That league discovered how to squeeze every dollar out of American football.
⚡️ Sign up and download for FREE using my link https://grammarly.com/searchparty.
The NFL makes far more money than every other sports league in the world and it’s not even close. It’s all the more remarkable when you consider that American football is only played in one country. Soccer, basketball, and baseball have more fans worldwide but none of those leagues or teams make as much as the NFL. This video explains how the NFL created the perfect sports league for making money.
Welcome to Search Party!
Search Party is a new, independent, video news show that combines experienced journalism and visual design to decode the most complex stories in international sports and geopolitics.
Subscribe and turn on notifications 🔔 so you don’t miss any videos: https://www.youtube.com/@Search-Party
Become a Search Party Original member today: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7KbIaEOuY7H2j-cvhJ3mYA/join
Check out our sources for this video: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dcmfDXlWzr7bRHj1GjwOZNjihZ1U2dUb6fCkKYP87m8/edit?usp=sharing
About:
Search Party is led and produced by Sam Ellis, a journalist, director, editor, and animator based in New York City. For more than 6 years, Ellis produced the hugely popular video series, Vox Atlas, for which he earned an Emmy nomination. He specializes in breaking down the most complex new stories and presenting them with a refreshing, accessible, and engaging visual style.
He’s produced explainers on some of the world’s thorniest geopolitical stories; from corruption scandals in Latin America, conflict in the Middle East, and the rise of China, to the world of sports; the Monaco Grand Prix, the FIFA corruption scandal, and the 100-foot waves of Nazaré, Portugal. Ellis has also directed multiple episodes of TV; notably on Netflix’s ‘Explained’ and HBO Sport’s ‘Level Playing Field’.
Got story ideas or tips? Reach out to the team at:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/swellis_
Email: sam@searchparty.ch
47 Comments
🥳 Thank you for watching! Sign up and download for FREE using my link https://grammarly.com/searchparty.
Premium content here
The thing is if one country created a closed league nobody else would, theres that European Super League but nobody wants that, Whoopy do another sport makes more money in its league, the fans dont want this over here, although a salary cap and first dibs on a more nationalised youth system going to weaker teams wouldnt be a bad shout, squad size caps too!
Why Chelsea?😂😂😂 The slander is getting out of hand
Always a open league = fairness/equal,never a closed league = super league of greed which destroys football.
Tight video.
That's a cartel not a socialist experiment though 🤷♂
This is one of the reasons NFL has lost lot of fans in younger age brackets here in America. Median age for TV viewers of NFL is currently 57 years old and growing every year. Why watch a sport where it is three and half hours long, more commercials than gameplay, your best players only play half the game and so on
The comparisson of the american type league being socialist as opposed to the european style as hyper capitalist is laughable and not with enough nuanced analysis other than salary for an american viewer to properly undertand. It is simple grossly misleading.
Don’t apologize for calling it soccer. That is the sports original name.
You say Socialism because the NFL spreads the money. I say Capitalism with a touch of a Monopoly by paying the most for players and hurting the XFL and other start ups being able to put a better product out.
Despite the hoo-ha about Officiating, the NFL is honest and competitive…viewers can judge that each game…..but it will take only ONE "problem" to blow that up. That "problem" is the proliferation of Internet-based gambling. Cheating at the Institutional level will happen. Greed will see to that. In the meantime, lots of Fans will go bankrupt as a result.
I will say that only Americans would ever allow for so many ads. Here in Europe (Denmark for me) they have a talk show in between plays. Ads in flow TV are 7 min per hour here. I could never watch NFL live if they didn't have the danish studio covering the match, as most of the time I am just looking at a "black" screen where your ads are supposed to be. It really ruins the games.
A soccer football league won't work as well as the NFL has for the simple reason that its too late. There is already 100s of massive teams in Europe nowadays and fans prefer to see their teams face the rivals they've had for decades. It is also important to note that soccer teams are based far closer to each other as they are split up by countries and in the biggest cities.
You should cover the Saudi pro league, they have exciting stuff going on!
Although there is a salary cap in USA, there are financial fairplay rules in European football (or as you call it soccer) leagues. You didn't mention it,but it's kind of important. Everton was deducted with 10 points this season. Man City are under investigation for breaching 115 rules, because they won their titles with cheating!
7:13 Thumbs up just for that Chelsea relegation.
That why the bosses want super league now in europe.😆
NFL and the rest of the closed system "sports" leagues are not sports "leagues", are just TV sport products, as there's zero competitiveness to give your very best now, right now, because at then end of the day, season, year, you will still have your spot in the league. Football (real one) will never put profits over performance and competitiveness.
Excellent video my man, adds to the reasons why so many of us LOVE the NFL
In few years, IPL is gonna overtake NFL to become the most valuable league in world unless European Super league comes up.
