Statute of Limitations on Franchise?
That's definitely true, and it's also true that the existing economic structures have developed in tandem with the established sports structures and are generally not flexible enough to accomodate radical change (and certainly not interested in fostering it).
Television networks, for instance, find it much easier to work with leagues under central control (and rival television networks have even funded new leagues in order to "create product"). Financial institutions much prefer the security of the less volatile "revenue streams" produced by a closed league, and even North American player unions have grown to rely on the structure (they don't include "minor league" players, for one thing).
The flag-waving predelictions of much of the US sports establishment (and the media that covers it) also puts any new idea that can be characterised as "foreign" at an immediate disadvantage. If ESPN were somehow able to have packaged promotion and relegation as part of an "Xtreme Soccer" concept ten years ago, the idea might actually have had a chance, but now "everyone knows" its a foreign plot.
That's definitely true, and it's also true that the existing economic structures have developed in tandem with the established sports structures and are generally not flexible enough to accomodate radical change (and certainly not interested in fostering it).
Television networks, for instance, find it much easier to work with leagues under central control (and rival television networks have even funded new leagues in order to "create product"). Financial institutions much prefer the security of the less volatile "revenue streams" produced by a closed league, and even North American player unions have grown to rely on the structure (they don't include "minor league" players, for one thing).
The flag-waving predelictions of much of the US sports establishment (and the media that covers it) also puts any new idea that can be characterised as "foreign" at an immediate disadvantage. If ESPN were somehow able to have packaged promotion and relegation as part of an "Xtreme Soccer" concept ten years ago, the idea might actually have had a chance, but now "everyone knows" its a foreign plot.
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