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 ...
really? I didn’t see this one coming. But I’ll tell you this...you know how much Americans love soccer and flock by the millions to stadiums here (not), that’s how much they care about American Futbol over there.
I love both sports.
When will someone wise up and pull the plug on the WNBA?
“Furriners” view US Football as a ripoff of their rugby. Interesting the USA is baseball, football and NASCAR. The rest of the world - cricket, soccer, and Formula One.
The NFL just picked the wrong continent.
Too much 3rd world kickball there.
You forgot basketball.
It's a good game for Latin America and Africa where all you have to do is to make a ball out of something and go outside and kick it around.
But it doesn't make sense in developed Europe which should develop greater taste in atheletics than soccer.
I love how all the “ruffians” told the US to be ready for the World Cup and how they were going to come in and trash cities and start brawls everywhere. Then, they get a look at some of the venues, saw that the US citizenry is more armed than their home armies and sat quietly in the stands after drinking Sanka and eating crumpets all night.
What a farce! Futbol is not a game; it is an excuse to riot. Check out the murder in Argentina recently.
Happily, it won’t work here. Just hold a World Cup in Philadelphia or the Meadowlands and see how unruly fans get.
Do you think NFL would have done better in Asia, Africa, or South America?
I can almost hear Dandy Don Meredith singing now, “Turn out the lights, the party’s over”...
The NFL should sell it to that ego-maniac Mark Cuban.
Soccer is great. It won’t work here because there are no timeouts for commercials.
Plus that little problem about no ratings because nobody gives a crap yet.
Those that bash soccer have never played it. I have played many different sports and soccer is a good game that requires good athletic skills.
When I was in Greece as a volunteer with the Athens Olympics the Greek media (and Greeks in general) ripped baseball to shreds calling it a boring sport of players running in circles. I remember one sports reporter with the comment "and Americans think soccer is boring!".
People who belong here don't .. but 12 million illegals DO give a carp. Shoulda seen those wetbacks when the world cup was going on last year... Practically every bar here they were there and not watching the US coverage .. no they had to watch the Univision coverage in Spanish.
Soccer was big...for about ten minutes. To most Americans, it is a children's game.
I left out basketball on purpose. Basketball does seem to enjoy a worldwide following. Even if the Yurapeeins play it on a goofy looking court (varying widths of the lane, different 3-point line, etc.)
American Football is the closest thing on the planet to real, all out war. Intel, plans, ops, logistics, weapons, injuries, etc., all make it the game of games.
Europeans, for the most part, are nations of pantywaists. The French could never participate in American football, because everytime an official threw a flag, they’d surrender. The Germans couldn’t get it, because they’re now a nation that won’t step on the grass. The Brits should love it, but they prefer a brawl to a battle as attested to by the way their fans play soccer. The Dutch couldn’t do it, because they’d be too busy trying to smoke dope with the Cheerleaders in the red light district. The Belgians couldn’t, because they don’t have enough people to field a team.
Maybe the islamo-fascists, but when I start thinking of the Burka Babes and Islamo-coaches screaming about the “Mother of All Ballgames,” I have this vision of the sidelines with water boys giving foot-baths to the players on the sidelines.
Figures that the Greeks would love a game involving young men in short shorts...
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