A genuine question about American sports

nugz said:
we also have the best mascot in sports :thumb:

phanatic.jpg
Click to expand...

i agree with this actually :straightface:
the Phillie Phanatic is so good he almost makes me forget the tendency of phillie fans to throw batteries at visiting players :eek:
almost :cool:
:lbf::o
 
Jukebox Jury said:
Thanks....
ONE from Europe (Holland) and the rest from South / central America / Cuba etc.
Though interstingly a few from Australia:eek:

Jukebox Jury
Click to expand...

Aren't there any from Japan? We have a minor league feeder team in my town. They live with host families, like exchange students. Hey... wait a minute. I've got a scathingly brilliant idea... ;)

And yes, the audience in attendance are not as big a part of the show here as they are with international football. There are always a few closeup shots of fat guys with their back hair shaved into team logos and their bellies painted red or blue or whatever, but... it's not the same.
 
I've just got back into NBA and I was suprised by some of the relocations.

It's happened a couple of times in England and a few more times in The States. But people aren't exactly worrying if their team will still be local next season. Think about the sheer number of southern United fans. They probably attend about as frequently as New Yorker fans of the Dodgers.

Also, Wimbledon hadn't actually been anywhere near Wimbledon for years. If like Arsenal they'd moved from south to north London for example, that's only saved another half-hour up the M1.
 
^^^^^
I'm not fond of our mascot but then again i don't really care. Did goto a game a few yrs ago, the tickets were free, anyway Slider likes to fling hot dogs into the stands and one came right near me, no way I was going to catch it.

NBA teams move all the time. Still have no clue where these teams came from.
Our football team moved to Baltimore, but the city threw the biggest fit ever and we're allowed to keep all the teams history and colors here in Cleveland. Then we got a new Cleveland Browns and if you ask me they should stayed away. Damn do they suck, then again I hate football. Think that's the only time that's ever happened.
 
Jukebox Jury said:
The Brooklyn Dodgers are one of the worlds most famous baseball teams.... yet they moved from New York to Los Angeles..... where does that leave fans?
That is just one example..... teams from different sports have up sticks and moved to another area of the country to what is deemed a more prosperous area, where attendances may be bigger.....
This has happened ONCE only in English football*, when Wimbledon moved 70 miles to Milton Keynes a few years ago and supporters groups were up in arms demonstrating.....
To sports clubs in Europe, the local teams represent the local community..... for a team to move 5000 miles from New York to LA is just unthinkable.....
Click to expand...

Certainly, it's because of money, but such moves are made easier also because of the wide range of untapped markets. For instance, when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to LA, the entire western half of the US was essentially virgin territory for any professional sports, let alone baseball. And this was only about 50 years.

And the same is still true today. When pro teams such as the Oilers, Sonics, Rams, Whalers, et al., decide to move, they almost invariably move to areas that don't have another pro team of that sport or often times don't have any pro team at all, e.g., Oklahoma Thunder, Tennessee Titans, Utah Jazz, etc.

In contrast, when it comes to, say, football (soccer) in the UK (and Europe for that matter), all decently populated cities (except one as I recall) have very well established professional football clubs, and of course, the more populated cities have several. For the situation to be analogous in the UK, there would have to be large cities such as Birmingham, Sheffield or Bristol without any pro football club, but of course, that's just not true.


How do US sports fans cope with supporting a team and then finding out the team is moving out of town to another state or hundreds of miles away because the owners wish to move to another city / town?
Click to expand...

I think Worm pretty much nailed it on the head.

Apart from that, there is one relatively recent trend that somewhat slightly lessens the blow, and that is for the new city with the new franchise to take on a new name. Before, the names stayed the same, e.g., Boston Braves --> Milwaukee Braves, LA Rams --> St. Louis Rams, etc. But since new cities (or states in some cases) take on new names now, the jilted city in question could use their old name once again should the league award that city with a new franchise. This happened to the Cleveland Browns. Art Modell (owner) took his franchise from Cleveland to Baltimore whereupon they took the new name "Ravens". When the NFL gave Cleveland a new franchise, Cleveland again named themselves the Browns. At least this way, those spurned cities could build on their past glory in a manner of speaking. Exhilarating stuff, innit?
 
Jukebox Jury said:
Dont get me started on the ''World Series'' (ie USA + Toronto):thumb:

Jukebox Jury
Click to expand...

