Globalization of Sports

[Wulfran]

In recent history we've seen:

- the NFL play regular season games in London (last year's was the Giants and Dolphins, next year is the Saints and Chargers)
- the NHL has played exhibition games/held training camp/ opened last season in Europe and is now planning more (and the possibility of expansion and a "European division" comes up)
- Howard's little brother David has been making noise about the NBA going to Europe
- the English Premier League has now announced they are going to play "overseas matches" (presumably North America)

Seems like everyone is trying to get on this bandwagon. What do you think? Is it good for sports in general? Is it good for individual leagues or their fans?

[Boogahz]

I think it is good for sports, and I actually like some of what the EPL is saying about their proposal. The games are not just being projected for North America. Apparently cities would bid on hosting games, and the teams that would play would not be decided at the time that the bids were made. Then there would be something like 2 games played in that city by 4 teams from the EPL. The game would be added to the schedules of all of the teams in the league, so no teams would be out any revenue for a lost home game. This is where I think the NBA and NFL (two that I know of which have had preseason or reg season games outside of the US) could improve. Having two teams do this in a season would mean nothing. Having an extra game added to the season for EVERY team in the league would even the playing field, and it also sends the message that the league really is serious about the overseas games. One problem I see with this is that some of the teams already have heavy schedules. Between Champions League games, National team commitments, etc, there may not be much availability for dates to be played. I do think it will be good for the league's exposure in different markets if they were able to keep the teams intact for these games though. Who would go see the second or third teams play each other when the starters were unable to make the trip?

[Leonaerd]

On a worldwide scale, it would be nice to share something besides the Olympics with other countries.

[Chidoro]

The NHL opened the regular season w/ games in London. Even thoush they split, they both counted on their records. Baseball has been doing it at the beginning of the season playing games in Japan. Boston starts out there and I'm sure it will be Dice-K mania even though his first season wasn't exactly lights-out.
The NBA probably has the most to gain out of doing it well. It's really become a worldwide sport.
I'm not sure what EPL gets out of it as it's already the most followed league in the world among all sports. There are plenty of people to sellout any football stadium when the top EPL teams come to this country already(or serie a and la liga for that matter) so I'm not sure how much more exposure it's going to gain from doing it. But more power to the teams that try, I personally like the idea

[Boogahz]

I think that the part I like most is the scope of the plan. Every team would play a game each season in another country. Other teams do it now for small tourneys or as friendly games. This being a competitive match that will actually count is pretty cool in my opinion. I also like the part about the dates would be bid on for cities to host two matches rather than bidding on just the teams that your city wants to host. Yes, some cities will get some of the "lower tier" EPL matches, but they are still Premier League matches. It's not like you will get surprised with a Coca-Cola League 2 match-up on gameday.

[Wulfran]

I guess I think about it a couple different ways.

The Fans in each sport- its good for them, in that people in places that think "I'll have to take a vacation across the ocean and if I ever want to see a game in person" get an opportunity to see it in action.

The teams - for the ones traveling, its going to be a haul. The NHL is doing it at the beginning, EPL appears to be doing it at the end of their season, so it seems like they allow for an adjsutment. Not sure what the NBA's plans are.The one that makes the least sense to me is the NFL doing it in mid season, especially with the Chargers and Saints going over this year. From personal experience on business trips, from Calgary (MST) to the UK going there isn't bad: you have a drink or 3 on the plane, watch the first movie and go to sleep. Our flights left at 8:00pm local and landed around noon in the UK. You go to your hotel, shower up, wander around for a couple hrs, have an early dinner and go to bed early and the next day (if you set your alarm properly) you wake up on their time, pretty much good to go. Coming back I always found was a bitch getting back on track. I guess in the end its like GM Brian Burke of Anaheim said last year when the NHL opened in the UK and he was asked what he thought of playing across the pond to start the season: "when your league asks you to represent them, its an honor and you go".

The Leagues - I see varied possibilities for them.
The NBA is popular in a bunch of places and this might be a springboard for expansion: I can see this being a logical move to test the waters (but with the probably the testiest athletes in sport, would they be willing to play that far from home on a regular basis? ).
The NHL has also bandied around European expansion: about 1/3 of their player base already comes from northern Europe and there are "minor pro" leagues throughout (not to mention talk of a European Super-League thats said it wants to compete for NHL players). The thing I'm not sure about with the NHL is its a smaller ice surface and more physical than the existing European/International game, and may not go over as well.
The NFL has tried NFL Europe and it was pretty much a bust, so I really don't see what their aim is. Expansion seems to be out of the question, at least for now.
EPL also is a little confusing to me. If they are targeting North America, they represent a vast increase in quality of performance from MLSE but the US also sees good quality in the World Cup qualifiers (how well are they supported and will there be an appetite for both?).It doesn't seem to be any type of a lead in to expansion, but the way soccer recruits, they may be working an angle there: to generate some club loyalty/fanbase so the next Pele or Ronaldo wants to play in the UK rather than elsewhere in Europe.

