Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more.
← Insights Home ← Back
Analysis
5 min read

Europe vs. North America: the “Big 5” match-up

Amid the challenges of Covid-19, comparisons are being made between the operating models of the largest European and North American sports leagues.

  • Major League Baseball plays 2,467 games per season, 6.5x higher than European football leagues
  • The MLS, founded in 1996, has revenues of €860m – 45% those of France’s Ligue 1
  • Only 8% of North American broadcasting revenues come from international contracts

With sport all over the world undergoing major disruption, increased attention has been placed on the difference in structure, governance, and financials of different league models.

In particular, there is growing interest in the traditional sports leagues “across the pond” in the USA (and Canada) and how they differ from Europe’s football “Big 5”. A lot of focus is placed on the North Americans’ aversion to the concept of promotion and relegation, perhaps the biggest driver of excitement and fan engagement in European football (and probably the most fiercely opposed concept to have been considered over here in the “old world”), but that is a meaty subject worthy of its own post. In this piece, we will look at the basics: how are the leagues structured, how do the key revenue steams compare (in size and distribution) and how do the two continents stack up in terms of attendances and broadcasting revenues.
This page is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.