1. The Recruitment of Talent 2. The Competitions 3. The Competitive Balance 4. College Sports 5. Game Day Experience 6. The Media 7. Tradition vs Evolution 8. More than Sport

1. 8
differences between the
European and the
American sport cultures

2. 1
The Recruitment of Talent

3. Europe America
Youth Academies
(kids)
Draft lottery
(college athletes)
Transfer market
(money-based,
sometimes also
players exchanged)
Loan Market
Transfer market
(money not involved,
only players and pick
options)
D-Leagues

5. How many teams in
the world can afford
to sign Leo Messi?

6. 2
The Competitions

7. Europe America
Many competitions:
(no playoffs)
A single competition:
(regular season +
playoffs)
Parallel
competitions
American ecosystem
of sports, season
distribution

8. Competitions played by FC Barcelona in 2015:
Format Duration
1. Spanish League 38 games September to
June
2. Spanish King’s Cup Two-leg competition September to
May
3. Spanish Supercup One-day competition August
4. European Champions
League
Group stages +
Two-legs+final
September to
May
5. European Supercup One-day competition August
6. FIFA Club World Cup One-week
competition
December

10. 3
The Competitive Balance

11. Year La Liga NFL MLB NBA NHL
2015 FC Barcelona New England Kansas City Golden State Chicago
2014 Atlético Madrid Seattle San Francisco San Antonio Los Angeles
2013 FC Barcelona Baltimore Boston Miami Chicago
2012 Real Madrid NY Giants San Francisco Miami Los Angeles
2011 FC Barcelona Green Bay St Louis Dallas Boston
2010 FC Barcelona New Orleans San Francisco LA Lakers Chicago
2009 FC Barcelona Pittsburgh NY Yankees LA Lakers Pittsburgh
2008 Real Madrid NY Giants Philadelphia Boston Detroit
2007 Real Madrid Indianapolis Boston San Antonio
Anaheim
2006 FC Barcelona Pittsburgh St Louis Miami Carolina
Total Winners 3 8 6 6 7
Competitive Balance in Spanish and American pro leagues

12. 97 94 94
83 82 82 80 78 77 77 76 76 75 73 73 72 72 71 70 69 67 66 63 60 60 59 57 57
45
38
NBA Team Salary Totals 2014-2015 (Million USD)
347
328
105
78 73
49 44 38 32 27 22 18 18 17 15 15 14 12 12 11
Salary Cap for 2014-2015 Spanish Soccer League teams (Million EURO)

14. 4
College Sport

17. LSU: 31,527 students
UAB: 37,166 students

18. We don’t do college sports
We don’t award scholarships to athletes
We don’t pay college coaches, nor high-
school coaches
We don’t broadcast college sport
We don’t recruit talent from colleges for pro
teams

19. 5
Game day Experience

20. Tailgating vs Bars

21. Alcohol
Consumption

22. Violence

25. Death of deportivo de la coruña fan
Opinion in The Guardian
Ultra sur despidiéndose de Mourinho
Map of hatred in Spanish football
Thierry Henry’s incident
Alves banana incident – Alves banana incident (version 2)
Eto’o being abused
Tasting Menu A few things you probably didn’t know about sport in Spain

26. 6
The Media

27. Spain America
Headline journalism
(no elaboration)
Longer articles
Quote Culture
(a quote, no matter
how irrelevant, is
always news)
Gossip-oriented
journalism
Sport-focused public
debate
Journalism with no
inferiority complex:
source attribution,
respectability

32. 2.6
1.68
1.34
1.03
0.69
0.6 0.59 0.56 0.55 0.51
Marca El País As El Mundo La Vanguardia El Mundo
Deportivo
La Voz de
Galicia
El Periódico de
Catalunya
Sport Abc
Audience of Spanish Newspapers May 2014
(daily readers in millions, in red sports media outlets)

33. 7
Tradition vs Evolution

35. In European soccer:
We don’t do instant replay
We barely use technology
We don’t introduce major changes in the
rules of the game
We don’t have much respect for the
referees job

36. The ‘Hand of God’ in minute 51. Maradona
“I scored the goal "un poco con la cabeza de
Maradona y otro poco con la mano de Dios" (a
little with the head of Maradona and a little with
the hand of God)”.

38. In minute 55, Maradona scored again what is
considered the beast goal ever to be scored
by any footballer.
Messi has replicated those two goals in
his career making his case to be
considered Maradona’s rightful
successor.

39. 8
More than sport

40. The Catalan Way 2013
V for Vote 2014

41. Xavi Hernández and Piqué in “La Diada” 2014