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Pretty important! More fans mean more sponsorship dollars, which mean better coaches, food, &c, which means better conditioning and training for the match, and thus a higher chance of winning and getting more fans and more sponsorship cycles.

I actually think it’s great. The level playing field can get a bit overrated. Hungary entrepreneurs will intuitively understand the parallels.

That was my first thought, but then again, players with a large fan base are more likely to get a wildcard into an event they don't directly qualify for.

Or players with that potential are likely to get resources investment earlier in the pipeline making them more able to perform well on non-subjective criteria

Actually audience support during tight matches can be decisive.