In his 10th exclusive column for CaughtOffside, Jon Smith, one of football’s first-ever agents and a man who was an integral figure in the forming of the Premier League, discusses the incredible growth of fan TV, which manager Leicester City are considering and why more US-based investment is likely to hit the Premier League.
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Supporters do not yet realise their power…
The voice of the supporters has suddenly become even more significant and let me explain why – obviously they are the heartbeat of the game. Nothing has changed there but with the slow demise of traditional broadcasters, BBC, ITV, etc. the fans’ voices are actually becoming louder.
Arsenal Fan TV (AFC TV) and The United Stand are the two biggest fan channels. Their monthly audiences are over 100m viewers. All the mainstream broadcasters would love that audience! – And now, all of a sudden, they’re looking around and saying ‘this is a real opportunity!’.
TalkSPORT is another that is on the up, their audience numbers are also growing, and that is not surprising.
As I have said many times before, sports, particularly football, is becoming the population’s emotional repository. As life gets harder, socially and economically, more and more people are turning to football as a way to escape, so after a game, a large section of fans are turning to outlets such as TalkSPORT and using them as a platform to vent their frustrations. The exact same is happening with fan TV channels.
Mark Goldbridge, who runs the United Stand channel, is a phenomenal broadcaster but the platform he has created is so much more than just a hobby. He is now attracting some absolutely massive sponsors – L’Oreal for example. Huge brands.
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It’s a real big moment and fans probably don’t even realise it yet but their voices are being heard and although fans’ response to the proposed European Super League has played a part in this mentality shift, it is not the only reason. Life, in general, and how hard it is, is a major factor. Clubs understand that sport has become our emotional outlet and they know that if they ignore that audience, they do so at their peril.
Leicester City’s owners may have lost interest, but the US is waiting to pounce…
Leicester City are in a very precarious position.
As I understand it, they’re keen on hiring Brentford’s Thomas Frank but what are they going to do before the second half of the season with Brendan Rodgers still there? – They have to do something in the January transfer window, but they’re weighing up whether or not to back the manager or push for a sale because the current owners appear to have lost interest.
Asian businesses have been circling around the English Premier League for a while now, but so have US-based investors and the interesting thing now is that the US dollar and the British Pound are now almost one for one, so the Americans are essentially getting a nice-looking 20 per cent discount, so this is why some of those positioned right at the very top of our financial order are already sniffing around Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and certainly Manchester United.
Those are the clubs who are the real big targets, the ones further down the table aren’t quite getting the same level of interest at the moment.
I think that potentially over the next nine – 12 months, there are going to be a lot of changes in this area, which will certainly be helped by the pound’s weakness. So watch this space!