By the very nature of stadium capacities, there is a limit on the number of people that can watch a Premier League game in-person.
But the sky is the limit as far as TV audiences are concerned, and Premier League chiefs were left celebrating some strong numbers at the conclusion of the 2023/24 season.
The data suggests that more games (ten) were watched by an average viewership of three million or more in 2023/24 than ever before; for context, 3.6 million tuned in to the Christmas Day episode of Eastenders on BBC One in 2023.
And the same figures reveal that more than 35 million people tuned in to either a live game, or the Premier League highlights on Match of the Day, over the course of the season.
Which is all very impressive. Until, that is, you compare that data with the TV viewership of Premier League games overseas.
In the United States, EPL games are broadcast exclusively live on NBC, with an average audience of 2.9 million viewers on the final day of the 2023/24 season. For context, NBC paid $2.7 billion (£2.1 billion) for the right to show Premier League games until 2028.
Wherever you are. However you fan.
You’re In It Now 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/nczfGbKdXU
— Premier League USA (@PLinUSA) September 22, 2024
TV rights deals in Asia have cumulatively passed the £1 billion mark for the first time; and that’s despite the fact that games typically kick off in the middle of the night there, with the Premier League opening its first office in Beijing in October 2024 – suggesting plans for further expansion are afoot.
In India, TV viewing figures for Premier League games in 2023/24 increased by 63% year on year, while on the continent of Africa it’s estimated that a staggering 290 million people will watch EPL games each season.
The global TV audience for Premier League action outside of the UK stands at more than three billion viewers – which suggests that the EPL would be foolhardy to ignore the riches on offer overseas.
Their expansion plan may one day include playing games abroad. It will have many fans tutting and cursing, no doubt, but Premier League chiefs have a duty to continue expanding the competition and bringing in new revenue streams – after all, it’s 20 clubs and the Football Association are the shareholders that it answers to.
Often when making a decision that would be considered controversial, we look to precedents to offer comfort. And Spain’s La Liga looks set to provide the Premier League with the evidence they need to take games overseas….
Miami Heat
Although Americans love their ‘soccer’, that flame really began to build – and especially so in Florida – when Lionel Messi, a global megastar whose reach expands beyond the beautiful game, joined Major League Soccer outfit Inter Miami in 2023.
Now, it’s cool to go and watch football. Inter Miami games have become an exercise in spotting celebrities in the stands, while the MLS’ average attendance record was broken in 2024 – when crowds increased some 14% on 2022 figures.
The diminutive Argentine has brought a new audience to football across America, but particularly so in the cash-rich Florida – where demand is at fever pitch.
So step forward the Spanish La Liga, who have had an idea to host an FC Barcelona game – Messi’s old club, of course – in Miami.
League chiefs want Barca’s game against Atletico Madrid – scheduled for December – to be played in Miami, and they now await the green light from FIFA to go ahead with their ambitious plan.
It’s not the first time that La Liga has tried to host games on American soil; as far back as 2018 plans were hatched, however they were scrambled after opposition from the Spanish Football Federation.
But times have changed, with the health crisis and the tightening of financial fair play rules leaving leagues and their member clubs seeking new ways to bring in much-needed revenue.
FIFA chief Gianni Infantino has taken the World Cup to Qatar, and will likely welcome Saudi Arabia as tournament hosts in the near future; despite the fact that the event would have to be hosted in the winter months – the governing body were willing to tear up traditional football scheduling in a bid to sell the sport to the highest bidder.
That suggests that domestic games being played overseas in emerging markets is not a concept as unlikely as it once was; indeed, in 2024, FIFA set up a ‘working group’ to explore the pros and cons of exactly that.
Although some Premier League officials have suggested that the EPL won’t follow La Liga’s lead, don’t forget that it was former Premier League chief Richard Scudamore who floated the idea of a ‘39th game’ – an extra gameweek that would see its clubs play an additional fixture in countries across the globe.
