In this new series of essays, I plan to make the case that it’s time for professional European Handball to dramatically restructure its organization to form a true, European Handball Super League. In short, it’s time to adopt the best features of the American sports model and create a top flight Pan-European league. In part one of this series I won’t go into the detail of what such a league would look like. Instead, I’ll first explore a puzzling dichotomy which suggests that maybe such a dramatic change wouldn’t be as upsetting to the European psyche as many think it would be.

Sometimes you can’t really appreciate how another country does certain things until you’ve lived there a few years. Living in France I learned a few things that surprised me and challenged some notions I had about the superiority of my native country. For instance, I’ll never forget the puzzled looks on the French Hospital staff who couldn’t figure out why we dragged our baby daughter to the Emergency Room in the middle of the night for a high temperature. Silly Americans, don’t you know that you call the doctor and he comes to your apartment for problems like that. Oh, and it costs around 40 Euros. Call me a left wing extremist, but I’m thinking if a few more Tea Party Americans experienced SOS Medecins instead of our wonderful Hospital Emergency Rooms at two o’clock in the morning they’d still be clamoring to repeal the Obama health care plan, but only because it doesn’t go far enough.

Of course, it works the other way as well. The U.S.A didn’t get where it is today, if we didn’t do quite a few things pretty darn well ourselves. And nowhere is this truer than how the U.S. organizes and manages professional sports. Pick any metric you like: attendance, player salaries, TV audiences, etc and without question the American system is overwhelming superior to anything in Europe or the rest of the world for that matter. Professional Soccer is the only sport that approaches American numbers and even then if you compare it to our predominant outdoor sport, American Football, it is still clearly: advantage USA.

I’ve written about this a few times before in a couple of articles on “What’s wrong with European Handball” and periodically in forum discussions that crop up on revamping the Champions League or National Leagues. I’ll have to say I don’t think I’ve won many people over. And with the overwhelming evidence I find it a little frustrating, so I chalk it up to my opening diatribe: If European leagues are what you grew up with you may to have to witness American structures personally before you start to rethink your version of reality.

Still, I find it somewhat bewildering that this “my sports league model is better than yours” argument is all backwards as Europeans should have the American model and vice versa. The reason I say this is that most European nations take great pride in their social programs which include universal health care, generous unemployment compensation and pensions. There’s a price, though, for these European safety nets, as taxes are higher and it’s tougher for an entrepreneur to start a new company. There are fewer rich people, but also fewer folks on the margins of society. Liberte, egalite, fraternite, if you will.

In the U.S. we have fewer social programs and there’s more of a let the strong survive mentality. If you’ve got a great idea or run your company better than your competition, well, then you will profit handsomely. Conversely, if you don’t do things as well, then you could go out of business. This is an over simplification of both models, as entrepreneurs can succeed in Europe and American have a safety net as well. The difference is principally a sliding scale with vary degrees of free market and more socialistic philosophies.

But, when we talk about our different sport structures everything is way out of whack as U.S. Professional leagues have hired Karl Marx as their economics advisor and the Europeans have hired Boss Tweed. In the U.S. we’ve instituted rules that limit how much players can be paid (salary caps), force strong teams to pay cash money to weaker teams (revenue sharing), and help ensure that the best new players join the worst teams (drafts). In Europe, it’s a dog eat dog world with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

The results of these polar opposite structures are stark in their contrast. Nowhere is this more true than the competitiveness of leagues. In Europe, it’s all but preordained which teams have a chance of winning their respective leagues. In Germany, Kiel, Hamburg and Rhein-Neckar Lowen have the biggest budgets and despite some early season success from Berlin they will surely play for the title. In Spain it will be Ciudad Real and Barcelona. In other countries it’s even worse with one horse towns like Montpellier ruling the French league season after season. They were such a big favorite this year that you would have to wager $100 to win $10 if you wanted to bet on them to win the French Championship.

But, the point of this new series won’t be to simply rehash the shortcomings of the European model (Although, undoubtedly they will be highlighted again.) Instead this series will make the case that a modified American model could work in Europe. And not only work well, but work magnificently, dramatically increasing revenue, improving competitive play and perhaps most importantly raising the profile of the sport world-wide. In Part 2 of this series I will outline just how such a league would be structured.

