Tom Mayenknecht: Meanwhile the Blue Jays are the biggest losers, again
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Bulls-of-the-Week
As you might expect, wall-to-wall television is the forerunner of a very strong bull market when it comes to soccer and that’s exactly what has been provided by the one-two punch of the UEFA European Cup in Germany and the CONMEBOL Copa America in the United States. The UEFA championship has traditionally been a ratings juggernaut as the second biggest global sports event in the world behind only the FIFA World Cup and just ahead of the Olympic Games.
The biggest overachiever this summer has been the Copa America. American television viewership on FOX, FS1 and FS2, for example, is up a remarkable five-fold; checking in at an average of 1.1 million. That is up from 216,000 per match in 2021.
Part of that is the natural lift the Copa America is getting by being hosted on American soil. Another big part is how the tournament has been rebranded and repackaged as a combined CONCACAF and CONMEBOL showcase. The third driver is the forward-facing context provided by the countdown to the FIFA 2026 World Cup co-hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Yet make no mistake, the big difference this year in the U.S. is the significant cross-promotional push that FOX is putting on these tournaments and soccer media rights across the board. It’s an entirely different landscape than it was even three years ago.
With the Copa America in the U.S. this summer and the FIFA Club World Cup in the U.S. in 2025, the interest in the so-called global game will only mushroom over the next 24 months.
The Euro Cup and Copa America are reminders that television viewership and fan engagement is all about storytelling. Making the two tournaments particularly potent this summer are a host of dramatically entertaining finishes and the multiple media impressions that have been generated by superstars such as Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Killian Mbappe and heritage brand nations such as reigning Copa champion Argentina, UEFA host nation Germany, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands and England. In this era of video clips and social media, the last-minute bicycle kick goal by Jude Bellingham — one that kept England alive after being on the brink against Slovakia — will be one of the most-watched and talked about in English soccer history…and that’s saying something.
Bears-of-the-Week
It’s been yet another disappointing week in a bearish 2024 season for the Toronto Blue Jays. What the Rogers ownership and the front office – both baseball operations and business operations — were looking for was a team that could compete in the American League East, thereby driving average summertime crowds of 45,000 plus at the newly-renovated Rogers Centre. What the Blue Jays and their fans got is a strangely underperforming team that was barely alive on the first day of summer and is now seemingly approaching the Major League Baseball trade deadline as sellers poised for a rebuild. The question is – above and beyond whether the team builds around Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. and Bo Bichette or replaces them at the core – what amount of rebuilding happens in the Toronto front office itself in the weeks and months ahead?