That concept was mooted in 2009, before being shot down almost immediately. However, the world has changed considerably since then; and so too have mindsets….particularly as far as the commercialisation of football, at all costs, is concerned.
Staying Relevant
No organisation has done more in its bid to bring elite football to American soil than Relevant Sports.
This events management firm has been a driving force in trying to attract the Premier League, La Liga and other competitions to the United States, and they are deadly serious about it too – even taking FIFA to court over the legality of their statute that prevents domestic league games from being played internationally.
After years of legal dogfights, Relevant Sports and FIFA signed a peace treaty in April 2024, and suddenly the warring parties were on friendly terms.
“We look forward to partnering with FIFA to support the global growth of the game and the best leagues in the world,” said Relevant’s CEO Daniel Sillman after the governing body’s case was dismissed.
“Bringing official matches from Europe to the U.S. is an exciting proposition, but it must be done thoughtfully and collaboratively.”
Until now, Premier League clubs have been satisfied with embarking on pre-season tours to North America, Asia and other global stop-offs. As many as 50% of EPL clubs played at least one friendly in the United States in the summer of 2024, which confirms how keen English clubs are to tap into the growing American appetite for overseas football.
Once upon a time, the door was closed. But Relevant Sports’ truce with FIFA has seemingly moved the goalposts once more, with now Premier League chief Richard Masters – who once shot down the idea of games being played aboard out of hand – now admitting that the ‘door looks ajar’ for a complete turnaround in mindset.
The American Dream
Premier League games in China, India, South Africa and Saudi Arabia?
It sounds far fetched right now, but it will only take an opening of the door for EPL chiefs to consider introducing a gameweek of matches contested on international soil.
That breaking down of the metaphorical door is most likely to come in the United States, with Premier League bosses watching the Barcelona vs Atletico game in Miami – assuming it takes place – with interest.
Spanish football has blazed a trail in taking games international. The Supercopa de Espana, which is essentially the Spanish equivalent of England’s Community Shield, was played in Saudi Arabia four years out of five between 2020 and 2024.
Perhaps the Football Association will test the water by taking the Community Shield to America? It should be said that the FA has been reluctant to entertain the idea of overseas games before, while it’s questionable how much interest will be drummed up by the essentially meaningless Community Shield.
But then, maybe the razzmatazz that the Americans bring to their sporting occasions will create a whole new interest in the Community Shield. The FA could follow the blueprint of the Supercopa de Espana, which has been expanded to four teams to create a mini tournament. Maybe a revised Community Shield could have semi-final games in New York and Florida, with the final held in California?
By way of context, when Manchester United met Arsenal at New Jersey’s Met Life Stadium in an otherwise pointless friendly during pre-season, a crowd of 82,000 turned up to watch – that’s the scale of the possibilities on U.S. soil.
Of course, it’s the Premier League that they really want. And NBC has doubled-down on its desire to bring live EPL action, perhaps even the opening gameweek of the season, to the huge stadiums of the United States – their £2 billion TV rights deal, roughly 33% of the cost of broadcast rights in the UK means that they have significant pulling power, too.
Liverpool FC chairman Tom Werner has spoken of his desire to see the Reds play a Premier League game in New York, although his compatriot – Bournemouth owner Bill Foley – is very much against the idea.
“In terms of playing actual Premier League matches in America? We should play in the UK. That is where they belong,” he commented.
And more forthright opposition would likely come from the Independent Football Regulator (IFR), which will be handed the power to govern the sport in a way that maintains the integrity of the English game.
But in all power struggles, typically one side is forced to relent due to the sheer will of the other. Will the driving force of American interest, and the power of the Premier League’s member clubs, ultimately win out against the desires of fan groups and independent regulators?
Cultural Exchange
For a number of years, the effective opposite of what has been discussed in this article has been happening: that is, NFL games being played internationally – and, often, on English soil.
The National Football League, which remains amongst America’s blue riband competitions alongside the NBA, introduced its International Series for the first time in 2007.
