Day 9 - Community impact and team loyalty

Topic Point: Club soccer teams around the world are an integral part of theircommunity. There is a bond between the citizens of a town and their club. Thisis cultural since soccer is life in many parts of the world. Most countries donot split their sports attention as is the case in the United States. Further,world soccer clubs are indelibly tied to their towns. It seems that club ownersand board of directors listen to their fans. This is not accomplished directly,but they seem to be influenced by the general sentiment of their fanbaseincluding dissatisfaction with a team’s performance. The result can be seen inchanges including selling/acquiring players and sacking coaches.  More significantly, it is unheard of for aprofessional soccer club to move to a different city.

Ted Lasso: Theconnection of the team to the Richmond community is palpable, and realisticportrayal of soccer around the world.

·     S1, E2 – the fans concern andfrustration are clearly visible in the stadium before and after their matchwith Crystal Palace[1]

·     S1, E3 – Ted and Roy go to aschool to visit with the students; Trent Crimm admonishes Ted for beingflippant (though he was not) about coaching the club. He emphasizes that theclub means a lot to the people and the town

·     Throughout S1, you see Ted andBeard’s interaction with the community

·     By Season 3, you see how thetown is grateful for Ted’s influence on the team, and Rebecca’s leadership. Thethree townies that frequent the pub pay for Rebecca’s lunch (S3E12) inappreciation of what she has done for the club. It is particularly noteworthybecause Rebecca owns the club, yet the fans claim a “stake”. Rebecca ends upsharing ownership of the club with the town as they are all stakeholders.

Soccer-related note: The move of a European or South American soccer club has occurred,but it is extremely rare. Some moves were the result of significant instabilityin the respective team’s region.

·     Wimbledon FC moved to MiltonKeynes and became the MK Dons (2003). A new club developed in its place (AFCWimbledon).

·     Qarabag FK (Azerbaijan) movedfrom Aghdam for Baku due to war.

·     Several teams in Colombia moveddue to financial instability.

However, due to the way soccer developed aroundthe world, clubs have historical ties to their communities that are difficultto break. Clubs will rebuild rather than remove themselves from the community.

American Sports comparison: Americans have first-hand experience of how disruptive a team’s movecan be to a city. One of the more infamous moves, the Cleveland Browns franchisemoved to Baltimore. The city, however, retained the rights to the name. Thus,the Cleveland Browns that moved to Baltimore became the Baltimore Ravens. Intime, the NFL expanded and awarded a team to Cleveland which led to theresurgence of the Cleveland Browns. Interestingly, Baltimore adopted the formerCleveland team after losing their original team, the Baltimore Colts, toIndianapolis.

Los Angeles has an unusual football historywith multiple moves to and from the city. The city had 1 team (1946-1959), 2teams (1960), 1 team (1961-1982), 2 teams (1982-94), zero teams (1995-2015), 1team (2016), and now 2 teams (2017-present).

·     Los Angeles Rams – the teammoved from Los Angeles to St. Louis for the 1995 season, only to return to LosAngeles for the 2016 season. Ironically, the team started as the Cleveland Ramsin 1936 and moved to Los Angeles in 1946.

·     Oakland Raiders – founded in1960, they moved to Los Angeles for the 1982 season and returned to Oakland in1995 (the same year as the Rams moved to St. Louis, leaving Los Angeles withouta team). In 2020, the Raiders moved to their current location, Las Vegas.

·     San Diego Chargers – Founded asthe Los Angeles Chargers in 1960, they moved to San Diego in 1961. The Chargersreturned to Los Angeles in 2017.

Two other franchises of note withinfluential history in their leagues despite moving include:

·     The Minneapolis Lakers – betterknown as the Los Angeles Lakers

·     The Brooklyn Dodgers – now theLos Angeles Dodgers

[1] Crystal Palace happens to be the team that plays at the stadiumknown as the Dog Track, Richmond’s home stadium

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