Can we say "man crush"? It *is* amazing what middle school kids can do with a PC and some software while their parents are out. Although might I suggest some REAL background music?
I dont mean to get off subject here but can a person actually get the bundesliga ball ? I have never seen it sold here in the U.S.
Yes they sell the Torfabrik in most sports stores in Germany. You might contact your local soccer shop and see if their suppliers can't get you one. You will pay a special order charge that will make the ball over $120 but you will have your ball. Or if you know someone who lives over there they can get you one, but shipping will likely cost $50 or more....unless you know someone in the military.
Yeah, maybe ask for it at your local adidas store. German amazon and adidas internet shop offer them, their US counterparts do not. But they generally understand English so why dont you ask them for an exceptional overseas shipping? Cost, then is another question.
Yeah, I went to the adidas U.S. shop, I dont know what I was thinking. But Yeah I know what you mean, Sometimes they dont offer them in the U.S. shop. I like the ball, nice desgin, Im wanting to see how it is. I will check on it. Im willing to pay what I have to, to get it. I dont know anybody in the Military in Germany. Ive bought things coming from Italia that were a tad bit expensive. Just reminds me of the many reasons why I wish I didnt live in the U.S. haha.
Well German Amazon will ship the ball everywhere BUT the U.S. and Adidas German Store will only ship within Germany. Not lucky lol.
The "versand" will kill you regardless of who you use. Just to send a kit to the US is more than the cost of the kit.
True, I have a contact in italia who sent me some things. It was a little better. Although I bought her some stuff from here and sent it to her that was the same price. SO, either way your screwed. You just have to do it or not. I contacted Worldsoccershop.com about the balls. They said they would basically look into it. I am surprised that German clubs and German league stuff is not really sold here in the U.S., I would think people watch the German Bundesliga just as they watch the Italian Serie A.
That's what many of us on the German boards wonder. The marketing in the US is very bad. The German kits are pretty sweet for most BL teams, but I guess the cost of keeping inventory simply makes the kits too expensive to keep with an unknown demand. The unit costs of the items can be negotiated but are fairly fixed in cost...it is profit per kit that makes the kit expensive. Add in shipping -- which only makes sense for large orders -- and you have the classic problem. It's too expensive to hold large supplies of kits no one may want, but it's too expensive to order one-off units too. Until someone is willing to test that market for BL gear we may never know.
Tell me about it, I have a contact over in Germany too, and I paid over $140.00 USD including shipping t0 get a new-with-tags 2011-12 green-white VfL Wolfsburg shirt imported from the team's Wolfeshop through a third party. I did go to that shop's site and found out it costs an arm and a leg to get it shipped here to the States.... a whopping 35.00 euros at the (almost $50.00 USD!!! YIKES!!!) least for shipping outside of Europe!!! But the gear you get is priceless, especially if you are a die-hard supporter of the club on a limited budget like me here, wearing it while streaming the match live at 6:30am PDT on a low-res picture on your PC through one of those pirate sites that so many of us use. But I do agree the German Bundesliga can succeed and can get out of the reputation of being the "fourth league" in European fooball, and since I watch Wolfsburg (although not lately due to some depressing times here at home, not to also mention poor showings by the VfL lately even to my standards) I think the folks at VW here in the states can co-market it, and Wolfsburg, here too. It's all about marketing, because right now if you ask anyone here in America to name a German football club, they'll say "Bayern Munich", especially after their playing in the CL finals in their own backyard (Allianz-Arena) we need to let fans know there's more than Bayern in this league.
4th League? Who is the 3rd League? Italy? If so, all I ever see is Juve, Milan and Inter stuff...and even then only a little. I see more Bayern stuff than Juve these days in the US. What we need is Toby Charles and Soccer Made In Germany again!!!!
I believe it is widely known that in Germany there is nothing you could call "costumer service" or "customer friendliness" in terms of what you are used to in the US. Even Germans say Germany would be a "Servicewüste" - service desert. I think the reason that you guys generally have hard time getting any merchandising derives from the German "Pfennigfuchser" mentality: "it has to have a certain degree of quality and to be cheap -everything else doesnt matter". "If our first target group does not give a shite about costumer service, why should we do it on a larger scale for a overseas minority?"
Actually W/B it is the cost of German post. For example: I ordered something from the US to be sent to Germany. It was a 24"x24"x36" box. It cost $50 to send. Seemed slightly expensive but that was international shipping and a large box. I *wanted* to order a kit from 1860. The small 12"x10"x1" envelop was $65. From what I hear the the tariffs in the EU and German postal systems are huge. VAT on the services in that supply chain are also big, which eventually have to be passed on to the consumer. The difference is when sending from the US the cost is lower because of the lack of tariffs from the US postal system. But they are always in deficit anyway, so maybe the costs are actually higher and they just are not passing them along. Who knows.
