On the Eve of the new Season...

[godsshoeshine]

And the leagues themself don't run into some sort of insolvency issue if an AC Milan or Man U spends 2-3 years in a lower division? That would cripple some American sports.

the leagues in the biggest countries are bigger than the individual teams. but the teams themselves have varying financial issues. not getting into the champions league even one year could cripple liverpool so much that hicks and gillette would have to sell

[vansmack]

The other part of the problem is how US sports use their minor league teams.  That doesn't exist in soccer.  Reserve squads play in reserve squad leagues, not in the lower divisions.  Players are "loaned" out to lower division squads to gain experience, however once a player is loaned out, you are forbidden from pulling him back to your squad until his loan term is up, so you best 20-25 players are playing in the reserve team or at the top club, not in some minor league affiliate.

The only teams that could come up in baseball and hockey, are owned by top flight teams, so it would be a drastic change.

The NBA only just now has a D-League (development league) and there is no minor leagues for the NFL.

It would be a drastic change in how things work and there's no way the owners or the unions would support it. 

[godsshoeshine]

plus no one would have paid hundreds of millions of dollars for a franchise fee if relegation was in the cards

[vansmack]

It's fair to point out that I have always dreamed of setting this up for a fantasy baseball league, but even then I was totally perplexed as to how to do team valuations.

I was thinking maybe $150 to play in the top flight (with higher payouts), $100 to play in the second division and $50 to play in the third division.  21 team league (seven in each division), 23 man rosters, every stat counts but the big hangup has been how to value players.  In soccer, you progress by finding one gem and selling him for enough money to make your team better at 3 or 4 positions. That's more difficult when you have to trade, unless we can somehow do team valuations....

[vansmack]

The Kaka to Real deal is supposedly done for ?65 Million.

I guess that would make Ronaldo safe at United.

[Barcelona]

This is historic for us!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw3CTvNqcsk

[godsshoeshine]

The Kaka to Real deal is supposedly done for ?65 Million.

I guess that would make Ronaldo safe at United.

i'll be honest

i'm kind of bummed. i hoped to see him in england

[vansmack]

i'll be honest

i'm kind of bummed. i hoped to see him in england

I thought you weren't watching Top Flight English football this year?

[godsshoeshine]

what? i didnt mean to say that

i'm not keeping setanta at $15 a month (i could still change my mind there) but i surely will watch whatever is on fsc hd

[godsshoeshine]

The Kaka to Real deal is supposedly done for ?65 Million.

I guess that would make Ronaldo safe at United.

not so fast

[vansmack]

Incredible.  Where Real finds this money I will never know.

I love the deal.  £80M!  I was ready to make the deal at Christmas.

Rooney is free to run the team now (as we see him doing with England), Ribery should be coming in to be the play maker, and Berbatov has a year under his belt now to understand how to play at United.

What does this mean for Tevez?

[brennser]

me too....$80 million gets you two, possibly three players.....I'll miss his football but not his theatrics, and it was clear he was mailing it in this season

[godsshoeshine]

£20m more and you could buy newcastle or west ham

thats insane money. ribery, a tevez replacement and a role player or two. good deal

[vansmack]

£20m more and you could buy newcastle

With the exception of JS Veron, we only like to make good investments on the Upper West Side.

[sweetcell]

setenta is irish?!?!?  the name always led me to believe it was spanish.  no, i've never watched the channel.

Disney's ESPN says no current plan to buy Setanta
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090611/media_nm/us_setanta_espn