Re: OTish: Why don't Americans take football more seriously?


"Jren 57" <jren57@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"grey dog" <greydog777@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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So why are they so damned obstinate about
participating in sports like soccer, rugby and cricket along with
the
rest of the world?

It's the old NIHS (Not Invented Here Syndrome)


Not just that.... in most sports there aren't any convenient pauses to
ram in some more TV ads...
American Football, any time play stops they insert a break, Baseball,
they insert a break between each half inning (18 half innings in a
game) plus any other pitching changes that take place between innings,
that can usually give at least 20 tv ad breaks per game broadcast.
Similarly Ice Hockey and Basketball have time-outs and other "pauses"
during each period of play to insert more tv ads... With Soccer, you
have to wait a whole 45 (+ injury time) before you can insert an ad.
I guess cricket could be the "odd-one-out" here, but I think Cricket
loses because the typical North Americans attention span doesn't reach
to the 6-7 hours of a one-day game, let alone the 5 days for a test
match !! I do realise Baseball games can get up to about 4 or 5 hours,
but they're the exception, with a typical Baseball game lasting around
3 hours, with American Football about the same, and Ice Hockey and
Basketball about 2 (I think). (thats the broadcast time, the actual
"play" time for NFL, NHL and NBA is 1 hour).


More countries take baseball more
seriously than cricket,

Just Japan and Cuba


I'd say a little more than just those two (and USA).
Baseball is huge in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and
Korea amongst others.

On balance, I'd not be surprised if the number of countries taking
baseball and cricket seriously are about the same. There are 10
test-playing cricket nations, and a similar number of countries where
Baseball is a major sport, and then both have a number of countries
where the sport is played, but not necessarily the number 1 sport for
that country... (and for baseball, that includes the UK, there is a
British baseball league and a GB team).


.

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