Deep-pocketed EPL tries to keep the ball rolling

Premier League has progressed into soccer powerhouse, but it faces competition.

- KEvIN BAXTER

ALAN SHEARER, second from right, has seen the EPL grow since he played for Blackburn in the 1990s.

Alan Shearer was in his prime and in the starting lineup for Blackburn when the English Premier League kicked off its first season 33 summers ago.

Shearer scored two goals that day ina 3-3 draw with Crystal Palace. But he had no idea that season would give birth to the most dominant force in the history of club soccer — and perhaps the most dominant force in the history of international sports.

“There’s no way anyone could have predicted back in 1992 that it was going to be this incredible, huge, gigantic force that it’s become,” Shearer, who would go on to become the leading scorer in EPL history, said of the Premier League.

“It is sort of chalk and cheese in terms of where it was then to where it is now.”

That's an English way of saying the league, which kicked off anew season Friday, has progressed.

International soccer isa sport ruled by money, and the Premier League became the best league in the world because it’s also the richest. Six of the 10 wealthiest teamsin the world play in the EPL, where the average franchise value is $1.5 billion, according to Sportico. And the 20 teams combined to earn more than $8.5 billion in commercial revenue in 2023-24, according to Deloitte.

That's allowed the EPL to outbid others for the top talent, resultingin deeper rosters and a level of play no other league can match.