Tiger Woods has announced that he is taking an "indefinite" break from the PGA tour. This is bad news for everyone affiliated with the tour except the players. Phil Mickleson probably did a back flip when he heard Tiger was shelving the clubs for a bit. PGA execs have to be upset though. No Tiger means no ratings. Not having Tiger on the tour is like a bikini contest without women; nobody is going to watch. Most of Tiger's sponsors seem to want to stick by him. I mean hell, does anybody really think that just because Tiger is an adulterating sexual deviant, I am going to be any less inclined to buy a Buick? Hell no. In fact, I might go out right now and buy some Gillette shaving cream, nike golf balls, and a used Regal. When companies select a sports icon to represent their products, their target demographic is men. I have yet to meet a man who is concerned with a professional athlete's fidelity issues. Men care about what happens on the field, court, or course. Athlete's personal lives are of no real concern to regular Joes. You know what is? Wins, losses, highlights, and stats...and beer...and boobs. But that's it! And if he is dropped by these sponsors, hey, there's always Trojan. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has announced that the NFL will begin playing multiple games in the UK next season. The Buffalo Bills already travel to Canada to play one of their home games at the Rodgers Center in Toronto, and now the NFL's fearless leader has decided to move at least two more games to foreign lands. Taking home games away from teams not only deprives that team's fan base of a home game, but also deprives the home city, and local businesses of millions of dollars in revenue. I was dumbfounded when, after the Hurricane Katrina disaster, the NFL went ahead with plans to play one of the Saints' home games in London. If there was one city that certainly needed the money, it was, and still is New Orleans. The British don't care about the NFL any more than Americans care about soccer. Do you and the guys ever get together, head to the local sports bar, and request that they change the big screen to the MLS? Didn't think so. Let the British keep soccer, the Spice Girls, and Fish and Chips. Keep the NFL in the States.
On a side note, if the games in the UK aren't sold out, do the games still get blacked out on the "home" teams' local TV stations, or will the NFL only black out the games in England? Hmmm...
The NBA and NHL seasons are still going on.
Ray Lewis is still a murderer.
Happy Holidays!
Word on the street is that the Ravens and the 49ers are the two teams to be playing "home games" in London next season with one of the games set to be a division game. Should make for some interesting stuff.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who has been to two of the London games, it's a very interesting atmosphere. A lot of ex-pats from the home teams city, they have sold out all 90,000 tickets for each game in under 90mins, and they generally sell a massive amount of merchandise where the an $80 jersey becomes an £80 jersey despite the exchange rate. While the local media isn't too interested in the game it is an extremely popular event among the millions of European NFL fans and that's what brings it back year after year.
It's all part of Mr. Goddell's plan that he keeps hinting at whenever interviewed on UK tv about the games to eventually have a superbowl and possibly even a European based franchise by the end of the next decade. Thoughts on that Chris?
I am not against a European franchise, but no way should the Super Bowl be moved.
ReplyDeleteI think that moving the Super Bowl would be a really bad idea simply for the amount of money that would be lost. The NFL would probably rake from the deal, but the U.S. city losing out on the Bowl would miss at on a great deal of money. I think that they should have the Bowl in N.O. for the next ten years. That city and its inhabitants need and deservr it.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I think that a team in, say, England wouldn't be a bad idea. If they are going to have regular season games there anyway, they might as well have one team with an advantage.