OT: why football is better than American football

gravey101 · #1 October 11th, 2003, 03:02 AM

>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 · #2 October 11th, 2003, 03:03 AM

Quote:

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 · #3 October 11th, 2003, 03:05 AM

Quote:

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 ]

Thermodyne · #4 October 11th, 2003, 03:10 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by 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.

That's not true at all, I played prep school soccer in the 70's. And my dad did the same in the 40's. I will agree that it has become much more popular of late. But here the peak was in the early 90's, it has fallen off a lot since then.

gravey101 · #5 October 11th, 2003, 03:12 AM

yes, Minipol, I remember that game now. Anything but 90 mins of boredom... :-)

gravey101 · #6 October 11th, 2003, 03:13 AM

The peak in the early 90's wasn;t really a peak IMO. That started after the WC here in 94. The kids weren't really involved, not like they are now. Most of the guys I work with are in their late 20's and have never played the game, and they would have if the ealry 90's was the peak. All their kids play now. The times are changing...

[ October 11, 2003, 02:15: Message edited by: gravey101 ]

DavidG · #7 October 11th, 2003, 03:22 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Thermodyne:

quote:
Originally posted by minipol:

quote:
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
Now you are just being naive. Money has everything to do with it.

I do hope your basing this claim on more than the payroll of a single time. Since I gather there are many many more pro socer teams in Europe than pro football in America the comparison is meaningless.
And no money has nothing to do with making a good sport. If 10,000 fans pay $50 to see a pro foot ball game in the US and 100,000 pay $1 to see soccer game does this mean football is better?