Cassio del Monte
Debutant
So you assume because they don't have Australian rules football, that when they see it, they're just going to drop whatever else they follow and watch AFL instead?
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So you assume because they don't have Australian rules football, that when they see it, they're just going to drop whatever else they follow and watch AFL instead?
Much of what is written of international AFL is exaggerated.
The US for example is not as strong as people believe consisting of many irreglar matches and as far as I can tell - no junior system.
US is the obvious market to target. Seems many are scared of the unrealistic thought of the US taking over the game and taking all our best players.
The AFL should make a concerted effort and focus on specific countries, rather than a piecemeal approach.
A realistic vision is that it would establish a niche and feed into the elite AFL competition.
No, I assume you have no logic to make that assumption .
I said "But if I was in South Africa and somebody was showing some interest in me then I'd probably give them the time of day ".
.
And you ASSUME they'd be interested.
Hardly got anything to do with trolling. Soccer thinks its the greatest thing since slice bread and thinks that automatically Yanks and Australians are going to love it.
The South Africans have already demonstrated their flair for the game by being competitive in junior games against australian representitive sides .Same goes with the AFL, people are not going to like it just cos you think its fast, and hard, and that SA'ns have a "flaire for the game"
Anything in particular .
A bit contradictory don't you think ?
The only country the AFL is specifically targeting big time is the RSA.
Like the PNG pathway .
People think soccer in this country has taken off, but really, its still the same old establishment that followed it before that still follows it.
. Melbourne sent a small bunch of rookies over and that was it.
."5500 children were involved in FootyWild, the South African version of NAB AFL Auskick at more than 80 centres" - centres = clinics which are not regular games. They were once off centres.
The vast majority of players on the international stage are still ex-pats.
.Contradictory? Hardly - see my earlier posts, the latent interest in the US is huge. It just needs a co-ordinated effort to tap into it. Once a critical mass is reached the US could run itself and will not continually be reliant on Australian funding like Sth Africa will be. .
AFL. Funding is NOT sustainable, reliant on once-off grants, except the AFL's contribution. In any case it will not add a dollar to TV rights as the AFL is targeting poor communities who advertisers couldn't care less about. Not sustainable. Worth trying, but focus should be on markets that can be sustainable and add value to the AFL.
Find me an NSL Grand Final that got 55,436 in attendance.
Find me an NSL Grand Final that got 55,436 in attendance.
Almost all the statistics in the AFL report are exaggerated and create an unrealistic impression:
http://www.afl.com.au/Portals/0/afl_docs/afl_hq/annual_reports/2007/GameDevelopment.pdf
"There was also significant growth in China where the game is being
played in three regions (Suzhou, Tian Jin and Beijing) with senior
matches also being played in the university sector" - please, it makes it sound like there are established competitions with regular games between several teams.
"Melbourne took a major role in promoting the game in China and strengthening the links between China and Melbourne" - knowing one of the guys involved, it was all show and no substance. Melbourne sent a small bunch of rookies over and that was it.
"5500 children were involved in FootyWild, the South African version of NAB AFL Auskick at more than 80 centres" - centres = clinics which are not regular games. They were once off centres.
The vast majority of players on the international stage are still ex-pats. Look at pictures on worldfootynews.com of all the white guys playing in Asia.
Contradictory? Hardly - see my earlier posts, the latent interest in the US is huge. It just needs a co-ordinated effort to tap into it. Once a critical mass is reached the US could run itself and will not continually be reliant on Australian funding like Sth Africa will be. The US has the potential to increase the value of TV rights even if only a small niche market is created.
Sth Africa - Soccer world cup coming up will swamp all efforts of the AFL. Funding is NOT sustainable, reliant on once-off grants, except the AFL's contribution. In any case it will not add a dollar to TV rights as the AFL is targeting poor communities who advertisers couldn't care less about. Not sustainable. Worth trying, but focus should be on markets that can be sustainable and add value to the AFL.
PNG developed on its own without the AFL's help. AFL has had a strong tradition there for quite some time. All credit to Queensland AFL who did all the work there to establish the pathway.
The old NSL had bigger GF attendances than last years
This thread is about international expansion of Australian football, not soccer, so can you please go back to big soccer and stop clogging up this board with off-topic posts.
