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Bundesliga coverage

Why is there so little coverage of the Bundesliga in the English and US media. La Liga and Serie A receive much more attention despite being, in my opinion, less interesting leagues than the BL. Why is that?

Here are some arguments to be made in favor of the BL:

- The game is fast and attack-minded. The average score per game is higher than in any of the other top European leagues.

- The atmosphere at the games is great. The average attendance per game is 46,000 (EPL: 34,000, La Liga: 28,000, Serie A: 23,000).

- Every game is unpredictable. There are always about 10 teams that are able to win the BL title, and it is impossible to tell before a season who will finish in the CL/EL spots. Even the teams in the bottom half are good enough to win against anyone on their day, and mostly do not just park the bus but go for the win.

- There are a lot of exciting young players to watch. From Germany alone, there are:
Götze, Kroos, Schürrle, Thomas Müller, Reus, Hummels, Draxler, the Bender twins, Holtby, Leno, terStegen, Zieler, Marko Marin, who are all 22 and younger (and Sidney Sam and Höwedes who are 23)

And there are a lot of older stars, too (even if many of them are not acknowledged as stars in the English/US media despite being better than most EPL "stars"):
Ribery, Robben, Schweinsteiger, Neuer, Lahm, Gomez, Podolski, Schlaudraff, Kagawa, Huntelaar, Raul, Farfan, Lucas Barrios, Pizarro, Cisse, Naldo, Dante, Mandzukic, Subotic, Arango, Rincon, Guerrero, Raffael, Ramos, Gustavo, Olic ...

posted on 23/11/11

I know! I'd watch it as much as the pl

posted on 26/11/11

excellent point/article.

comment by Mr (U10216)

posted on 26/11/11

Also eworth noting a lot of the clubs are co-ops and ticket prices are very good value (think schalke charge 300-400 euros for a season ticket!), plus they have terraces and permit alcohol.

Quite a utopian league by the sounds of it.

posted on 26/11/11

Yeah love the fact they have that 51% rule (51% owned by club members), think that has a lot to do with why ticket prices are so reasonable. Also standing terraces sound awesome.

It's a shame for German football that the FFP rules look like they're being watered down into something next to meaningless as their model could have been the start of a way back into reality for modern football.

comment by Mr (U10216)

posted on 26/11/11

Germany have some amazing stadiums too

posted on 27/11/11

I imagine they upgraded a lot of stadiums for the World Cup but also what's great is they manage to pack out most of them every week. Highest average attendances in Europe if I'm not mistaken.

comment by Mr (U10216)

posted on 27/11/11

There was an article in the paper a few years ago on some people living in the uk daytripping to germany for a bundesliga game. The costs were listed and apparently it worked out cheaper or similar to attending a domoestic game at a top premiership club.

low fares airline, low ticket prices, cheaper booze and cigs perhaps...all combined to make it better value than presumably attendsing the emirates from x location and having a few pints,.

posted on 16/4/12

http://www.ja606.co.uk/articles/viewLiveArticle/108046

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