cambridgeshire canary 6,736 Posted March 21 (edited) https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2024/03/13/saudi-arabia-pro-league-soccer-spending Who knew spending hundreds of millions a season and hundreds of thousands a week on player wages when your average attendance in the leauge is 8000 and you get almost no real care or interest to watch the matches from abroad might be a bad idea? Seems the bubble has burst And with players like Jordan Henderson having ran away after just one season despite promising to go there to 'help build the leauge' it would seem things aren't quite working out Edited March 21 by cambridgeshire canary 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Old Shuck 183 Posted March 21 Has any major TV network signed up to show their games, regularly and live? We have live games here in England right down to National League North/South level as well as Scotland, Italy, Spain, Germany and France. No MLS that I'm aware of. Would give some of them a go. Portugal and Holland too. King's Lynn vs Tamworth live in the UK but not a hint of Al Ittihad vs Al Hilal et al. Are their games similarly persona non grata in mainland Europe as well? If attendances and TV coverage remains poor, the Saudi's will step up their efforts to get major games from other leagues played out there. A Champions League final? I wouldn't bet against it, despite what UEFA have said to the contrary. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Google Bot 3,278 Posted March 21 (edited) 1 hour ago, Old Shuck said: Has any major TV network signed up to show their games, regularly and live? I love my boxing and there's a lot of promotion on DAZN for the Saudi league between and during build up for fights. So I presume they do. Not sure how major there are in the grand scheme of things though, big player in boxing, but they lack the EPL to really be prominent over here. I believe they're big elsewhere around the world though. Edited March 21 by Google Bot Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheGunnShow 5,940 Posted March 21 Anything that puts the kibosh on Saudi sportswashing sounds bloody marvellous to me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ken Hairy 3,773 Posted March 21 Probably because despite chucking all this money at it the fans around the world still don't give a tu'penny toss about it and never will. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ken Hairy 3,773 Posted March 21 2 hours ago, Old Shuck said: No MLS that I'm aware of. Would give some of them a go. Apple TV has it although you need an MLS subscription on top of their normal one It's £14.99 a month or £99 a year paying it off in one hit. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Satriales 655 Posted March 21 4 hours ago, Ken Hairy said: Apple TV has it although you need an MLS subscription on top of their normal one It's £14.99 a month or £99 a year paying it off in one hit. SKY had the rights until fairly recently. Annoying they've lost them, would have been nice to watch Pukki in action. No chance I'd pay 15 quid for it! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ken Hairy 3,773 Posted March 21 53 minutes ago, Satriales said: SKY had the rights until fairly recently. Annoying they've lost them, would have been nice to watch Pukki in action. No chance I'd pay 15 quid for it! *cough* fawanews *cough* 😏 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheBaldOne66 690 Posted March 22 Saudi matches shown on BeIn tv out here, the Arabic version of Sky. They also show games from all around the world with Richard Keys and Andy Gray amongst others have being the presenters here of the programs. Even with the influx of named stars from around the world, the standard is still very poor in the Middle East in general. The Saudi league will not take off as people in this region only want to watch the top European clubs. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
