- What Brits would wake up on a Saturday morning at 4:30am or 7:30am local time to watch an English Premiership match on TV? Most Brits already complain about the “early” kickoff, which is at 12:45pm British time. But Americans don’t complain and get up early every Saturday morning just for the pure delight of watching the Premiership in action.
- Americans are more likely to watch more Premiership matches than Brits. Because many Americans don’t have a specific team that they support and instead watch the English Premier League as a neutral fan, they’re more likely to watch more matches in a season than some Brits who won’t watch their club’s arch-rival because of their hatred for that team.
- Football fans in America get to watch more live Premiership matches than fans in Britain.
- If you think watching a Premiership match at 4:30am or 7:30am is bad enough, go back to the 2002 World Cup when matches — depending on what your time zone in America — were played at 2:30am, 5am and 7:30am (all times Eastern). Those same matches were played at the more reasonable times of 7:30am, 10am and 12:30pm British time.
- So while time zones don’t favor the US viewers of the Premiership, consider another reason why Americans are crazier about the EPL than Brits: They have a greater hunger for it. While Major League Soccer (MLS) does its best to entertain Americans, it’s a pale imitation of the world game (and the top English league). That’s one of the reasons why Americans are flocking to the Premiership. Of course, we all know tons of other reasons why we love the league so much, but the point is that we can’t get enough of it.
Thoughts?
