The Richest Match in Sport

[red card]

10am EDT Saturday May 28th at Wembley on DAZN, Brentford will take on Swansea for promotion to the Premier League. 

Norwich & Watford have already achieved promotion by finishing 1 & 2 in the Championship. Clubs ranked 3-6 entered into playoffs with Brentford edging out Bournemouth and Swansea taking care of Barnsley. 

I'm hoping for a Brentford win as they have mostly been in 3rd or 4th tiers, employ Moneyball and have a nice new stadium. The owner made his money from stat analytics of gambling and also owns Midtjylland. 

Loser gets basically nothing. Winner gets about US$255 million - largely from Premier League tv rights. And if they get relegated, they also get a plump parachute payment. As comparison, UEFA CL winner gets below US$100m, Euro winner gets <US$50m, WC winner gets <US$50m & Super Bowl winner gets <$20m. Though, on a total event basis, UEFA CL pays out over US$1.5b.

Only about 10k fans allowed but this match displays the best of promotion/relegation. You see the true agony of defeat and the spoils of victory. American pro sports do a lot of over the top talking about this with marathon pre-game shows. But the leagues don't punish failure and actually end up rewarding it such as with a juicy draft pick.

https://www.news18.com/news/sports/richest-match-in-world-football-brentford-swansea-eye-lucrative-premier-league-promotion-3784631.html

 

Edited May 28, 2021 by red card

[Greatest Cockney Rip Off]

I’ve always had a soft spot for Brentford. My first trip to England was during an international break so I ended up going to see Brentford v Sheffield Wednesday when they were both in league 1. I’ve been about 15 or 20 times since. The second last live match I attended before covid was Brentford v Luton at Griffin Park where I stood on the terrace in the home end. Brentford won 8-1 and were a joy to watch. Was the first time I saw Ollie Watkins, Said Benrahma and a bunch of other talents.

I am interested to check out their new stadium but even as a non Brentford supporter, I feel a massive loss in them leaving Griffin Park. One of the last traditional football grounds left in London. Still had terracing at both ends and a pub on each corner of the ground. Before my first visit, my brother-in-law described it as a proper football ground that reminded him of cigarette smoke and flat caps. I will really miss that place. 

[red card]

Brentford is going up. Dominated the first 20 to lead 2-0. Swansea tried to come back but red card in 2nd half ended it.

 

[red card]

Good thread on how the Brentford owner Matthew Benham used analytics to turn a 700k loan into US$300m. Possible model for a progressive CPL club owner.

TLDR summary is Benham made millions in sports gambling. When Brentford faced financial trouble in 2007, he gave his childhood club 700k loan to supporters to buy the club but could get club if loan wasn't repaid.

He took over in 2012. Then he played Moneyball. He tried everything at another club he owned FC Midtjylland and used what worked at Brentford. Big move was to eliminate academy and use 17-20 age players dumped by other clubs because their analysis showed young players needed 35 matches to show their value or not. Focused on xG rather than goals. And a set of indicators rather than wins/losses.

The results weren't immediate. But they have sold number of players bought below US$5m for US$26-40m. US$300m is what Brentford gets if they're relegated after 1 year.