Any Formula 1 fanatics who have spent recent years agonising over the so-called ‘Americanisation’ of their favourite sport wouldn’t have had their anxieties calmed by Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei’s comments during a meeting with investors last week.
Maffei hailed the various actions Liberty had taken with F1 and the FIA to modify the sport – such as introducing the budget cap, making prize money pay-outs more even across the championship and transforming technical regulations with ground effect cars. But he also casually mentioned that he and F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali had caught up over lunch to swap notes with two of the most powerful figures in North American sport: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
And it’s clear that the NFL – the most lucrative sports league in North America and, indeed, on planet Earth – is the model Liberty aims to emulate with F1.
“Our goal is to build a long-term healthy ecosystem and build a sport that has as much of some of the elements that the NFL has on any given Sunday – that anybody can win,” Maffei said during the investors call. “They compete like hell on Sunday and then think about the league first on Monday.”
Anyone familiar with American football will know the ‘any given Sunday’ mantra is more than just the title of an Oliver Stone movie but a core element of the NFL’s ethos and appeal. It’s the idea that, no matter how wide the gulf in ability between two opposing teams, the nature of the gridiron means fans can always head to a game knowing their team has a chance to take home a victory.
There was perhaps no greater example of this than Super Bowl 42 in 2008, when the all-or-nothing championship showdown pitted the unstoppable New England Patriots, looking to become the first team to win all 19 games in a single season, against a New York Giants team who had somehow stumbled into the showdown having lost almost 40% of their regular season ties. Through disciplined defence, a hard-nosed effort from their attacking core and perhaps the most exceptional act of athleticism in Super Bowl history, the Giants overcame the odds and pulled off one of the greatest upsets in North American sporting history to become champions. The Patriots’ quest for a perfect season ended at the last.
But as thrilling a story as the Giants’ own giant-killing performance was, how does it relate to Formula 1? After all, a grand prix is…
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