Another American Idea To Improve The English Premier League
Above is the link to the last idea I had for the Premier League. An idea that I would say roughly 95% of people HATED, but I stand by it. Premier League is amazing, but I wish it had more "big" games. I wish the teams in the middle had something play for during the run-in. Give me a knock-out tournament at the end of the season. Homefield advantage to the team higher in the table. Championship Game at Wembley.
That will never happen. People hate change. I also hate change so I respect it. However, I have another idea to improve the run-in and ensure that the last weekend of the season isn't a formality for the majority of the league.
Do what College Football does and make the last day of the year all about derbies. It won't be perfect because not everyone in Premier League has their rival in the top flight. Forest, for instance, their biggest blood feud is with Derby County, but they are such a disgrace that they're down in League 1 (for now). Who knows when they'll ever play again.
However, we'd still have a GREAT slate for the last day of the season in most years.
Arsenal-Spurs
United-City
Liverpool-Everton
The top three teams in the premier league this season all having to face a bitter rival with the season on the line would gas up those games even more. It would make the season to spoil their rivals title shot. Bragging rights forever.
If there aren't perfect derbies available for the final weekend try to regionalize it as best as possible. Fulham-Chelsea, Villa-Wolves, etc. Maybe you end up creating more fierce rivals through this process too.
The goal should be for every game, every week, to matter. There's a good chance that by the time the final game starts on May 19th that there isn't much left to play for. God willing, the relegation fight will end this weekend. I don't think a schedule that removes drama from the end of the season in many years is a good thing. This is small fix to spice it up.