The Championship is on pace to have the most dramatic ending of any football league in Europe; good thing no one in America knows about it.
Living in Ohio, there’s obviously a geographical barrier separating me from most of the readers in or around East Anglia. But there’s a major cultural bridge as well.
Perhaps the most glaring difference is the popularity of football/soccer. Sure, in recent times, the sport has slowly evolved from the sport you or your children play as a youth to the sport you wake up early to watch with a beer on Saturday mornings.
The English Premier League has become a variable competitor in the American viewing markets – but it’s only the EPL. It’s not Major League Soccer and certainly not the Championship.
Part of that stems from all EPL matches being either televised or available through live streaming, courtesy of NBC. The overwhelming reason is that it’s simply not American culture to support “losing” teams.
For as outspoken as American soccer fans are flirting with the idea of promotion or relegation in soccer here, the owner’s profit margins dictate the sport’s future. Which makes supporting a team that not only loses, but are so bad they have to go down to a lower level!? a foreign concept.
So as the promotion becomes an even tighter race than it was the previous weekend, its dramatic conclusion will brush over the American sports scene as a small air bubble in an otherwise already painted landscape.
And that’s what makes supporting Norwich City so romantic.
To some fans, it may seem as another weekly chore, or something passed down through generations you couldn’t avoid (I’ll reiterate I have Cleveland Browns tickets). To me it’s an opportunity to branch out from the norm, find my place and settle, even if that location may lead to future promotion or relegation migrations.
Honestly the only drawback to life in the Championship is not getting to watch the team Saturday mornings. Yes, there are streaming sites (many my computer cannot handle) for video, but BBC commentary from Chris Goreham is as efficient, if not more pleasurable in that I don’t have to witness the matches brutal to the eye.
The Championship is a completely different place to the Premier League, and I imagine most Canary fans don’t want to get too comfortable in their current predicament, but then again, they might not have to.
While the team may not currently preside in an automatic promotion place, but it’s on course to move up as long as they perform at their maximum potential.
If anything, supporting a team in the Championship has shown me to be patient, supportive and a realist. Patience explains the pit City dug themselves into, yet have continuously dug themselves out of. The supportive aspect speaks for itself, really. As for the realist-bit, this season has reiterated the fact that Norwich City is an English Premier League club.
Sorry to Chris Goreham and his beautiful matchday commentary, but I’m ready to watch the Yellows on my television. Watching with a beer remains to be determined between now and 3 May at Carrow Road.
