‘You’re welcome England’: Alexi Lalas backs Todd Boehly’s Premier League All-Star idea as he claims the backlash is ‘about the American messenger than the message’ after fans slammed the ‘silly’ idea
- At a conference in New York, Boehly proposed an All-Star Game for the EPL
- His idea would be to use this game to help fund the English football pyramid
- A few media members, like Alexi Lalas, praised the idea, claiming those against it were more against an American suggesting new concepts than the game itself
- Twitter reactions were mostly adverse, with some targeting Boehly specifically
At a conference in New York City, new Chelsea owner Todd Boehly proposed a number of new ideas that he thinks would improve the money and attention given to the Premier League.
His idea revolves around increasing the number of one-off tournaments and matches played in a season, citing the revenues earned in Major League Baseball as an example of how teams can earn more money.
‘Ultimately, I hope the Premier League takes a little bit of a lesson from American sports and really starts to figure out…you know, why wouldn’t we do a tournament? With the bottom-four teams?,’ Boehly suggested.
‘Why isn’t there an All-Star game? I mean, people are talking about more money for the pyramid. MLB did their All-Star Game in L.A. this year. We made $200 million from a Monday and a Tuesday.’
Chelsea owner Todd Boehly pitched the idea of an EPL All-Star Game at a conference in NYC
‘So, you know, I think you could do it North vs. South All-Star Game for the Premier League and fund whatever the pyramid needed very easily.’
Leading the way in support of Boehly’s idea was former USMNT defender Alexi Lalas, who boldly said that he’s a fan of the idea, adding on Twitter, ‘You’re welcome England.’
Elaborating in a further tweet, Lalas said, ‘The knee-jerk dismissal and indignation at the mere suggestion of introducing new concepts to the Premier League is not surprising. But it’s much more about the American messenger than the message itself.’
Alexi Lalas tweeted in favor of the idea, saying backlash is less about the game and more that an American team owner suggested it
Lalas seemed to be one of the few wholeheartedly in favor of the idea, with Twitter bashing the idea and the man behind it.
‘Horrible Idea,’ one user wrote. ‘I promise it’ll be cool the first year or two; but then it’ll be like any North American all star game. The stars will opt out; it’ll be 2nd and 3rd tier guys, and guys going at half speed. NFL is touch football. NBA has no defense, MLB plays everyone, etc.’
‘Alternatively, all star games are pointless and we don’t need more games in a busy schedule,’ wrote another user.
Others went so far as to directly criticize Boehly himself. ‘You’ll end up with an empty stadium Boehly lad. Completely lost the plot.’
‘Someone should tell him that he should really figure out how to run a Premiership club before dribbling rubbish like this. But yeah! good luck with that Todd Lasso!’ another wrote.
Most fans had an adverse reaction, stunned by Boehly’s brash idea adding more games to a heavy schedule
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