they would react like United supporters did when Malcom Glazer came to town. [...]
[...] Remember what I said when Randy Lerner made a bid to buy Aston Villa: It might not seem like it on the surface, but this is great for American soccer. Lerner is the second American billionaire to show this kind of interest in soccer. It is only a matter of time before these investors realize that there is a fertile market in the U.S. just waiting to be exploited. [...]
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