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- Creators: Barrett, The Honors College
- Creators: Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch
Description
The influx of readily available sports data has transformed the landscape of recruitment analysis conducted in European soccer leagues. Clubs now have access to a repository of information that helps to monitor the status of current players and filter those they wish to recruit. Supplemented by extensive financial backing, the teams in the English Premier League have shifted from a local, more traditional approach to a focus on the acquisition of players in international markets. This paper analyzes the rapid effects of implementing a data-driven approach to recruitment and argues that the dominance of Liverpool in the EPL from 2017 to 2022 has stemmed from a superior focus in this data-driven recruitment compared to other clubs in the league, specifically Manchester United. Other teams have recently shifted their structures to model the modern, fast flow of data that the two European super clubs manage each season yet consistently fail to match either. Furthermore, this project establishes the feasible prospect of clubs prioritizing their staffing for data over other departments, including players.
ContributorsKhan, Samdeet (Author) / Watrous, Lisa (Thesis director) / Gowtham, S. (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / Computing and Informatics Program (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
Soccer is considered one of the world’s most popular sports. In a 2017 Nielsen survey, 43 percent of people in 18 global markets said they were “interested” or “very interested” in the sport. However, multiple leagues across the globe allow for differences regarding fan bases.
Major League Soccer (MLS) was adopted as an official men’s soccer league on December 17, 1993, by the United States Soccer Federation. The league consists of 27 teams (24 in the US and 3 in Canada). By 2023, the league will expand to 30 teams. The season begins in March and play continues through mid-October, with a playoff bracket.
The English Premier League (EPL) was established on February 20, 1992 and is made up of 20 clubs. The season runs from mid-August to mid-May, with 380 matches across the league being played. There are no “playoffs”; instead, a winner is determined by a point system. Points add up throughout the season (three points for a win, one point for a draw, none for a loss).
The average attendance for the two leagues is fairly consistent. The most popular team in the EPL, Manchester United, averaged 57,942 spectators per game in 2019 (Statista). The most popular team in the MLS, Atlanta United, averaged 52,210 spectators per game in 2019 (Statista). Average television viewership between the two leagues is drastically different. The EPL is the most watched sports league in the world. In 2019, a Nielsen study found that the total audience delivered on NBC per match averaged 462,000 viewers (this number does not include Spanish language broadcasts or streaming data from NBC Sports Gold and Peacock Sports Group). Another Nielsen study found that the MLS’s 31-game schedule on ESPN and ESPN 2 had a total average audience of 246,000 viewers.
This website identifies the major differences in marketing and fan groups between the two leagues, and includes ideas on how to overcome these differences and make Major League Soccer have a larger presence in the United States, like the way the Premier League has a large presence in the U.K.
Website Link: https://fangapsinmlsandepl.wordpress.com
ContributorsCook, Paige (Author) / Kurland, Brett (Thesis director) / Camporeale, Joseph (Committee member) / Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Comm (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-12
Description
Manchester United and Leeds United are two of the English Premier League’s most popular and historically successful clubs, and together constitute one of English football’s most interesting and inexplicable rivalries. English popular opinion claims that this rivalry is based on the Wars of the Roses and the royal houses of Lancaster and York, so this thesis engages with this idea and analyzes the rivalry's connections to this medieval historical event. Furthermore, the top flight English football league's evolution into the English Premier League brought social and economic changes to the sport, both at a broad and ground level, and this thesis finds out how much these changes affected this rivalry. All in all, this thesis analyzes medieval, social, cultural, and economic historical connections to one of English football's most unique club rivalries.
ContributorsFeyrer, Aubrey (Author) / Harper, Tobias (Thesis director) / Jackson, Victoria (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor)
Created2021-12