I played soccer throughout my childhood, only stopping when I went off to college. I was never really excited about watching soccer (no surprise in the US), but for the past few seasons, I have been watching the English Premier League and rooting for Arsenal. My Arsenal affiliation has everything to do with my brother, who has had a rooting interest in Arsenal for quite some time.
In the US, .com generally serves as the default domain name extension for websites. I can’t think of any professional sports team that doesn’t use a .com domain name for its website. Since many (or maybe most) UK-based companies use the .co.uk or .uk now for their website, I thought it would be interesting to see how many Premier League teams use a .com domain name for their website.
Here is a list of EPL teams and whether they use .com:
- Arsenal – YES, Arsenal.com
- Aston Villa, NO
- Burnley, Yes, BurnleyFootballClub.com
- Chelsea, Yes, ChelseaFC.com
- Crystal Palace, NO
- Everton, Yes, EvertonFC.com
- Hull City, Yes, HullCityTigers.com
- Leicester City, Yes, LCFC.com
- Liverpool, Yes, LiverpoolFC.com
- Manchester City, Yes, MCFC.com
- Manchester United, YES, ManUTD.com and ManchesterUnited.com (forwards)
- Newcastle United, Yes, NUFC.com
- Queens Park Rangers, NO
- Southampton, NO
- Stoke City, YES, StokeCityFC.com
- Sunderland, YES, SAFC.com
- Swansea City, NO (.net)
- Tottenham Hotspur, YES, TottenhamHotspur.com
- West Bromwich Albion, NO
- West Ham United, YES, WHUFC.com
One thing to keep in mind is that with some football clubs, the name of the club is actually the city in which the team plays, so it’s not necessarily a case of someone else having “their” domain name. Additionally, it’s possible that the list of urls above would differ if I searched from Google.co.uk instead of Google.com because a ccTLD might be in use for the local audience.
In my opinion, using the .com domain name is a smart move since the English Premier League has an international audience. Players from across the world play on Premier League teams, and it makes sense to avoid confusion and stick to the .com. There are plenty of clubs that use ccTLD domain names, too, and although some use them for their primary url, many use both a ccTLD and .com domain name in conjunction.
Wisely, the English Premier League uses the PremierLeague.com domain name for its website.
I think EPL is the most popular and most watched sports league in the world. Soccer is also on the rise in North America with MLS. There is even a pro womens league in the US.
I prefer the Spanish league.
You should also be watching the Champions League…
I do watch Champions League matches (Arsenal, of course).
I have been watching Arsenal since 1995 when I went to London to study.
They haven’t changed their coach since then and I can tell you that their main problem is that they are at their best shape August to December and then they do nothing. I can even remember how many times they were leading in December only to loose the championship in the next 5 months.
Watch all Champions League games! 🙂
I prefer .com. Soccer, not so much.