The Club

Summary

A book on how the English Premier League grew to become one of the most powerful sports leagues in the world. An interesting read, but I was hoping for more analysis on the business side rather than anecdotes on clubs and games. Still, my interest in the sport and this league was enough for me to enjoy reading it.

Things I learned

It’s hard trying to remember a time that sport didn’t dominate a section of culture, but in the 1970s, the premier league didn’t really exist and only a very small percent of people cared about the sports and the teams in it at all. Compare that to today where all sports are vying for, and doing a bloody good job, attention.
- To ponder: This is an industry and it took contrarian thinkers at the time to believe in what it could be. Does the rise of patriotism in sport continue to grow in perpetuity or will the time come again when it’s not talked about at every pub?
  - What other industries can I see growing like this in the coming decades?
Soccer clubs are extremely capital intensive. It’s not just the operational wages, but the stadiums plus upkeep, and then the astronomical transfer fees you need to pay to compete. Yes, there’s the dream stories of Wrexham, but that still required a billionaire to run the show.
Owning these ‘businesses’ is as much about how you can generate other revenue as it is the club themselves. The owners of Manchester City benefit as much from ‘Etihad Airways’ being on millions and millions of shirts worldwide as they do from their Champions League victory.
TV networks are more important partnerships to the leagues than I ever thought before. They can change the course of the entire sport so while money is important, it’s not the whole story.
- To ponder: What other industries have these outsized players/partners that I haven’t previously thought of?