OT: why football is better than American football

[oleg]

Originally posted by General Woundwort:
That's nothing. You should see what gets on the commericals during the games nowadays...

I wish I could ! 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

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

[oleg]

Originally posted by Baron Grazic:
Mind you I'm sick of their advertising - "Get your Rugby World Cup tickets now, and see a Once in a Life Time Event, that only happens every 4 years".

It was a marvelious opening ceremony. Really good job. The game was tough. Argentina played rather well.

[minipol]

Originally posted by DavidG:

quote:

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Originally posted by Wardad:
OK NOW!!!!

Let's get a profesional US Football team to play one of your football teams in a mixed rules game.
You may run, but your gonna slow down sometime...

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.

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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

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 I like to PLAY both games. But for watching: FOOTBALL BABY!

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

[minipol]

Originally posted by Thermodyne:
Well, money talks and bull doody walks. Show me a soccer team with an 80 million dollar payroll. Show me a soccer team that Forbes values at .98 Billion dollars. That $980,000,000.00 for you Brits. Show me any team other than Football that has sold out 85,000 seats through 2038.

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

[minipol]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
First of all the Dodgers are a baseball team.

Your point about the number of teams isn't really valid. The 30 Team NFL is just the top level of professional Football players. There is Arena Football and several smaller semi-pro leagues, many of which likely outdraw some Pro Soccer teams. Then there are several levels of College football. Some of the bigger schools there out draw NFL teams in attendance. And literally thousands of highschool and youth Football teams. That's even bigtime sport in some towns.

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.

[Thermodyne]

Originally posted by minipol:

quote:

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Originally posted by Thermodyne:
Well, money talks and bull doody walks. Show me a soccer team with an 80 million dollar payroll. Show me a soccer team that Forbes values at .98 Billion dollars. That $980,000,000.00 for you Brits. Show me any team other than Football that has sold out 85,000 seats through 2038.

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

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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.

[gravey101]

>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 ]

[gravey101]

>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

[minipol]

Originally posted by Thermodyne:
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.

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.

[minipol]

Originally posted by gravey101:
>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

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 ]