It is indeed the problem. And the NFL is a whole different situation to the Premierleague. For the record i couldnt give two hoots whether the NFL stage a game here, but the fact is you already have a pro soccer league in America, you don't need other leagues to play there games abroad to witness pro-soccer. Its there, already in America. Theres no such thing as professional american football in Europe, hence why the NFL saw an apparant need to stage a game abroad. There is no such need with 'soccer', you have your own pro-league, watch it. For the record i would rather the Premierleague turn into Bundesliga than stage games abroad. I would gladly trade having the best league in the world for a not as good, but still good competition with more homegrown players, bigger crowds (80,000 people turning up to watch mid table clashes), the return of terracing and a better atmosphere, all of which Bundesliga has. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N10r3uuRaZk
By "better atmosphere" are you including the racist chants and post-match riots? If so, I'm buying my plane ticket right away and coming over because that is something I cannot miss. NFL fans are usually content with pre-match tailgating (cooking fattening food over an open fire) and gorging oneself on domestic beer. I've been to quite a few "games" and not once did we need the local police department, clad in full riot-gear, to show up. We must not be doing the "fan thing" right. Most of our stadiums are very sound, as well, so the bleachers remain at the proper elevation.
We also dont have a 100 some odd professional teams plus hundreds of semi pro & amateur teams and 50 million potential fans crammed into a country the size of North Carolina.
Are you? How common do you actually think stuff like that is? When was the last time you heard of racist chanting at at game in England, or a post match riot? Or Germany for that matter, as the Bundesliga was also mentioned. I don't know what "a few" is by your reckoning, but I've been to around 1000 over here. I've never seen a post-match riot. Games in England are not manned by police in riot gear. Many have no police presence at all.
Actually, depending upon the teams, the demand could be huge. I mean, exhibition matches have been played here in recent years and, for the big clubs, attendance has been impressive. Personally, as much as I find Premiership football an entertaining, quality product, I don't have an emotional attachment to a particualr club. So I can't see myself being one of those people braving the barbed wire to get tickets to these matches. But I'm of the belief that a lot more Americans would be interested, potentially, in attending a high-end soccer match between two English clubs, than English/Europeans (not American service personnel living abroad) would be interested in attending an NFL game there. I think the idea of playing Premierhsip matches in the States is a bad one, on a number of levels. But if you're looking for arrogance, the NFL's repeated, one-dimensional attempts to try and export American football to Europe is a prime example.
The idea is stupid and I pretty much despise it. I understand that global marketing is all the rage now but honestly, it's a huge slap in the face of the home base of fans. Just like with the Red Sox opening the season is Japan, I feel the same way. It's just a cash grab, and the fans that really care get the shaft.
Correct me if Im wrong but Oakland is the home team in Japan so the Sox still get all 81 home games played at Fenway. So its the oakland fans getting robbed and considering they dont even come close to selling out all 81 home games I don't think its a big deal if only 79 of those games are in Oakland.
You're kidding, right. Just about every Miami Dolphin fan went apesh&t when they heard that one of thier home games was going to Wembley. The season ticket holders were especially pissed. Of course, the other 30 teams not playing in London weren't as mad, plus the Dolphins won one game out of a 16 game schedule
Did the country as a whole care though? Was the national media up in arms about what a terrible idea it was? Or was it just seen by most others as a price worth paying in the name of globalisation?
Your fans and media didnt stop the 39th game plan. The PL was well aware of their anger and were happy to ignore it, it was only until UEFA and FIFA came in with threats that the brakes were applied on this idea. The difference here is the PL can get its peepee smacked by a world governing body and the NFL, well is essentially its own world governing body.
Actually, that's not quite the full story. The Premier League wanted the idea kept quiet until more work had been done on it, presumably because they knew the shit would hit the fan if it became public knowledge, thus allowing opponents to galvanize opposition to it. And of course that's exactly what happened. So while it's obviously true that the Premier League has a governing body to deal with, the overwhelming public opposition almost certsinly led to some clubs breaking ranks and coming out in opposition.
Well, that's his point. There was no country-wide opposition to the idea as was the case with the 39th game.
the reality is we'll never know, but it was just such an absolute total PR disaster, and the opposition was so strong (and as far as I could tell, unanimous) that it would have been very hard to carry on.
Another thing is the NFL and PL plans are totally different. The NFL wasnt adding another game to the schedule that would unbalance the schedule (I know that dosent make sense with an unbalanced schedule but in a complicated NFL scheduling way it does), and it only affected two teams out of 30. I imgaine if the NFL proposed all 30 teams playing a game abroad you would have seen a bigger uproar. Also I understand the NFLs thinking behind it. Theyre trying to spread the sport globally by showing them the only real league of that sport (as opposed to NFL and CFL reject in NFL Euro) where as the game of soccer dosent need the PLs help and in fact local leagues might have been hurt by the PL coming over to their countries. Dosent mean I agree with the NFL but I can understand it to a point.
In fact, in Holland the police went on strike a couple of weeks ago. Not sure if the strike has ended yet or not, but it didn't cause their football league to come to a grinding halt.
They were postponed as a precaution, not from rioting. You need some police presence when 3000 Ajax fans are taking the train to Eindhoven. Just like when the Red Sox play in New York...
Well put. It's just another example of this never ending "globalisation" in all areas, not just sports. Don't get me wrong, some teams playing exhibition matches in other countries, I'm all for it. But the EPL is England's league, it's for English fans. If someone in Shanghai wants to follow Chelsea or whomever, fine and dandy. Listen over the Internet, buy yourself a shirt, and maybe travel over to London some day for a nice thrill and see a match. And yes, if you want to insert Chicago for Shanghai by all means it still applies.