| stof said: Baseball has slowly been dying in Canada. We now have just one Baseball team and we're about to get our second Soccer team. The real question is once Soccer finally catches up in North America, when will it reclaim the name Football? |
Never. Ever. Even if my last post is wrong and Soccer does gain some ground in North America, it will NEVER EVER EVER EVER be as big as American Football. Ever. Quote me on this one. Etch it into stone for the rest of history. It will never become more popular than American Football, and it would have to be to reclaim a 'name'.
*off-topic*
Honestly, if American Football were played more in little league/schools in other parts of the world, to where other parts of the world could produce some top talents and have their own league, American Football would possibly dethrone EverywhereElseButAmerican Football. The problem with leagues like NFL Europa is that Europeans aren't stupid, they know they're getting a watered down sport. They weren't getting the big name athletes. They weren't watching top talent. They were watching people who were there to try and get a second chance back in America in the NFL. However, when the NFL schedules a game in Europe, the stadium is packed 100,000 people or so. And no, I'm not saying Soccer(Football) doesn't pack as many people into the stands, I know it does. I'm just saying that Europeans like our version of Football, they just aren't going to buy into watching second-rate players. If we bring the talent to them, they're anxious to see it. Unfortunately, it would take way too much to be able to have a league abroad with the type of talent we have here, so it's highly unlikely to actually become a more widely accepted and loved sport.
One could argue here that Basketball did it...and this is true, but it's a lot easier to make a basketball team. It's a lot easier to become talented in Basketball - the rest of the world is no longer as far behind the NBA as they used to be, but you only need 10 people on your team in Basketball, and 5 starters. In the NFL, you have 11 players on the field at a time...and they only play one side, so you've got 22 starters on a team. Creating a team of 22 STARTERS full of talent (not saying every team has 22 talented starters, the Lions did go 0-16 last year....) would be damn near impossible with no history or any kind of pedigree to help out young players elsewhere. Not only that, you have 22 starters and then you also have about 30 second-rate players as backups. Why buy into something when you know everyone on your team (referring to NFL Europa) either wouldn't make the big leagues, or would only as a backup? It's a shame.