Since then, more than 30 regular season games have been played in London, with a clash between the New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars in October 2024 drawing a crowd of 86,651 to Wembley Stadium; by way of comparison, the 2024 FA Cup final drew 84,814.
The International Series was spawned from the American Bowl, which was essentially a pre-season tournament made up of games played around the globe.
When the American Bowl was replaced in the schedule, it was decided to instead take regular season NFL games to London, Germany, Mexico and elsewhere – this would be comparable to a round of Premier League matches being played overseas.
What’s interesting about the International Series is that the games are predominantly attended by Brits – in fact, the NFL’s data suggests that of the total audience at the fixtures, only around 3% of fans are American. Approximately 60% of the fans are British and travel to the games from outside of London, which showcases just how appealing it is to watch American football in-person.
The NFL has now been joined in their overseas adventure by Major League Baseball (MLB), whose ‘World Tour’ and ‘London Series’ have also brought regular season games to the capital. A crowd of more than 55,000 saw the New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies at the London Stadium in June 2024.
It’s a concept that the Premier League – secretly, if nothing else – would love to buy into, and its member clubs would need little persuasion in expanding their fanbase in America and enjoying the financial perks that would bring.
The Numbers Game
Stats and facts tend to win arguments, rather than opinions and hyperbole, and that’s why Premier League games being played in America is closer than most would think.
The scale of what’s on offer in the United States for the Premier League will be the driving force. The population size in the country has reached 336 million, with more than a third of those people in the 18-44 demographic that would typically be paying customers at a football game.
More than a third of the entire population of America (120 million) stopped what they were doing to watch the Super Bowl in February 2024. While that event is more than just sport – it’s a cultural phenomenon, too – it’s amazing to think of the possible audience available to a Premier League gameweek.
As if to provide further evidence of that, here’s a look at how the average attendance for an NFL game compares to that of Europe’s ‘big four’ football leagues:
As you can see, the average crowd at an NFL game is more than double that of La Liga and Serie A, and the best part of double that of the Premier League and the German Bundesliga too.
The American people love their sport….
Here’s another interesting aside: the average attendance at Major League Soccer games in 2023 was 22,111. So, in a competition where there’s few star names – Messi aside, the average crowd size is not far from that of established football leagues like Serie A and La Liga.
There’s clearly an untapped market of mammoth scale awaiting football in the United States – the interest in MLS, despite its relatively low quality of play, is testament to that.
And here’s another inconvenient discussion topic: has interest in the Premier League in the UK already peaked?
Attendances at live games remain exceptional: during the 2023/24 season, the average crowd – plotted against stadium capacity – meant that 96.8% of all available seats were taken.
That’s great news, but for the Premier League to expand further, the member clubs will need to either, a) move to bigger stadia to facilitate larger crowds, or b) increase the capacity of their current ground. Both scenarios are costly and not without risk, too.
So, in that sense, the Premier League is essentially at full capacity. And when you look at the TV audiences, it’s clear that fewer fans are watching – particularly the blockbuster games played, typically, on Super Sundays.
Here’s the all-time highest TV audiences (on Sky Sports) for Premier League fixtures:
- #1 – Liverpool vs Manchester United (4.5 million, January 2021)
- #2 – Manchester City vs Manchester United (4.0 million, April 2012)
- #3 – Liverpool vs Manchester United (3.9 million, January 2020)
- #4 – Manchester United vs Liverpool (3.5 million, August 2022)
- #5 – Arsenal vs Manchester United (3.4 million, April 2003)
There’s caveats to the data – how many people watch the Premier League via illegal streams each week? But look at the dates for the most watched games on Sky Sports: you’ll notice that none of the fixtures listed were particularly recent.
To use business speak, live Premier League attendances have pretty much reached maximum penetration, while TV audiences are – certainly by our metric – dwindling.
Make no mistake, the Premier League remains in rude health. It’s just that its UK audience may have peaked already….and, like all good businesses, you can hardly blame them for casting their net in search of new, exciting markets.