Yes, but Bayern is pretty much about the only club that is known by many Americans who watch German football, and mainly because of the fact they've won the Bundesliga a whopping 21 times, as well as their appearance in the Champions League Final in (where else?) Munich this past May (I missed the finals because of prior commitments including a special appearance with PT's own Blacky Sheridan and the Road Warriors at the annual Port Townsend Rhododendron Festival Parade that was the same day as the finals) . As for the Bundesliga being the "fourth league", I say this because you ask the maority of people to name a European league and many of them will say either the Barclay's Premier League (England), La Liga BBVA (Spain), or Serie A (Italy), very few (including us) know about the Bundesliga and we should do something about that.
Well, I wish Foxsoccer was do a bid on the bundesliga rights here in the U.S. on english. Since they pretty much lost just about all they had. I mean it would be a great addition for loosing the Serie A, I also think the bundesliga would really take off on foxsoccer compared to Goltv. I am thinking about getting the MyGermanTV+ on Dish so I can watch the Bundesliga. Anybody here have that ? Whats it like ? I know they only show the full games on Thursday and I think they show one game live maybe on Sunday or Saturday ? But I am all about getting in touch with my ancestral roots. I am Irish/German/English/Scottish and I like to immerse myself into the football cultures of the countries. I do like Italian football but im also not Italian haha. But its a good league to watch. I just need to get in touch with my German side. I havent ever been able to watch the Bundesliga. Only watching German clubs in Champions League. So I am wanting more.
Been looking at MyGermanTV+ on Dish too. From what I can tell you get: Fridays: - The live BL 1 match - Mein Stadion - Bundesliga talk show Saturdays: - BL 1 Konferenz (2 and a half hours showing all the early matches simultaneously) - Sports Show with all the goals/highlights Sundays: - BL 2 Konferenz (same as Saturday but for BL 2) - Sky Sports Show 1.5 hours of highlights/analysis Thursdays: 3 full length matches from weekend. Seems to target the bigger club's matches: Bayern, Dortmund and Schalke. Here is a link to schedule: http://www.mygermantvplus.com/program/mygermantvplus Decent line-up. I wish they would show the late Saturday match live though.
Well, hopefully they get smart like RAI International did for Italians in the U.S. and start showing live games. They offer good coverage so far after a little stumble before the Serie A. They give you 2 live games on Saturday and 3 games on Sunday. the 2nd game usually has other games playing a the same time so when a goal is scored in another game they show it. So its good coverage. MyGermanTV+ could learn alot from them. I am not sure though if MyGermantv is loaded with money or not.
MyGermanTV belongs to a German media group (which also owns the German TV station Sport1, which shows Bundesliga highlights and reruns). They basically show all the old stuff for which they have the rights anyway (the non sports part of MyGermanTV seems to be reruns of German shows from the 50s to the 90s). I have no idea what's the deal with the TV rights sutuation for German language programs in the US, but it looks like they just use it to make a quick buck with leftovers from the German market.
hmmm. well. I susspose it might be a good channel for me. Im not sure how much I will like the sports show and not watch any of a game except the goals. Do yall consider it to be alright ?
Some background on the very German phenomenon of the "Konferenz" or simulcast: This dates back to the days of radio coverage. Saturday afternoon in Germany was a ritual; Dad did some gardening or washed the car, Mom finished her household work, and the kids went to the bath tub one after the other. Everybody listened to the Bundesligakonferenz on the radio along the way; you could walk along any street, and hear what happened at the stadiums from the gardens or through the windows. The public radios shared a common programme, switching from one game to the other. It was great, I still have lots of childhood memories listening to the radio. "Not much happening here in Bremen. It's a deep pitch, ugly weather, the players don't seem to have fun. Now it's Kutzop running down the line, looking for a head to send his cross to, but - he's fouled! He seems to he hurt! Gooooooal at Nuremberg! Goal at Nuremberg? We switch to Nuremberg! Günther Koch, what has happened at Nuremberg? This is Nuremberg, of course, and some things seem to happen only at Nuremberg. Everybody thought..." That was great on the radio. Really spectacular, you got a glimpse of what happened anywhere, always thought "When will they switch to my game?", and every time you heard "Gooooooooooooal!" Gooooal at...." your heart dropped, or jumped. Live coverage on German pay TV "Premiere" started with two channels back in the days; one "game of the week", and the TV version of the radio Bundesligakonferenz. They got more bandwidth until they showed every game, and watching the Konferenz doesn't make much sense from my point of view, because you don't really understand a game there, and just get to see the same goals they show again a few minutes later at "All games, all goals" or at the traditional Sportschau on public ARD; however, the Konferenz still survived; and many German TV guys don't understand that this is a special German institution, and most other people would prefer single games. (Just like me. I still listen to the radio in the tub, or watch full games, but never watch the Konferenz on TV.)
One also has to add that individual games on pay TV not involving Bayern or Schalke get ridiculously low ratings. On Saturdays almost all games not involving those have a viewership in the (sometimes low) 5-digits, while the Konferenz gets about a million.