SOS Medecins: http://www.sosmedecins.com/index.htm
THN Commentary (20 Aug 06): What’s Wrong with European Club Handball? (Part 1) The Disparity from Top to Bottom: https://teamhandballnews.com/2006/08/whats-wrong-with-european-club-handball-part-1-the-disparity-from-top-to-bottom/
THN Commentary (5 Dec 06) What’s Wrong with European Club Handball (Part 2): https://teamhandballnews.com/2006/12/whats-wrong-with-european-club-handball-part-2/

On November 5th, USA Team Handball (USATH) abruptly decided to lay off its East and West Regional Directors, Dominique Dumont and Brian Finley. In an interview posted in October at THN, the USATH staff consisted of 7 full time and 7 part time employees/interns. Now the full time staff has shrunk to 4 full time and 1 part time employee/intern in 2 locations. General Manager Steve Pastorino and Membership Director, Dan Bush, constitute the Salt Lake City HQ, while Technical Director, Mariusz Wartalowic, Chief Marketing Officer, Greg Myers and Public Relations Manager, Alex Leopold are all based in Chicago.

The sudden nature of this development and its contradictions with much publicized grass roots efforts raises some serious questions as to how USATH has been budgeting and planning its limited resources. It also raises some serious questions as to whether plans going forward may have to be altered substantially so that expenses across the board can match expected revenue. The Board of Directors is scheduled to meet later this week. Here are some questions that Board might want to consider asking:

[b]1) Was this restructuring really a direct result of USOC funding cuts?[/b] The USATH press release and an earlier email I received from General Manager, Steve Pastorino tied the reductions to a decrease in USOC funding. The extent of this “slash” in funding wasn’t noted on the USATH website, but reportedly it’s around a 20% cut. USOC support last year was $260,000 out of an $800,000 budget. A $52,000 cut is significant, but shouldn’t be immediately back breaking. As the press release alludes to, it seems likely that the shortfall only becomes significant in size when it’s subtracted from an expected increase in funding, vice a funding level similar to previous USOC grants.

[b]2) If true, why was USATH using an inflated funding line from the USOC to project salary and other expenses?[/b] You’ll get no argument from me whatsoever that the USOC should fund a major sport like Team Handball as well as it does Bobsledding or Basketball. But, the USOC has been making it clear for several years that funding grants would be tied to performance. A bogus Catch-22 for a sport with incredible challenges just to be competitive against the world’s best, but the unfair hand that our sport’s been dealt. Perhaps the USOC was sending strong signals of a substantial increase in funding, but it probably would have been better to wait till that funding actually materialized before planning around it.

[b]3) Why did the staff reductions come seemingly out of nowhere?[/b] If you read the interview that I conducted recently with General Manager, Steve Pastorino you won’t find anything that explicitly warns of an impending budget crisis. You will, however, find some vague answers that if you read between the lines that pointed to fiscal uncertainty. In short, it was clear that USATH operations were largely being funded through the goodwill of Dieter Esch and other Board Members. There was no indication, though, that this goodwill had some limits that would be exercised soon. I wasn’t alone in thinking this as the employees involved were seemingly blind-sided by their terminations.

[b]4) With an apparently new fiscal reality, will USATH re-evaluate its priorities going forward?[/b] For the past two years, USATH has had a many pronged effort to run a sports federation, to market the sport, engage with international organizations and to focus on youth programs and grassroots. It was always emphasized that the grass roots come first. With the dismissal of two regional directors, one might argue that this priority has already been re-evaluated.

[b]5) Will these new priorities be written down and communicated to the USATH membership?[/b] I would argue, however, that USATH has never fully articulated what its priorities have been other then the vague generality that grass roots come first. It’s time to think long and hard about what this Federation’s priorities are. It’s also time to put that thinking on paper in a Strategic Plan that clearly describes where we are now, where we want to go and a clear roadmap, complete with benchmarks, on how to get there.

[b]6) Will USATH start to pay its accounts in a timely manner? [/b] Over the past few months I have also gotten reports that the USATH has not been very responsive in paying referees and other short term employees in a timely manner. In hindsight, this was a strong indicator of more fiscal problems to come. There really is no excuse for not paying people for their services in a timely manner. Hopefully, this tangible shortcoming can be fixed in due course.

