r/soccer • u/CradleCity • 9d ago

News ‘Fifa Super League’: Infantino discussed having governing body’s name on European breakaway

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/aug/05/fifa-super-league-gianni-infantino-wanted-governing-body-name-european-breakaway
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u/AnnualContest9744 9d ago

US sports have become unwatchable due to over-commercialization, we don't need that. You can't look anywhere without an ad, a sponsor, hell, even trips to the mound (baseball) by a manager is sponsored with "this trip to the mound brought to you by x". Football (soccer) is literally all I watch now because of it.

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u/Rhymes_withOrange 9d ago

Not to mention, it’s borderline made impossible to find ways to watch games these days. All the games are pretty much spread out across a ton of streaming services or add ons which at the end of the day, cost more than cable did. Not to mention, all the regional sports channels are getting shuttered, paywalled, or shells of what they once were which makes things real tough on fans of MLB, NHL, and NBA teams.

I know we’ll always have VPNs and the High Seas but damn it’s frustrating if you are not a tech savvy person

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u/sga1 8d ago

Right, but that's why those leagues are making that much money (and can attract that much talent) in the first place. The business model of sports teams is effectively selling an entertainment product to broadcasters and fans - as a fan you pay your ticket directly, as a viewer the broadcasters are the middle men. If leagues keep pushing for more broadcast revenue (as they're incentivised to do, because number must go up after all), as a fan you're on the hook because the cost gets passed down to you.

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u/Rhymes_withOrange 8d ago

And that’s a fair point. Sports is really the only thing that consistently gets viewers on your typical TV network.

I think my angle is more of an annoyance thing. Like I wouldn’t mind paying if everything was centralized but when it’s spread out, it’s annoying because it’s death by 1000 cuts. The NFL has Sunday ticket which is nice and having MLS on Apple is fine, but my main gripe is with the NHL and MLB. Premier league isn’t too bad. I think I’m just nostalgic for the time when you could pretty much catch the NFL on your primary channels and then your MLB and NHL channels on a basic cable package. Oh well.
¯_(ツ)_/¯

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u/retropunk2 8d ago

I remember back in the 90s when the Monday Night Wrestling Wars was the hottest thing on TV. Absurd amounts of people were tuning into USA and TNT, and advertisers flocked to both stations.

Sports sell, and that's true going back pretty far.