Flagstaffsooner
6/30/2007, 05:17 AM
Why wont arena football go away?
June 30, 2007
N.F.L. Pulls the Plug on Its League in Europe
By RICHARD SANDOMIR (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/richard_sandomir/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
National Football League officials bet in the early 1990s that the world — or at least North America and Europe — would embrace a brand of football that was of lesser quality than the one the league’s 32 teams play in the United States.
But N.F.L. Europa, born 16 years ago as the World League of American Football, lost money, ran through television partners, narrowed its trans-Atlantic focus largely to Germany and finally was shuttered yesterday. The N.F.L.’s strategy will shift to playing some of its own regular-season games overseas.
“If we can present two or three games a year, and fans are engaged in that experience, we will grow exponentially overseas,” Mark Waller, the senior vice president of NFL International, said by telephone from Frankfurt.
Despite its domestic power, the N.F.L. has struggled to export its game.
The National Basketball Association has deep roots in Europe and Asia. More than half the traffic to its nba.com (http://nba.com/) Web site emanates from outside the United States, and more than one billion viewers watch league programs on 51 Chinese stations. Last season, 83 foreign players were on N.B.A. rosters, including stars like Yao Ming (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/yao_ming/index.html?inline=nyt-per) (China), Tony Parker (France) and Manu Ginóbili (Argentina). The sixth player chosen in the league’s annual draft Wednesday was the Chinese 7-footer Yi Jianlian.
Major League Baseball had a record 246 foreign-born players on opening day rosters, including 98 from the Dominican Republic and 13 from Japan, including Daisuke Matsuzaka (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/daisuke_matsuzaka/index.html?inline=nyt-per), whom the Boston Red Sox (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/bostonredsox/index.html?inline=nyt-org) signed to a $52 million deal after spending $51.1 million for the right to negotiate with him.
The Yankees (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/newyorkyankees/index.html?inline=nyt-org), whose pitching ace is the Taiwanese right-hander Chien-Ming Wang, recently entered into a working agreement with the Chinese Baseball Association and subsequently signed two Chinese players.
And last year’s first World Baseball Classic — a 16-team tournament that was played in San Diego, Phoenix, Tokyo, San Juan, P.R., Anaheim, Calif., and Orlando, Fla. — was more successful than initially expected. It will return in 2009.
“No question, the N.B.A. is the most successful American sports league overseas, because basketball, unlike football, is played throughout the world,” said Neal Pilson, a sports industry consultant.
Waller said that N.F.L-style football was difficult to translate to foreign fans because of its complexity and because audiences knew they were not seeing the best talent. “In soccer, there’s global recognition that the English Premier League and Champions League generate the most appeal,” he said. “In our sport, the regular season, the playoffs and Super Bowl are as good as it gets.”
But N.F.L. Europa had none of that pizzazz, just six teams at the end (five in Germany and one in Amsterdam) and the World Bowl. And it required an overall investment of $400 million to $500 million, Waller said.
N.F.L. teams each sent a few players a year for seasoning abroad — and stars like Kurt Warner (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/kurt_warner/index.html?inline=nyt-per), Jake Delhomme, Brad Johnson, Dante Hall and Adam Vinatieri played there — but Super Bowl-quality talent was not standard issue.
“It had some useful purpose in developing players,” John Mara, the co-owner of the Giants (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/profootball/nationalfootballleague/newyorkgiants/index.html?inline=nyt-org), said in an interview from Turnberry, Scotland. “And at least we were able to find out if there was interest in our product. And there was some.”
In the beginning, as the World League of American Football, the league had 10 teams — six in the United States, three in Europe and one in Canada. The structure was maintained for two seasons, after which operations were suspended for two years. A six-team, all-Europe version emerged in 1995 and was rechristened N.F.L. Europe. The name was changed again, to N.F.L. Europa, in 2006.
By 2005, the London Monarchs, Barcelona Dragons and Scottish Claymores were gone from the league, which consolidated around its most ardent fan base in Germany. For the 2007 season, average attendance reached a high of 20,024; the league’s final game, World Bowl XV on June 23, drew 48,125 fans.
Waller said there was hope for years that the European media market would help bankroll N.F.L. Europa with rights payments. But in the end, German networks carried none of the league’s games live; the World Bowl was shown on tape a day later.
Waller said league approval to play two regular-season N.F.L. games a year overseas will better attract fan and news media interest. The Giants will play the Miami Dolphins (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/profootball/nationalfootballleague/miamidolphins/index.html?inline=nyt-org) in October at Wembley Stadium in London. “All the tickets we’ve put on sale so far for the Wembley game have been sold out,” Waller said.