Per Wikipedia:

"The title of this championship may seem odd to some readers from countries where baseball is not a major sport (or even where it is), because the "World" Series is confined to the champions of two baseball leagues that currently operate only in the United States and Canada.

The explanation is that when the term "World's Championship Series" was first used in the 1880s, baseball at a highly-skilled level was almost exclusively confined to North America, especially the United States. Thus it was understood that the winner of the major league championship was the best baseball team in the world. The title of this event was soon shortened to "World's Series" and later to "World Series". "The Series", by itself, capitalized, is understood to mean "The World Series", in the appropriate context.

According to a Public Broadcasting Service Television documentary called Baseball or "Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns", baseball scholars/historians explained that team players eventually would search world-wide for players to compete in "World Games" or "World Series". While the effort failed and remained mostly in The United States and Canada, due to the diversity of nationalities with players who presently play baseball (although these games are only in North America now) it has remained "World Series" as a result of those early competitions. In these late 1800 and early 1900 competitions (the early days of baseball), players and sports equipment promoter Albert Spalding would travel the world for teams to play against other nations and/or America teams. These "tours" didn't last long, yet it also gave the opportunity to promote baseball and sporting goods, as well as create new leagues and rules.

The United States, Canada and Mexico (Liga Mexicana de Beisbol, established 1925) continued to be the only professional baseball countries until some decades into the 20th century. The first Japanese professional baseball efforts began in 1920. The current Japanese leagues date from the late 1940s. Various Latin American leagues also formed around that time."
 
oye terence said:
Wally the green monster, do not get me started....I do not like Wally.
Click to expand...

Green? Surely it should be red?:confused:

j funk said:
Also, Wimbledon hadn't actually been anywhere near Wimbledon for years. If like Arsenal they'd moved from south to north London for example, that's only saved another half-hour up the M1.
Click to expand...

In fairness, Selhurst Park was only 8 miles from Wimbledon - though a bugger to get to!

Jukebox Jury
 
McLovin said:
Certainly, it's because of money, but such moves are made easier also because of the wide range of untapped markets. For instance, when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to LA, the entire western half of the US was essentially virgin territory for any professional sports, let alone baseball. And this was only about 50 years.

And the same is still true today. When pro teams such as the Oilers, Sonics, Rams, Whalers, et al., decide to move, they almost invariably move to areas that don't have another pro team of that sport or often times don't have any pro team at all, e.g., Oklahoma Thunder, Tennessee Titans, Utah Jazz, etc.

In contrast, when it comes to, say, football (soccer) in the UK (and Europe for that matter), all decently populated cities (except one as I recall) have very well established professional football clubs, and of course, the more populated cities have several. For the situation to be analogous in the UK, there would have to be large cities such as Birmingham, Sheffield or Bristol without any pro football club, but of course, that's just not true.




I think Worm pretty much nailed it on the head.

Apart from that, there is one relatively recent trend that somewhat slightly lessens the blow, and that is for the new city with the new franchise to take on a new name. Before, the names stayed the same, e.g., Boston Braves --> Milwaukee Braves, LA Rams --> St. Louis Rams, etc. But since new cities (or states in some cases) take on new names now, the jilted city in question could use their old name once again should the league award that city with a new franchise. This happened to the Cleveland Browns. Art Modell (owner) took his franchise from Cleveland to Baltimore whereupon they took the new name "Ravens". When the NFL gave Cleveland a new franchise, Cleveland again named themselves the Browns. At least this way, those spurned cities could build on their past glory in a manner of speaking. Exhilarating stuff, innit?
Click to expand...

But where does the history of the team go? So when Cleveland moved to Baltimore, and say Cleveland won a trophy in 2000, can Baltimore then say on their honours list that they were the champions in 2000?
And when a different franchise moves back into Cleveland, do they carry the history of the team they came from or can they reclaim the history of the previous Cleveland team?

Jukebox Jury
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

A
Genuine question
Replies
3
Views
641
Deleted member 1074
D
P
something about all of you
Replies
3
Views
769
Orange Crush
O
D
something about Morrissey
3 4 5
Replies
88
Views
7K
nicky wire's legs
nicky wire's legs
Raphael Lambach
My YouTube channel about my City
Replies
0
Views
947
Raphael Lambach
Raphael Lambach
T. H. Auden
Was Harry Potter really about Prince Harry?
Replies
0
Views
823
T. H. Auden
T. H. Auden
Tags
derekjeter<3
Back
Top Bottom