Todd Boehly has made plenty of headlines since buying Chelsea. Some of the American’s ideas aren’t all that bad. Others may need a re-think.
Here are a few of his best lines since taking over at Stamford Bridge…
Premier League All-Stars
“Ultimately I hope the Premier League takes a little bit of a lesson from American sports, and really starts to figure out, why don’t we do a tournament with the bottom four sports teams, why isn’t there an All-Star game?
“People are talking about more money for the pyramid; in the MLB All-Star game this year we made $200m from a Monday and a Tuesday. So we’re thinking we could do a North versus South All-Star game for the Premier League, for whatever the pyramid needed quite easily. Everyone likes the idea of more revenue for the league. I think there’s a real cultural aspect, I think evolution will come.”
This is the comment that really got people talking. Some immediately started picking their teams, others clutched their pearls amid much twisting of knickers.
Is it really such a bad idea? In theory, it could be brilliant. The practicalities, though, make it a virtual non-starter. The schedule is tight enough already even when there aren’t mid-season World Cups and monarchs to be mourned. And American sports are more suited to exhibition events. Because of the fear of injuries, the Premier League version would be played at walking pace with tackling if not forbidden then certainly frowned upon.
Some of the other All-Star events could be transferable, though. Who doesn’t want to see Jordan Pickford and Aaron Ramsdale go hell for leather in a Goalie Wars battle? Let’s have the MLS-style skills tests, and perhaps bring back some old classics, like the Rumbelows Sprint Challenge.
Rio Ferdinand, presumably, doesn’t think Boehly was being ‘incredibly arrogant’…
Baseball All-Star game tonight, tv coverage is quality. We need a PL All-Star game too…the powers that be let’s talk + develop this….
— Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) July 12, 2011
Six ideas the Premier League could introduce for a Boehly-inspired All-Star spectacle
Relegation play-offs
“The economics of going into the Championship are materially different. When you go into the Championship those numbers fall off a cliff. So there’s no one thinking about tanking, and those relegation games are some of the highest broadcast games.”
That was Boehly expanding on his earlier comment about ‘a tournament with the…
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