[Boogahz]

EPL also is a little confusing to me. If they are targeting North America, they represent a vast increase in quality of performance from MLSE but the US also sees good quality in the World Cup qualifiers (how well are they supported and will there be an appetite for both?).It doesn't seem to be any type of a lead in to expansion, but the way soccer recruits, they may be working an angle there: to generate some club loyalty/fanbase so the next Pele or Ronaldo wants to play in the UK rather than elsewhere in Europe.

While I am sure the US factored into the proposal, there were very few which I saw specifically mentioned in some of the talk after it was unveiled. This was more of a worldwide thing, so games really would be everywhere. Games could be as close as France or Spain, or they could be in New York, Houston, Beijing, Sydney, etc..

[Knarlz]

the NFL play regular season games in London (last year's was the Giants and Dolphins, next year is the Saints and Chargers)

The Buffalo Bills have league permission to play something like 8 games in 5 years in Toronto. (3 are exibition)

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/teamReport ... nsideSlant

Also it is guarenteed that the Bills will be moving upon the death of 89-year-old owner Ralph Wilson.
The bastard won't will it to his wife (she's like 50) ( postponing the tax hit ) or pre-sell to a local group.
The team will go on the open market. Ted Rogers ( 5 billion $ is the 3rd most wealthy man in Canada and owner of the Toronto Blue Jays ) is involved in the 8 Toronto games and most likely be all over an attempt to buy and move the team to Toronto. Maybe the new team name would be the Toronto Blue Balls.

I'd quess there is a 50/50 chance that they will be in Toronto in a few years. The other main possability is Los Angeles, except none of the local cities will build a billion dollar statium, with the required luxury boxes etc, then give all the revenue to the team.

[Wulfran]

Honestly Knerfed, I'd say the odds are a lot less than 50-50 of the Bills coming north:

a) there are US markets that could support and don't have a team (i.e. LA) and the NFL has been reluctant to move outside the borders of the US
b) Canadian tax payers are allegeric to supporting stadium construction, especially with no long term guarantee of the franchise staying (see Memphis nee Vancouver Grizzlies, Winnipeg Jets- Phoenix Coyotes, Quebec Nordique-Colorado Avalanche)
c) the way they unveiled the deal with the Bills playing in Toronto actually was offensive to a lot of media people and I think a large part of the public (at the press conference they joked about how this would be a nice cash infusion for the Bills as the ave ticket price was going to be $250 per seat... and the only 2 under $100 would be taken by a couple Rogers execs)

The size of the market and return to parity of the Canadian dollar make Toronto a lot more attractive than it would have been 10-15 years ago, but additionally the league and the NFLPA would also have to abide by Canadian labour laws and shit as well, most which is minor (MLB, the NBA and the NHL all do it) but there are differences at times. Another thing the NFL might consider is the death of the CFL: it doesn't have the muscle to compete with the NFL (by far) and losing Toronto would likely be the end of it... and the end of the additional development pool it acts as, and as a result the death of a lot football programs at a more grass roots level throughout Canada that the CFL supports. The CFL has in effect turned into a farm system for the NFL even if there arent agreements between teams and while losing it wouldn't be crippling to the NFL, they have to ask if ending the development of players like Kenton Keith or Jeff Garcia is worth a franchise in Toronto.

And sorry Boog, I still don't see a goal for the EPL going to Spain or other places (especially if they do have top leagues of their own). Is it just an additional fundraising thing? If so they'd likely lose a good chunk to the players in additional wages. The only thing that makes remote sense to me is sort of a marketing promotion thing which still seems a bit of an exspensiveway to go about it.

[Boogahz]

And sorry Boog, I still don't see a goal for the EPL going to Spain or other places (especially if they do have top leagues of their own). Is it just an additional fundraising thing? If so they'd likely lose a good chunk to the players in additional wages. The only thing that makes remote sense to me is sort of a marketing promotion thing which still seems a bit of an exspensiveway to go about it.

I wasn't necessarilly saying that Spain would be the place where they would get the biggest boost. I was just trying to make a point about the "destinations" not being planned solely for the US market. Yes, I think that the US market would still bring in money, and "maybe" more than other places, but the places I heard referenced most were actually in the Asain market. There are already national leagues reaching out to the Asian leagues to help boost popularity, but none are as extensive as the EPL plan could be. It is "almost" like cities bidding to host the Olympics, but probably without the continental restrictions