June 30, 2007
N.F.L. Pulls the Plug on Its League in Europe
By RICHARD SANDOMIR (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/richard_sandomir/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
National Football League officials bet in the early 1990s that the world — or at least North America and Europe — would embrace a brand of football that was of lesser quality than the one the league’s 32 teams play in the United States.
But N.F.L. Europa, born 16 years ago as the World League of American Football, lost money, ran through television partners, narrowed its trans-Atlantic focus largely to Germany and finally was shuttered yesterday. The N.F.L.’s strategy will shift to playing some of its own regular-season games overseas.
“If we can present two or three games a year, and fans are engaged in that experience, we will grow exponentially overseas,” Mark Waller, the senior vice president of NFL International, said by telephone from Frankfurt.
Despite its domestic power, the N.F.L. has struggled to export its game.
The National Basketball Association has deep roots in Europe and Asia. More than half the traffic to its nba.com (http://nba.com/) Web site emanates from outside the United States, and more than one billion viewers watch league programs on 51 Chinese stations. Last season, 83 foreign players were on N.B.A. rosters, including stars like Yao Ming (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/yao_ming/index.html?inline=nyt-per) (China), Tony Parker (France) and Manu Ginóbili (Argentina). The sixth player chosen in the league’s annual draft Wednesday was the Chinese 7-footer Yi Jianlian.
Major League Baseball had a record 246 foreign-born players on opening day rosters, including 98 from the Dominican Republic and 13 from Japan, including Daisuke Matsuzaka (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/daisuke_matsuzaka/index.html?inline=nyt-per), whom the Boston Red Sox (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/bostonredsox/index.html?inline=nyt-org) signed to a $52 million deal after spending $51.1 million for the right to negotiate with him.
The Yankees (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/newyorkyankees/index.html?inline=nyt-org), whose pitching ace is the Taiwanese right-hander Chien-Ming Wang, recently entered into a working agreement with the Chinese Baseball Association and subsequently signed two Chinese players.
And last year’s first World Baseball Classic — a 16-team tournament that was played in San Diego, Phoenix, Tokyo, San Juan, P.R., Anaheim, Calif., and Orlando, Fla. — was more successful than initially expected. It will return in 2009.
“No question, the N.B.A. is the most successful American sports league overseas, because basketball, unlike football, is played throughout the world,” said Neal Pilson, a sports industry consultant.
Waller said that N.F.L-style football was difficult to translate to foreign fans because of its complexity and because audiences knew they were not seeing the best talent. “In soccer, there’s global recognition that the English Premier League and Champions League generate the most appeal,” he said. “In our sport, the regular season, the playoffs and Super Bowl are as good as it gets.”
But N.F.L. Europa had none of that pizzazz, just six teams at the end (five in Germany and one in Amsterdam) and the World Bowl. And it required an overall investment of $400 million to $500 million, Waller said.
N.F.L. teams each sent a few players a year for seasoning abroad — and stars like Kurt Warner (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/kurt_warner/index.html?inline=nyt-per), Jake Delhomme, Brad Johnson, Dante Hall and Adam Vinatieri played there — but Super Bowl-quality talent was not standard issue.
“It had some useful purpose in developing players,” John Mara, the co-owner of the Giants (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/profootball/nationalfootballleague/newyorkgiants/index.html?inline=nyt-org), said in an interview from Turnberry, Scotland. “And at least we were able to find out if there was interest in our product. And there was some.”
In the beginning, as the World League of American Football, the league had 10 teams — six in the United States, three in Europe and one in Canada. The structure was maintained for two seasons, after which operations were suspended for two years. A six-team, all-Europe version emerged in 1995 and was rechristened N.F.L. Europe. The name was changed again, to N.F.L. Europa, in 2006.
By 2005, the London Monarchs, Barcelona Dragons and Scottish Claymores were gone from the league, which consolidated around its most ardent fan base in Germany. For the 2007 season, average attendance reached a high of 20,024; the league’s final game, World Bowl XV on June 23, drew 48,125 fans.
Waller said there was hope for years that the European media market would help bankroll N.F.L. Europa with rights payments. But in the end, German networks carried none of the league’s games live; the World Bowl was shown on tape a day later.
Waller said league approval to play two regular-season N.F.L. games a year overseas will better attract fan and news media interest. The Giants will play the Miami Dolphins (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/profootball/nationalfootballleague/miamidolphins/index.html?inline=nyt-org) in October at Wembley Stadium in London. “All the tickets we’ve put on sale so far for the Wembley game have been sold out,” Waller said.