Elevator Pitch

“In the first half of a January game at Stamford Bridge, the London stadium where the Chelsea Football Club has played since its founding in 1905, seven well-groomed spectators in green velvet jackets stood up together from their seats behind the substitutes’ bench as players raced up and down the field in front of them. They pulled out books and began to read. Then they all brushed their teeth.” The sideshow was all part of a marketing effort for an upcoming movie. But it’s also part of a trend that’s invading England (and no, I don’t mean teeth brushing, I mean the Americanization of English sporting events). NYT (Gift Article): When a Bunch of Bloody Yanks Came for English Soccer. “American investors are gobbling up the storied teams of the English Premier League — and changing the stadium experience in ways that soccer fans resent.”

+ England is not the only country irritated by a threat to tradition. Why France is finding vegan croissants hard to stomach.