Yes, they are a German Ice Hockey team from Düsseldorf and they play in the German Bundesliga. http://www.deg-metrostars.de/1024/index.html The club is was founded in 1935. They've been Champions of Germany 8 times including four straight titles from '90 to '93 and then again in '96.
And yopu also have the Silver Stars - the cheerleaders for the Metro Stars http://www.deg-silver-stars.de/
Damn, I like the logo too. Immediately I know its a hockey team, notice the hockey sticks. Let this be a lesson to all graffic designers, especially the glue sniffers at Nike.
Old news, amigos. By the way, not only are the Metrostars a German Hockey team, but they are also an Austrian baseball team: http://www.metrostars.at/saison_2002/aktuelles/ And a Phillipino basketball team: http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Stands/5932/manilapage.htm
I thought the MetroStars were a baseball team in Vienna, Austria!?! http://www.metrostars.at/ Silly me ...
Good Hell, baseball in Austria. I thought this was supposed to be "America's Pastime." The virus is spreading to europe, the last place you would expect to see baseball. We need to drop leaflets all over Europe warning them of the evils of baseball. And we need to get those german cheerleaders some proper shoes, those girls are going to fall on their cute little asses.
Well, relating this back to soccer . . . The Silver Stars with some Bayer Leverkusen players at some Adidas promotion: Leverkusen's Juan, Thomas Kleine, Anel Dzaka with Silver Star Melanie Silver Star Sarah with Leverkusen's Diego Placente
No need to worry. Someone might be playing baseball here, but I can assure you no one's watching the games. Hey Flying Weasel, since when has the DEG been called the MetroStars? I've never heard them referred to as that - either Düsseldorf or the DEG, but never MetroStars. Is this a new development?
Believe it or not, there might just possibly be someone in all of Austria doing something at sometime that you are unaware of. Somebody must be watching. Give them credit, they have an organized league.
Oh god, not again. Haven't we already flogged this dead horse enough BenReilly? I love how you post from 4,500 miles away about how baseball is a growing sport in Europe. Why don't you come over and see for yourself just how popular the sport is over here? If these teams didn't have websites and relatives to go to their games, no one would know the league existed. It gets zero coverage in the papers, zero coverage on TV and few more than zero people go to the games. It's probably even less prominent than your local Babe Ruth league. It's a pretty safe bet I'm in a better position than you to judge how popular baseball is in Austria.
No, it is not a safe bet at all. Just like it's not a safe bet that I know more about American croquet than some croquet fan in Mongolia. I'm aware that croquet is not regularly mentioned on the news. I haven't seen a croquet star on a Wheaties box. Your living in Austria gives you little insight in the subject except to understand the obvious: it's not part of the main stream. I've never said baseball was a "growing sport in Europe." It is organized well, has some fans, and is actually thriving in a few parts. If I recall correctly, the last time we discussed baseball, I had to explain it was indeed followed by more than two countires (plus a few "tiny islands"). I believe we agreed that the Dominican Republic wasn't a tiny island. The only thing I do not understand is your need to comment on baseball. I've yet to bring up croquet. For all I know, there are some fascinating croquet tournaments going on over here. I would never go as far as to say that no one watches croquet as I couldn't possibly know that. I'm quite sure that some people play it here as I even recall playing it myself many years ago in the US. Austria recently got crushed in the final of a European Baseball qualifying tournament. By Sweden, no less. I'm sure we can both agree that there wasn't rioting in Vienna. So let's move on...
For the record, it was the other guys before me who brought up the subject of baseball. It wasn't until I offered some insight as someone who lives in the country in question that you came defend your beloved baseball. Croquet? WTF? What I remembered about the other discussion was that you stated baseball is quite popular in Australia. So a poster from Australia responded that he'd never ever seen baseball being played there, but he'd read in the paper about one of the Australians playing in MLB. Then you stated that baseball is quite popular in Holland, so a Dutch poster responded that he'd been living in Holland all his life and had never even seen a baseball diamond. So you told him it was because he wasn't looking hard enough. As far as the status of baseball in Austria, don't take my word for it. Here are THE FACTS, as provided by our friends at baseballaustria.com: Austrian league attendance figures: Dornbirn Indians vs. Hard Bulls (can’t seem to find where they’re from): 60 Dornbirn Sharks vs. Vienna Wanderers: 100 Wiener Neustadt Diving Ducks vs. Kufstein Vikings: 85 Vienna Metrostars vs. Dornbirn Indians: 30 Vienna Metrostars vs. Vienna Wanderers: 150 As you can see, the big Vienna derby pushed the weekly attendance average up to a whopping 85 spectators. Ben, I can appreciate that you like baseball. But when you state about how popular the sport is in various countries, don't be surprised when people actually on the scene challenge that information.
