>Yes, the modus operandi here too is to fire the coach/manager and keep the players. That basically applies to all sports this side of the pond.
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>And yes, the richer teams are dominant. Here there are a number of richer teams (but less than half, I venture) so it can still look competitive. But if you follow one of the poorer teams at all (I followed Montreal religiously until things got ridiculous several years back) you see it clearly.
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>These wages also make the cost of attendance atrocious too, but heavy marketing, much of it of the free variety by ingratiating sports writers and sports casters, keeps many of the stadiums near full.
>

Sounds *exactly* like the situation here: the major Scottish clubs (basically, two) are now talking of joining the *English* league so that they can compete with the big lads and not play with the minnows back at home. It's business not sport and the TV deals and sponsorship seems to corrupt utterly. Cricket doesn't seem to suffer this, but then that's probably because it's from another dimension anyway.