To be fair, that was a game between the two smallest clubs, and it was held in a neutral city.
Well, it just so happens that "soccer" is a very, very big part of the international.
1. Yeah right... the neutral city just down the road, freeway, and rail line.
2. You're a soccer troll, your m.o. is to post something about soccer not matter how tenuous the link.
I'm not nearly smart enough to be a troll.
Much of what is written of international AFL is exaggerated.
The US for example is not as strong as people believe consisting of many irreglar matches and as far as I can tell - no junior system.
Seems like whenever anything happens overseas the media makes a big deal, but it is often blown up. Melb FC's Chinese venture is one such example. Nothing will come of that as they didn't even take it very seriously.
The AFL should make a concerted effort and focus on specific countries, rather than a piecemeal approach.
US is the obvious market to target. Seems many are scared of the unrealistic thought of the US taking over the game and taking all our best players.
A realistic vision is that it would establish a niche and feed into the elite AFL competition.
Well certainly you're not smart enough to realise we're talking about the
international expansion of Australian football here .
Again, the AFL can't expand internationally without acknowledging football. Deal with it.
Is that how you try and justify your soccer trolling ?
"Australian Football- you cannot pass the soccer troll without paying respect ".
Oh , now it's all coming back to me , Rugby setting up S12 said "oh we can't have an international rugby competition across South Africa, Australia and New Zealand because they all play soccer and eventually we'll lose out ."
Yep, that's how I remember it .
.
Rather than argue small points with Cos and Subprime - my point is the, the AFL should have a greater focus on developing a niche in the US.
Admittedly I look at it more from a commercial perspective - to grow the value of the AFL brand. Demetriou, being quite left of centre and verging on being a commie, seems intent on using AFL to pursue his social agenda and is quite passionite about helping poor kids in Africa. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
Aussie Rules, as a sporting product, would be well positioned to take a niche in the US. We all know that as a sport it is one of the best to participate in (if you don't mind some contact) offering a great variety of skills that all players can use (handball, mark, field kick, goal kick, tackle, bump, ruckwork etc), scope for individual flair (high mark, dummies, runs etc..), freedom from restrictive rules (offside) and roles (specialised roles in Gridiron etc), and few restrictions on player types (size) that can play (e.g. basketball). These are the strengths of AFL and it could easily attract players in the US if it could get itself organised.
There is of course some debate (mostly from soccer/rugby circles) on it's merits as a spectator sport - but they come from sports where order, uniformity and rules abound so its understandable they get annoyed at 'apparent' chaos and mistakes that go unpunished.
As pointed out in an earlier post, the latent interest is there in the US (over 7m people watch it each year despite limited presence on TV). So they don't have a lot of the hang ups of these soccer and rugby types with our game. From a commercial perspective that 7m figure is not something to ignore (double the Australian annual audience). If you can build the game from the grass roots in america, build the TV presence, it is not unrealistic to imagine such an investment increasing the value of the AFL brand.
There are also large amounts of money available for sporting bodies in the US that could be tapped into in addition to AFL money. Once the game becomes established it would quickly be financially self sufficient.
Infrastructure needs to be addressed. No ready made footy grounds obviously. Although they can be created easily on large public sporting grounds.
There is also a large ex-pat population in the US.
It would go down very well, in my opinion. Countries like Sth Africa/India will require the AFL to pump in lots of money for a long time to keep it going and stave off the threat from other sports, particularly soccer in Sth Africa (world cup being hosted there in a few years). Not that it's not worth trying.
It seems that there is some fear amongst some people, including a few who posted on here, that if we target countries like the US, the game will become 'too' popular there and they will take it over resulting in the AFL being a feeder comp. That is very unrealistic (and wishful) if you look at the experience of soccer in the US. You will never dislodge their national home made sports or come close. A niche is all you could hope for, but even that is good enough. The fear of being taken over also discloses a hidden belief that those people think that it would suceed in the US.
In the scenario, however unlikely, that AFL grows in the US - as long as AFL is beamed into the US and grassroots growth in the US translates to greater TV rights for the premier AFL competition, the creme of the crop will stay in Australia where the money will stay.
With such huge latent interest in the game in the US (7m) - the opportunity is too big to ignore.