USATH: USATH Consolidates Staff (15 Nov 10): http://usateamhandball.org/news/2010/11/15/usath-consolidates-staff/39521
USATH: Staff Page: http://usateamhandball.org/about-usath/staff
THN (5 Oct 10): Interview: USA Team Handball General Manager, Steve Pastorino: Part 4: Federation Organization and Financial Status: https://teamhandballnews.com/news.php?item.1110

For Americans discovering European sports there are many aspects that take a little while to get used to. Probably, the very first thing that causes confusion and consternation are team jerseys. Instead of a familiar distinct logo and/or team name European clubs sport advertisements. Often, you can’t see anything on the jersey that clearly indicates which team is which. If you are a new fan, unfamiliar with the clubs and their colors, sometimes you might even have to wait until one team scores to figure out who’s who. Or you could even have the bizarre situation of a few years ago when Flensburg and Kiel would meet it what would look like a Provinzial inter-squad scrimmage.

But what seems strange and a little bizarre at first becomes no big deal (at least for me anyway) after you get used to it. And, I’ve always wondered whether it’s been contemplated for U.S. Sports teams. Last week the folks at Freakonomics investigated this very issue in-depth, covering many aspects of U.S. sports that [u]might[/u] make it less practical. These issues include conflicts with TV advertising, top athlete’s other endorsements and, of course, tradition.

Included in the podcast is a little tidbit that might be interesting to U.S. Team Handball fans. Major League Soccer (MLS) club, Real Salt Lake became the first American Professional sports club to sport an ad on their jerseys in 2006. And the General Manager for Real Salt Lake at that time was none other than current USATH General Manager, Steve Pastorino. Don’t be surprised is Team USA is sporting an ad in the near future on USA jerseys. Let’s just hope it’s not XanGo.

Freakonomics Radio: The NFL’s Best Real Estate Isn’t for Sale. Yet.: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/freakonomics-radio-the-nfls-best-real-estate-isnt-for-sale-yet/
MP3 Audio: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freakonomicsradio/~5/mnXJFWwFdhQ/freakonomics_podcast102810.mp3
XanGo/Real Salt Lake Press Release (2006)http://www.npicenter.com/article/Industry/XanGo-Becomes-First-Sponsor-Of-Major-League-U-S-Professional-Team-Sports-Jersey-Front.aspx

If you haven’t noticed, we’ve added a pretty significant advertisement to our home page here at Team Handball News. Yes, incredibly German Handball Bundesliga matches are now available for viewing on your TV screen here in the U.S. via Dish Network’s “My Sports Germany” channel. I’ve been watching it for about a month and I am very happy with the product.

How happy you might ask? Well, for the first time in my life, I am Handball saturated. Yes, I’m living in America and I don’t have enough hours in a day to watch all the Handball recording on my DVR on a near daily basis. Contrast that to my complaints just a few years ago that I couldn’t watch handball at all. Or the old school days of watching the same grainy VCR tape over and over. How quaint. Now, no fewer than 5 matches are currently queued up waiting for me to find time to watch. Looks like I’m going to get more selective on what to watch: Wetzlar-Melsungen is just going to have to wait as marquee matches like Flensburg-Kiel or Hamburg-Berlin pop up.

I’ll be the first to tell you that a $27.99/month, the German Language package with Dish Network is a little pricier upgrade than say adding HBO or Cinemax. But, in the big scheme of things if you’re a handball fan that’s been starved for content it’s a total no-brainer to add this channel. If you add up the cost of a few restaurant trips and movie nights you’ll quickly see that paying a $1/day to watch the best Handball league from the comfort of your living room is still a good deal. If you’re a German speaker you’ll also be besides yourself silly with the other German language channels. And if you’re a soccer fan, how could you not like the opportunity to see every single first and second division match, every week. Heck, you can’t even do that in Germany.

So, am I 100% satisfied with this product? No, but only because it’s time to start moving the goal posts further back. It’s time to start the campaign for High Def and My Sports Spain for Liga Asobal action. Or why stop there? Where’s my Handball all the time, Fox Handball Plus channel with Champions League, Euro qualification matches and even oddities like Canada-US PANAM Games qualification, all in one place, 24/7?

Patience my friends, this too shall come to pass. And, you’ve heard this before—sooner than you think.