How about a Blockbuster season opener played in the US?

[Chander Bing]

South Africa is the place we should go, that is the place the game is currently growing.

 

[Durham Hawks]

why are people getting so precious about regular season games? have we all forgotten how many crap regular season games there are now in the tanking era?

 

[J6shSC]

I don't think some of you realise how quickly publicised a game in the US could get from what little the AFL and it's clubs have already done to connect with the NFL and its fans.

Terrence Newman, a pro bowl cornerback for the Dallas Cowboys came over and watched Collingwood play this season. If he actually enjoyed the game he saw over here and was notified a decent game was going to be played in the US, he would spread that shit so fast you'd sell 30,000 tickets if you venue had that capacity.

NFL athletes are nothing like AFL athletes, they will pipe shit up in the media if they think it's good or worth their time. Not to metion Ben Graham and Sav Rocca would obviously find out. If you look at the rosters of Arizona, Philidelphia and Dallas they have a lot of guys who fans absolutely swoon over. I know Americans would go to a sport they've never seen if Larry Fitzgerald, Donovan McNabb and Tony Romo all told them to, haha.

 

[Crow_Magnon]

WOuld be a PR disaster.

I watched the 09 grand final at a Seattle pub and had to beg for the bartender to show the game. Nobody even bothered to watch a second of it.
The AFL has a ton of work to do to raise interest in the US.
The locals know jack shite about Aussie Rules, and it's quite pathetic.

Fully concur....I saw the GF in a Houston pub...no-one except Aussie expats, and a few Kiwis and Brits bothered watching the game. I often have a kick of my beloved Sherrin at a local park....the comments I get are mostly "Is that a rugby ball?" In fact, most folks here think that Aussie Rules is rugby. To be honest, given their love of NFL, I could see Rugby League getting more of a foot-hold here than Aussie Rules....

 

[The Kipster]

You're dreaming.....

I only wish to make my money back $280 and I'll throw in some chest armour

 

[Rock Lobster]

Good luck trying to explain the rules to the locals.

 

[Ugottabjokin]

I have some jousting sticks for $300, if interested?

I'll swap you for my Pulpit.

 

[brucetiki]

Fully concur....I saw the GF in a Houston pub...no-one except Aussie expats, and a few Kiwis and Brits bothered watching the game. I often have a kick of my beloved Sherrin at a local park....the comments I get are mostly "Is that a rugby ball?" In fact, most folks here think that Aussie Rules is rugby. To be honest, given their love of NFL, I could see Rugby League getting more of a foot-hold here than Aussie Rules....

I remember a few years ago the NRL considering moving their goalposts from the front of the try scoring area (whatever they call it) to the back so that the game could be more easily adapted to NFL grounds (whose goals are at the back of their endzone) and subsequently more marketable to the US.

 

[skipjack]

first question. Why? What does it do for the afl playing a game in front of - let's be honest - a crowd of ex pats? The south africa idea has a lot more merit. And another quick point - who gives up their home game? And why a traditional victorian "blockbuster"? Given the crowd will be full of neutrals why not have a couple of struggling sides play there a few years in a row and try to build a little bit of a fan base over there?

 

[ep2018]

Would be a major fizzer. The AFL would lose money...

How come the NFL only do overseas exhibition matches in the UK (Mexico obviously isn't overseas)? Is it because they used to have an NRL-like competition there (well, Europe) and thus potentially more supporters?

 

[FootyJunkie]

Would be a major fizzer. The AFL would lose money...

How come the NFL only do overseas exhibition matches in the UK (Mexico obviously isn't overseas)? Is it because they used to have an NRL-like competition there (well, Europe) and thus potentially more supporters?

clubs only get 8 home games a year, many Tampa Bay people are still upset that they have to play their "home" game in London this weekend

the idea i think is to eventually lose the the bye and make the 17th game a neutral/international game, having one every week except for Week 17

 

[FootyJunkie]

I remember a few years ago the NRL considering moving their goalposts from the front of the try scoring area (whatever they call it) to the back so that the game could be more easily adapted to NFL grounds (whose goals are at the back of their endzone) and subsequently more marketable to the US.

The NFL used to have the goal post on the goal line... you see it from time to time whenver they show old footage of games from the 60s. Plays had to adjusted if you were on your 1yd line with a big post taking the spot of an offensive lineman. After the inconvenience was too long to handle... they moved the goal post to the back of the end zone.

 

[ManUtd]

Personally I don't see what the NFL gains from playing games in London. I would be tremedously annoyed at have 1 out of the 8 games I get to see live every 12 months being shipped off to a country that couldn't give one crap about the sport. Its a carnival, and I really don't see how playing that game plants any relevant seeds. Good move scheduling the game right after Liverpool - Manchester United, Sky Sports is the winner there.

It is so important for such ventures to have local comps and year round local interest to give it some legs - it seems like the same people are going to these games from what I read (the niche support that the NFL enjoys in the UK).

They may very well be trialling potential European teams; time will tell whether they iron out the logistics.

In any case, the AFL has no purpose being anywhere in the US. Its people thinking aloud in fantasy land. How about continuning to try and spread the game within this country first?

 

[The Kipster]

I'll swap you for my Pulpit.

throw in a jenny and a bick iron.... there yours

 

[brjafi]

charles barkley would all in for promoting it too!!!! haha and ha!!!!!

it could only go two ways, succesful or unsuccesful! not as a season opener thats for us here at home!

NAB cup games definately!!!

 

[Valve Bounce]

Yeah, not too hard to figure out why the AFL would be interested, but I can't see why the average fan such as the thread starter would.

Well, I was just thinking about all the expats Aussis in the USA who don't get the chance to see a real AFL game live. Take Hong Kong for instance, few people except expats play Rugby there. But they have the Rugby Sevens there every year and it turns out to be a roaring success. It's the greatest 3 day expat party every year.

 

[Kapital city TIGER]

They last played an exhibition game in the US in 2006 at the University of California in LA between North and Sydney. It was a sell-out with 3,600 people.

Toronto might fair better, they got 24,000 to an exhibition game there in 1989 and their stadium is rounder and bigger.

thats astounding! Was Crocodile Dundee ruck rover? Probably missed the opportunity to replicate such numbers without S Irwin at FF for the Lions (playing as the Crocs - why isnt there a team called the Crocodiles?)

Its an Australian Tourism opportunist push, at the time the icing on the cake of being flavour of the month. Never going to happen again. Has NO POINT for AFL. Well, tv rights for OS I guess- but in the US f all people would know about Aussie Rules, and in the UK interest would be a LONG way behind Div 4 Soccer, Darts, - vying with the lucrative local disabled snooker league. Might pip Curling after an expensive promotional campaign.

 

[Hodgepodge]

The game won't make it to the USA . . . ever.

I know some of you guys think it's the greatest game on earth, but in reality you just follow the sport that exists in your area. For us it's AFL. For Americans it's gridiron.

 

[PortBrillance]

why a blockbuster?

Like USA ppl know clubs like Collingwood, Port, Carlton

Collingwood v Carlton would get the same crowd as Roos v Freo

 

[mattys123]

Might pip Curling after an expensive promotional campaign.

No chance, Curling is like a religion in Canada.

Seriously though, our league is never going to involve an international team, so why worry about international "exhibition" matches.

We are never going to sign big TV deals over seas, so I just don't get the idea behind it.

Australian Rules is just that, Australian, and I personally couldn't care less if no one else plays, watches, knows about it.