According to the "Historie" section on their web site, this happened on March 1 of this year when Metro AG (http://www.metro.de) became a sponsor. The "METRO" in the Metro Stars logo is from the Metro AG logo. Metro AG is an international trade and retial group which is based in Germany and does most of its retail there. It includes wholesale and retail grocery and super stores (Metro, Makro, Real, Extra), department stores (Kaufhof), music & electronics stores (Saturn & Media Markt), and hardware stores (Praktiker).
That's kind of sad. German hockey is slowly (quickly?) killing off any tradition it once had. I miss Preußen Berlin and EV Landshut!
This has nothing to do with my preferences. I've never once brought up baseball, though it seems everyone else here can talk about nothing else. I'm amazed at how many baseball threads are on bigsoccer.com My chief desire is to see a serious baseball world cup because it would be extremely competitive. Sadly, the original posts are long gone, but I was quite clear that I did not believe baseball was very popular in Australia, but that they were extremely good, produced tons of professionals and unless you believe that everyone who takes up the sport can be a professional, then a good number of people are playing at. I quite clearly remember writing that I was baffled by their immense success. Speaking of Australia, there are plenty of Australians who still think that Aussie Rules is only popular (or even played) in Victoria despite that extremely high AFL attendance (vastly superior to rugby) outside Victoria. I should not point this out? AS for Holland, I stated that it did have a decent following, by far the largest in Europe, and I am completely correct about that. Even that Dutchman noted that baseball was on a sports news show that day, but dismissed it because it was some annual tournament (which should have raised an eyebrow or two, no?). I know more about this than him. It's as simple as that. You do realize that a very large number of Americans would say that NOBODY watches professional soccer in the USA. In fact, I am quite sure a majority of Americans could not tell you what MLS stands for or that there even is a professional outdoor soccer league. And yet, only 15 or so leagues in the world have higher attendance than MLS. I'm quite sure that many of the non-American posters here know far more about American soccer than a typical American. As for Austria, you have proven me correct. Thank you. I claimed "Somebody must be watching" and you did me the favor of proving me right. Now, if you actually would bother reading what I said, I never made any comments to claim that baseball was popular in Austria, but that you shouldn't completely dismiss it as if it doesn't exist. ("Believe it or not, there might just possibly be someone in all of Austria doing something at sometime that you are unaware of. Somebody must be watching. Give them credit, they have an organized league.") Somebody recently noted that many English county cricket matches have only a few hundred in attendance That 150 paid to see the Vienna game is very encouraging. And to think baseball has such a following in Vienna to support two teams. I had no idea it had reached that level. Really, I do not jest. Should this subject ever come up, especially with an Austrian, I shall boast that Vienna has not one, but two baseball teams and that attendance can reach three figures while some first division soccer teams can only draw a few thousand. Wow, this is amazing! Again, I don't how many people watch American croquet, but at least I wouldn't say "no one watches croquet" or make various other comments claiming authority based on my being American. I simply know nothing about croquet in America and I could live until 100 and know not a thing more about the sport. I'm quite certain that someone in Mongolia knows a lot more than me about American croquet. The simple reality is this. A person living in a country will likely be unaware of most things that he is not interested in if they are not exceptionally popular.
I find this extremely frustrating. I proved your point how? The attendances at this week's games ranged from 30 (which works out to less than two attending family members for each player) to 150 (keeping in mind that there are more than 1.5 million people living in Vienna), for an average of 85 people per game. Those are little league numbers. I wouldn't even bank on the fact that any of those people actually paid to see the games, and the players certainly are not professionals. Basically we agree that there are baseball teams in Austria and we agree that not many people are watching them play, which brings us back to... ... my original post, which you took issue with for some reason. NOTE: My usage of the term "no one" was hyperbole meaning "an insignificantly small number of people." Then I found the numbers to prove that. So what exactly is the discussion here?
Austrian attendance is very low in general. Even soccer attendance is pitiful, with many second division teams well under a thousand. A baseball game in Vienna gets 150 while a second division soccer match in Vienna gets five times that amount. What do I take issue with? Not a great deal. You're right, I probalby shouldn't have said anything. I suppose found it a tad annoying that you would completely dismiss these teams even though you don't follow the sport. Baseball is a tiny sport in Austria. No question about it. But it exists, it is organized, some people watch, and it should be given a tiny bit of respect.