Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Small Market Sympathy

For all those baseball fans who deplore the small market vs. big market era the sport is now in, here is a story that you should sympathize with. Everton, one of the Premiership's small market clubs, lost it's wonder boy today. Wayne Rooney, an 18 year old striker, has left his hometown team for the bigger checks written by European powerhouse Manchester United. It's your basic small market vs. big market scenario, English soccer style.

Everton not only loses a hometown hero, but due to the fact the deal happened so close to the transfer deadline, they will get no immediate help to fill Rooney's void. To make matters worse for Everton's fans, to maximize the fianancial deal, Manchester United will need to reach certain goals. Most of which appear to be related to the club's performance in the Premiership and Champions League.

To get the most money out of Man. U., Everton fans are going to have to hope the Reds have a great deal of success over the next several seasons. Basically, they will have to root for the enemy to see their club gain financial strength.

I've never been much of a small market supporter (no, I'm not a Yankees fan), but deals like this one do leave me wondering how long sports, or more importantly, sports fans, can take this sort of thing?

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