Would love to see F1 compared to NFL in this format
Newcastles logo being small yet having so much wealth makes no sense
🦶 ⚽️: Football
🏃🏽 🏈: Runball
missed IPL ?
Sam, you truly are a master of your craft!
I think an interesting follow to this would be how Formula 1 is looking to copy this model and turn what used to be an open league into a closed one, while looking at all the challenges and controversy that's surrounding the move.
Americans really have a different definition of socialism, but I'm not gonna pretend as if like I dont understand lol so All.Good.
The thing about the European Super League, is that it can't work. When the talks were revealed, literally everyone, including fans outside of the Club's management was for it. The system is too ingrained for a Super League in Soccer, the compromise is the UEFA Champions League
great stuff
awesome video
The European Super League may still happen but i think the essence & excitement of soccer is that it has the danger of relegation. Yes it probably makes teams hold back to playing all out but it adds a whole other dimension & jeopardy that makes the league more exciting. As a leicester fan i certainly wish there were more spending restrictions, especially at the top & to restrict the gap between the various levels. But us winning the title and going down later is what makes soccer so great, it's a whole other form of anguish that you just don't necessarily get in american leagues tbh
The EPL may not have a salary cap, but after Chelsea and Man City spent crazy money, they have enacted "Financial Fair Play". Which tries to even the playing field a little, but really doesn't. It basically means you can't operate too much at a loss. This is what just happened at Everton FC. They overspent, but as of right now that risk was worth it. Their finances were awful, but it lets them stay in the Premier League. And even after being punished with a 10 point reduction, they'll probably stay, and that's worth it.
Clubs like Man City are in a whole other ball game. They do some more sneaky ways of meeting financial fair play – which has been investigated/is being investigated. To not operate at a loss, you need money. You get money from sponsors. So if your sponsors just so happens to pay you wayyyy above market rate for a sponsorship deal, then perhaps it makes it more easy to not operate at a loss.
Also the closed system for NFL teams allows teams to be profitable, yes. It is a great business model. Soccer's closed system isn't a great business model, but it doesn't have to be. A lot of owners of soccer teams don't own them to make money. Most owners are rich from other business ventures and use soccer as a marketing opportunity basically.
If you run your soccer team like a business and focus on profits, you will fail. Because you're competing against other owners who aren't so focused on profits, they're focused on winning. They want ETIHAD to be front and center while they win a trophy. Look at Manchester United. They're on the NYSE. In the past 5-10 years they've spent so much money not on the right players to help them win, but marketable players to improve the brand. Falcao, Zlatan, Schweinsteiger, Pogba, etc. They focused on big names, but didn't want to spend big cash on risky youngsters like Erling Haaland who had played for their coach already
Should also be noted that things like merchandise and licensing also adds to the total pot of money to be divided up, granted TV deals are still by far the largest source of revenue to give divvied up EA buying the rights to exclusively make an NFL video game, or all those clothing companies who pay for the right to put a team or NFL logo on their apparel which costs way more than it otherwise should does add to this. But yeah it is ironic that that a "socialist" model is fueled by capitalistic greed of TV companies each out bidding each other for rights to do games, I forget the year that it was but it used to be CBS and NBC doing football games with CBS being the NFC and NBC the AFC then one year when TV rights were up a "little know station" FOX just massively outbid CBS to get rights to NFC games and poof that was that, now in order to keep up with the Jones each entity needs to make sure to bid high, e.g. Amazon arguably overbid for TNF.
0:10 GARNACHOOOO
Sunday Night Football is one of the coolest TV broadcasts out right now and so much more goes into it than meets the eye. If you haven’t listened to the NYT’s Sunday Read about SNF, you’re missing out.
what you describe here has nothing to do with socialism, it's an oligopoly. few companies sharing a market that they closed to others.
gddamn I dunno if it's the chicken or the egg, with vox and you. the cadence, editing, soundtrack and even your pacing sound and look like a direct ripoff of Vox. Insane.
Common soccer L
And you didn't mentioned the fact that their huge stadiums was built by a big part with public taxpayer money. Around 5 Billion since 2000.
Vox Copy
I’ve always thought about this and you put it perfectly lol it’s so ironic these billionaires are pushing so hard for a socialist system because they’re scared they might lose everything in their current hyper capitalist system
hey soccer was slang back in england and then they stopped saying it and act like we're assholes for using it still
"them's fighting words, boy''
hey someone show this to Rob and Ryan…
Really great video!
It was great to see an explanation of how the NFL became the more dominant sport in the US and how the NFL is the wealthiest sports league in the world.
Is there any chance that you might do a video about hockey/NHL?
It would be interesting to see how come it isn't more popular in the US and how come the NHL is the poorest sports league in the US. I would think that more people would like hockey, as it is fast paced and intense.
NFL was AVOD , before AVOD was AVOD
0:54 Point to note .. in the chart, IPL looks to be the second 2nd highest revenue generating sports despite it was started in 2008