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  • Interesting information regarding his previous sports club ownership experience:

    "The 69-year-old has experience with sports teams in the US. In 1993, he was responsible for moving baseball's Triple A Zephyrs to New Orleans.

    In 1995, he led a group of local investors in the acquisition of the team from its Denver-based owner and created the public-private partnership that built a new baseball park."

    Denver to Colorado is only about 1300 miles by road, so just a small disruption for fans of the original club then.

    Clearly couldn't care less about sporting tradition and only interested in an opportunity to make money. If I was a Yeovil fan I would be rather concerned right now.

  • @Uncle_T that's bizarrely an accepted fact of American sports - the richest bidder is allowed to move a team to wherever they feel like, even happens in the major leagues. The LA Lakers used to be in Minneapolis. After that move, Minneapolis based fans would have a two day drive for a home game.

  • American sports teams are seen as a franchise business and move at the owners discretion. I imagine they see a loyal fan base model as being quite odd.
    The Oakland Raiders became the Los Angeles Raiders (82-94) before moving back to Oakland and will next year become the Los Vargas Raiders.
    Each to their own I suppose.

  • American sports just seem baffling to us though don't they.

    The low attention span sports, with really frequent scores.
    Loads of breaks in games, which they use to blitz you with ads.
    High school level being really high profile.
    Away fans being fairly rare - often due to massive distances.
    The whole "draft" scenario
    Caps on money

  • Depends which sports you mean. Not many of those apply to baseball.

  • @Chris said:
    Depends which sports you mean. Not many of those apply to baseball.

    Agreed. I went to a Yankees game and it makes test cricket look like the most fast paced exciting thing ever. It was unbelievably dull.

  • Everything in the states is about selling something. Not necessarily a bad thing just a cultural divide.

  • The university American football stuff is fascinating. Literally some of the biggest stadiums in the world, which sell out charging tickets at prices equivalent to the Premier League, and they don’t have to play the players anything (except a free education). It’s a licence to print money for the universities with histories of successful programmes and teams.

  • Back in late 80s, before American football was much of a thing in the UK, I was taken to see a college game in New England somewhere. After nearly 4hrs, which felt more like 4 days, even my US hosts agreed it was dull and time to leave.
    I am always grateful we didn't go see a baseball game ...

  • I do find the whole draft thing intriguing. One of the most free market-driven societies in the world has to implement a system of controls to maintain anything like a competitive framework for its most successful (financially) national sport. (It does appear to work well though)

  • That's the incredible thing @bookertease. It seems to work against the whole ethos of the country.

    I suppose they'd look at our footy and say - but 9/10 the heaviest spending team win the Premier league, and it's always the richest teams near the top barring absolute mismanagement.

  • @Chris said:
    Depends which sports you mean. Not many of those apply to baseball.

    Five of the six apply to baseball!

  • Once in the US of A I viewed a Monday night football game on the TV in a bar and found it almost unwatchable and a complete waste of time even with the beer and food!! I enjoyed a WASPS game someone took me to more...and I hated that!

  • @floyd said:

    @Chris said:
    Depends which sports you mean. Not many of those apply to baseball.

    Five of the six apply to baseball!

    Not high scoring, no salary caps (ish) and is anyone that interested in high school baseball? The others are true I suppose!

  • I can't imagine anything more dull than having to watch a game of baseball.

    A day at a test match however is one of the greatest things you can do

  • @eric_plant said:
    I can't imagine anything more dull than having to watch a game of baseball.

    A day at a test match however is one of the greatest things you can do

    I don't have anything against test cricket, I was just comparing the pace of the two games.

    I didn't see a single homerun which didn't help, but even if I did I can't imagine it would have been very exciting. The only saving grace was stuffing my face with hotdogs and drinking 'tallboys' to numb the boredom.

  • I have much the same experience from watching baseball. I could sit and watch test match cricket for days on end but did find baseball a much slower sport. I enjoyed it at the time but I don't feel a love for it like I do cricket or NFL for that matter.

  • There is actually only about 10 minutes of play in an NFL game, it was found. The rest is the clock running between plays, and then all the commercial breaks. So a three hour broadcast for ten minutes of action. One can only imagine what Plymouth fans would make of that level of timewasting!

  • @Chris No salary cap per se, but the luxury tax performs much the same function. And i think the Little League World Series is the biggest non pro or college sporting event in America. Although not strictly high school i grant you.

    Also, baseball is excellent. If i had to pick one American sport, it would run college football very close.

  • All about opinions isn't it.
    How anyone can sit watching cricket for a whole day I'll never know. So slow and dull, and when you do see it on tv, people in the crowd are reading papers and not even watching a lot of the time.

  • For some reason I'm reminded of this video...

  • Ice hockey is my favorite out here - but you have to see it live, preferably. It does not translate as well to TV. My best friend and his family were out here in October from England, and even his wife, who has no interest in sports, absolutely loved ice hockey when I took them to a game.

  • @Shev said:
    There is actually only about 10 minutes of play in an NFL game, it was found. The rest is the clock running between plays, and then all the commercial breaks. So a three hour broadcast for ten minutes of action. One can only imagine what Plymouth fans would make of that level of timewasting!

    Brilliant!??

  • My great-nephew (I know I look far too young!) is a big Nottingham Panthers fan @Shev . He loves the ice hockey.

  • edited February 2019

    I used to work with someone whose son was involved with Nottingham Panthers, I think part of a youth team at the time. Also have in-laws who are big fans of ice hockey. I've only seen it live once. Found it quite enjoyable and remember tihnking that the players and puck seemed to move much more quickly than when watching on TV. The rather loud organ blasts that some bloke kept parping out every minute or so, presumably intending to stoke up the atmosphere, were extremely annoying though.

    My favourite US sport is basketball. I've been to watch Leicester Riders quite a few times and it's always been good entertainment that seems to fly by. Only complaint, a bit like the organ at the ice hockey, is the constant playing of loud bursts of music whilst the game is in progress, which I personally find somewhat unnecessary and distracting. Playing "Under Pressure" very loudly when an opponent is taking a free throw is amusing the first time, but gets a bit predictable and wearing after pretty much every opponent free throw of every game.

    As you can probably guess, I am not a fan of football clubs playing music when a goal is scored either.

  • @floyd said:
    @Chris No salary cap per se, but the luxury tax performs much the same function. And i think the Little League World Series is the biggest non pro or college sporting event in America. Although not strictly high school i grant you.

    Also, baseball is excellent. If i had to pick one American sport, it would run college football very close.

    I’m also a fan of both baseball and college football (although cricket is vastly superior.)

  • Heartily agree @Uncle_T with regard to music. Imagine if we had 'under pressure' while they set up for a free kick or corner.

  • I've always liked the look of ice hockey. The flow of the game, the aggression, and the way the spectators seem to be sitting right over the action.

  • Gawd I'm looking forward to the football this weekend...

  • Can we play ‘Help’ when we get a throw-in?

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