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Keith Strudler: Cinderella Soccer

If you’ve listen to my commentaries for any length of time, you’re fairly aware I’m no soccer savant. I watch the World Cup, and I’m old enough to remember Pele’s American conquest. But the vast majority of my soccer is tied to six and eight year olds playing for teams named after local hair salons and restaurants and, in one of the better strategic sponsorships of all time, a lice removal business.

But even I have taken notice of the Cinderella story of Leicester City, the British soccer, or football club that just clinched the title in the Premier League, likely the top soccer league in the world and home to such dominant teams as Manchester United, Chelsea, and Arsenal, three teams typically near the top of the 20 team Premier League standings. This is the first top tier title in Leicester City’s over 100 year history, bettering their 2nd place finish in 1929. Before the invent of television. And lest Cubs fans feel sorry for themselves, Leicester City has never won a top division title. Never. Now, for most of the past decade, it wasn’t even possible, since they only reentered the Premier League two years ago after spending the previous 10 in England’s second division, the Football League Championship. That league sends its top three teams each year to the Premier League – which happened to Leicester City in 2014 – and in return gets Premier’s bottom three. That process, known as relegation, keeps relatively underfunded clubs in a constant state of flux and disrepair. It’s like living paycheck to paycheck instead of having a trust fund.

To be clear, Leicester City’s wages are far short of their top league rivals. This year, Chelsea spent 215 million pounds on salaries, one of three clubs that broke 200 million in payroll. Leicester City paid 48 million pounds, still up from 36 last season. It’s a gap somewhat familiar to Major League Baseball in the US, comparing, say, the Dodgers to the Brewers or the Marlins. But even that divide isn’t as big. Perhaps it’s more like comparing the University of Texas, which spent $173 million on sports this year, to one of the dozens of Division I schools that spent under 10 million. That’s why Morehead State, which spent 11 million this year on sports, had 2000 to 1 odds of winning this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Kentucky, just an hour down the road and a relatively big spender at $115 million, was 8 to 1. Although in all fairness, neither bet paid off.

Before this Premier League season, Leicester City was listed at 5000 to 1 to win the title. Several hundred supporters took longshot bets on the team, with a select few payouts reaching hundreds of thousands of pounds. British sports books will lose millions and have already proactively set next year’s line closer to 15 or 20 to 1. Which means you’ll have to find another once in a hundred year hunch to make a fortune off a modest gamble. There is no modern equivalent in American sports gambling, although those that bet Butler men’s basketball to win it all before the 2009-2010 season came one bank shot away from riches. But in reality, they call them long shots for a reason. Because they are.

So what can we take from Leicester City’s monumental upset, particularly those of us who don’t watch much soccer past Saturday morning at the city municipal fields? I know the sentimental thought is that anyone can do anything, and never let expectation damper your potential. That’s fine for a greeting card, but misguided as a general truism. What makes Leicester City so remarkable is its rarity. See, if you look at most all sports championships – let’s take college football, for example – you’ll find the same group of highly funded Vegas backed teams winning over and over. Since 2000, 10 teams have won a Division I-A college football title, all from what we now call Power Five conferences, all with budgets that could be measured in gold bullion. Teams like Alabama – four times. And Ohio State twice. There is no Bowling Green, or North Texas, no state directional schools that serve as mere window dressing in the mansion of college sports.

Leicester City is a great sports story. Enjoy it, especially if you’re one of the handful of people who actually has a tie to the city or the team. But as for a cautionary tale or a model for others, I wouldn’t get too carried away. For most undermanned and underfunded sports teams, Leicester City is about as real as Santa Claus. Or perhaps Cinderella, which for the moment, apparently does exist.

Keith Strudler is the director of the Marist College Center for Sports Communication and an associate professor of communication. You can follow him on twitter at @KeithStrudler

 
 The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.

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