Posted on 06/30/2007 6:59:35 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
National Football League officials bet in the early 1990s that the world — or at least North America and Europe — would embrace a brand of football that was of lesser quality than the one the league’s 32 teams play in the United States.
But N.F.L. Europa, born 16 years ago as the World League of American Football, lost money, ran through television partners, narrowed its trans-Atlantic focus largely to Germany and finally was shuttered yesterday. The N.F.L.’s strategy will shift to playing some of its own regular-season games overseas.
“If we can present two or three games a year, and fans are engaged in that experience, we will grow exponentially overseas,” Mark Waller, the senior vice president of NFL International, said by telephone from Frankfurt.
Despite its domestic power, the N.F.L. has struggled to export its game.
The National Basketball Association has deep roots in Europe and Asia. More than half the traffic to its nba.com Web site emanates from outside the United States, and more than one billion viewers watch league programs on 51 Chinese stations. Last season, 83 foreign players were on N.B.A. rosters, including stars like Yao Ming (China), Tony Parker (France) and Manu Ginóbili (Argentina). The sixth player chosen in the league’s annual draft Wednesday was the Chinese 7-footer Yi Jianlian.
Major League Baseball had a record 246 foreign-born players on opening day rosters, including 98 from the Dominican Republic and 13 from Japan, including Daisuke Matsuzaka, whom the Boston Red Sox signed to a $52 million deal after spending $51.1 million for the right to negotiate with him.
The Yankees, whose pitching ace is the Taiwanese right-hander Chien-Ming Wang, recently entered into a working agreement with the Chinese Baseball Association and subsequently signed two Chinese players.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
LOL. I shouldn't laugh at that, but I did.
The Copa America is progress right now and is being held in Venezuela.
Chavez showed up for Venezuela's first game v Bolivia.
The crowd started chanting "Freedom" and "RCTV".
He left early.
Australian rules football is by far the roughest team sport. I think Americans would watch it if it was presented the right way.
I prefer Formula One. I like my cars with power and style.
At the old Metro Stars and Cosmos games, most of the fans were foreigners, balanced out by youth soccer leagues on a field trip.
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