The group of death is the group that you pray you're country is not randomly selected to. It is the group that is unusually competitive with more quality teams than number of spots available in the next round. This years group drawings are interesting as there doesn't seem to be a clear cut group of death. Judging of rankings alone the third best team in each group is Iceland making group D the group of death Argentina, Croatia, Iceland, and Nigeria. Others think it's group F; Germany, Mexico, Sweden, and South Korea.
The answer according to different articles is yes and no.
Yes because the group stage will be seemingly predictable and the top two teams from each group should advance.
No because the seemingly predictable group stage will set the stage for an all time heavyweight knockout stage. Where it wont be David vs. Goliath but rather David vs. David big soccer powerhouses will be playing against each other in every game.
What do you think the positives and negatives are about not having a group of death in terms of business aspects?
Sources:
I think that everyone looks for the heavy weight contests of the best teams and the possibility of a top team getting knocked out. Everyone wants to watch Brazil play Argentina or Germany play France because they have the best players in the world. However, from a business perspective this has its positives and negatives. From a positive perspective, the game itself will generate a ton of buzz from fans both neutral and with ties to each country bringing in millions of viewers around the world. These games are also really marketable because they often feature superstars that have millions of fans buying their jerseys. However, the group of death also could pose a huge marketing problem if one of the best teams gets knocked out. Imagine a tournament where Messi gets knocked out in the group stage, that would be an advertising nightmare for adidas who depend on Messi doing well to sell jerseys, cleats, and other memorabilia associated with him. The individual games themselves offer up a ton of potential for business, however the consequences of potentially losing a superstar in the group stage makes the group of death a very interesting dilemma.
ReplyDeleteHANNAH HENRY: Not having a group of death can cause business problems because people may not be as interested in the World Cup during the early stages. I think viewership may be down since there is little competition and not huge match ups that make the country's fans and other fans who want to see a good game tune in to watch the matches. On the other hand, like Cole previously mentioned, not having a group of death could be beneficial in a way. If the teams with the best players make it far, that means that superstars with major business contracts will continue to attract fans because people will be watching them while they remain in the tournament. From a business perspective, I think it will be very interesting to see how the tournament plays out and how not having a solid group of death will add or take away profit for major companies.
ReplyDeleteI think that it can be dangerous for Fifa to place too many good teams together. If a powerhouse that almost always make the World Cup gets knocked out, they are going to lose a substantial amount of viewers. Im sure that the viewer rating in the United States is going to be substantially lower than before because they are not competing in this years world cup. It is exciting though to see the underdog win but at the same time the businesses supporting the World Cup are going to miss out on money.
ReplyDeleteMichael Strode