Re: OT: why football is better than American football
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I wish I could ! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif Channel5 has commercial ties with ABC and shows Monday Night and ESPN games. But during commercial breaks they go back to the studio and broadcast two babbling imbecile commentators whith less knowledge of the game than I do http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif

[ October 10, 2003, 13:22: Message edited by: oleg ]

Re: OT: why football is better than American football
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It was a marvelious opening ceremony. Really good job. The game was tough. Argentina played rather well.

Re: OT: why football is better than American football
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">How wbout they play a European rugy team instead? Those woosies wouldn't even step on a field with out 100 pounds of bullet proof armour. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hey! We play American Football over here too you know. Not widely know and not widely loved but the people playing the sport over here really love the game.
As for me, I also play in a team here in Belgium and starting my 3th season.
Woohoo! I'll never forget the rush (read: near cardiac arrest) when i stood on the field to participate in my first kickoff. Man, did my ticker go. Now, i'm a bit heavier so i'm the one giving hits http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Edit: Oh, i forgot to mention that i play soccer too. Indoor soccer to be precise. I'm not that super good but i defend well. That's why i started my own indoor soccer team. I get to play every time http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif I like to PLAY both games. But for watching: FOOTBALL BABY!

[ October 11, 2003, 00:59: Message edited by: minipol ]

Re: OT: why football is better than American football
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">First of all, what has money got to do with it? Nothing at all. And if you say "$980,000,000.00 for you Brits", make the effort and convert it to pounds instead of dollars http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: OT: why football is better than American football
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">What you have over here in Europe with Soccer is that you many many professional teams like Oleg mentioned but that are even more amature teams where people play. I always wondered if you have such teams in the US. I know you have such baseball teams.

Re: OT: why football is better than American football
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">First of all, what has money got to do with it? Nothing at all. And if you say "$980,000,000.00 for you Brits", make the effort and convert it to pounds instead of dollars http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Now you are just being naive. Money has everything to do with it. American football does not have much grassroot support outside of the states largely because of the cost to equip a team. And in areas where medical care is limited, it would be foolish to play such a game.

The money comes from the fans of the game. Directly or indirectly by way of advertising. No other sport generates the revenue that football does. Many universities use football income to support a large part of their athletic budgets. It should also be noted that at the collegiate level and above, football is not a game that can be played on Sunday and be fit for work on Monday. So there is not much club football for adults. Many of the high schools here in the states draw 10s of thousands of fans to a game each week. Some high schools draw 50K a game, that’s a lot of paying people to watch kids play. Around here the schools draw a couple of thousand paying and about an equal number of students. And counting the prep schools, that’s about sixty high school games a weekend in one county.

While soccer is more universally accepted, it has nowhere near the ability to generate income. Even here, there will be more youth soccer in my town than football. But as these kids get to high school, the soccer players drop way off...

As to converting to pounds, email me if you need it done for you, I do sterling converts all the time. Perhaps you would rather have it in euros so that you will have some idea of its purchasing power.

Actually here it is 589,154,743.30 GBP, so skip the email.

While we are on the subject, any of you guys know why it’s called sterling? You Brits are assumed to know.

Re: OT: why football is better than American football
 

>While soccer is more universally accepted, it has nowhere near the ability to generate income. Even here, there will be more youth soccer in my town than football. But as these kids get to high school, the soccer players drop way off...

Maybe today. But let's see what whether that is still the case in 50 years or whatever. Soccer is still comparitively new to the States so your comparison is meaningless. When I walk past playgrounds these days in the US, they look like the ones I saw back in UK, everyone is playing football... err I mean soccer. In 50 years those kids will be deciding where the cash goes.

[ October 11, 2003, 02:03: Message edited by: gravey101 ]

Re: OT: why football is better than American football
 

>When I say soccer is boring, it isn't because there is no action. There is always something happening. It's just that none of the action has any relation to the ultimate outcome of the game. It's 90 minutes of your life wasted watching a bunch of guys running around before they do some penalty kicks to decide the winner.

Geo, while I agree some soccer games are dull, you could say the same about any sport. Watch these games if ever you get the chance and tell me they are 90 mins of boredom...

England-Germany World Cup 1990
Italy-Brazil WC 1982
Argentina-Holland WC 1978
England-Turkey - tomorrow

Re: OT: why football is better than American football
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Hhhhm. That's weird. Here in Europe, the amature teams play at sundays and then we all merely go to work on monday. Sure it hurts in the morning but hey, no pain no gain. It's really hard to imagine that you don't have average joes playing football over there.

Re: OT: why football is better than American football
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">And involving my country:
Belgium - Russia 4-3 WC 1986
Belgium was bigtime underdog in this tourney and they finished 4th.

[ October 11, 2003, 02:06: Message edited by: minipol ]