At the end of each year I like to look back at what I’ve written over the last twelve months and see what I’ve learnt. So, my own personal review of the year shows that:
Football
- Covid has helped to shift attention from the Premier League’s continued dependence on gambling, where nearly half of all teams are sponsored by gambling firms.
- The teams behind the short-lived European super league had research that showed three-quarters of fans were more interested in star players, big teams, and occasions, with the largest of any group ‘FOMO Followers’ preferring ‘European football over domestic for the perceived higher quality of entertainment that it offers.’ But they failed to realise that it is the passion of the 25% of ‘Fanatics’ or ‘Club Loyalists’ that makes everyone else want to watch. It was this passion that everyone rallied around to stop the super league.
- In April, responses to the European super league made it look like 2021 was going to be the year of a new football fan activist, but that never materialised and it seems like nothing has changed (unless the government review of football governance and some teeth).
- Harry Kane is finishing the year with a goal a game in his last three outings, so Spurs probably made the right decision not to sell – especially as previous experience has shown they didn’t do much with the £100m they got for Gareth Bale.
Horse racing
- The Japanese obsession with the Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe continues even if their performances are getting worse.
- When Frodon finished fifth in the Cheltenham Gold Cup he maintained the trend of King George winners on Boxing Day struggling to follow up at the Cheltenham festival.
- As Eddie and Michael O’Leary wind down their racing operation, their Gigginstown stud dispersal sale attracts a lot of media attention, big sales prices, but very little return on investment. Picking up the ten top sellers from the last couple of years would have cost nearly half a million pounds and produced only four wins from sixty-one runs.
- Moving fixtures such as the Kentucky Derby away from their traditional slot can seriously impact their TV ratings, as casual fans don’t tune in as they don’t even realise they are happening.
Other sports
- The level of private equity investment in rugby union suggests there is a lot of money to be made in the sport, but this may mean fans missing out as more games are played in emerging locations.
- NFL fans are a great example of one of the rules of sport economics – fans are some of the best consumers a product could ever want as they will part with their money regardless of the quality of the product.
- If a new pair of running shoes can make an average runner like me 5% faster, what is technology doing to elite runners?
And finally,
My own personal favourite of the year was my review of the final of the Copa Libertadores back in January – although there were officially 8 minutes of extra time, the match lasted an additional 14 minutes, but the ball was only in play for 2 minutes 42 seconds!
Sport.dat 