How would you make American sports more attractive to Brits?

horsechoker

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America, feck yeah

But is it always feck yeah? No

American sports have failed to gain a foothold in important countries like England and they need to be revamped in order to be attractive to the superior English gentleman.

How could these sports be improved?

Basketball: Have them play on grass outside, legalise slide tackles.

American Football: Remove all padding, make the game two halves with no stoppages
 
Vidyoyo said:
Simple, play less often. The average Brit seems to have a particular fondness for waiting around all week to see 2 hours of action. Any more than that and your heads threaten to implode.
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We have cricket matches that last 5 days.

I was going to propose making baseball matches 5 days but I think that would violate the Geneva Convention
 
Why do you need to? Nearly all of the worlds most popular sports originated in the UK.

Also, I’d say sports like American football are more popular in the UK than any other country outside North America.

The likes of basketball, baseball have a foothold in certain countries but I wouldn’t think there’s a way of getting it to be big in the UK, they just don’t lend themselves to worldwide popularity.

Basketball for example I think is a great game but the constant ebb and flow is always going to lack the tension and release some people desire from a sports game, but if you try change that then it just isn’t the same game.
 
A British version of Ted Lasso obviously!

Imagine a cynical and pessimistic British man who speaks sarcasm fluently and is prone to sudden outburst of anger. After a TV interview where he tears into sports journalist using that charming British wit that Americans love so much, he gets picked up by an NFL team owner to bring down team morale. The Brit accepts the job just to piss off his friend who genuinely likes American football.

The show would have to make the NFL look interesting while constantly shitting on Americans. Kind of the opposite of Ted Lasso, which hardly has anything to do with football.
 
Scandi Red said:
A British version of Ted Lasso obviously!

Imagine a cynical and pessimistic British man who speaks sarcasm fluently and is prone to sudden outburst of anger. After a TV interview where he tears into sports journalist using that charming British wit that Americans love so much, he gets picked up by an NFL team owner to bring down team morale. The Brit accepts the job just to piss off his friend who genuinely likes American football.

The show would have to make the NFL look interesting while constantly shitting on Americans. Kind of the opposite of Ted Lasso, which hardly has anything to do with football.
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Although different, I think Sean Dyche would do well in American sports management
 
Personally I enjoy watching US sport. Not so much baseball or NASCAR etc. NBA, NFL and also NHL is quite enjoyable.

Less adverts would be nice though.
 
Ice hockey could rename the penalty box into "immigration center".
 
have pundits like Owen, Jenas, Shearer and Agbonlahor. Their high energy, high octane laddish behaviour will make US football more enjoyable for the masses. Have Carl "I fought in front of 80,000 people at Wembley" Froch give his insight into on ice fights, during ice hockey games.
 
I went to see Basketball live twice. It’s just… too much.

NFL has the best chance but there’s too many adverts.
 
Never been one for basketball myself, when games are ending 140-132, they've obviously made it too easy to score. It's weird watching a team score loads of points but only celebrating decisive 3 pointers and dunks.

So that should be the whole game. 3 pointers and dunks. If you score from inside the D, has to be a dunk. Boring layups and jump shots in the D are gone.

Basically make it a real life NBA Jam. Boom Shaka-laka!


And way less advert breaks across all sports. Ads can only run at half time. During any other stoppage, show us what the mascots are doing. If a team doesn't have a mascot, get one, or fold the team.
 
American sports are shit though.
 
Vidyoyo said:
Simple, play less often. The average Brit seems to have a particular fondness for waiting around all week to see 2 hours of action. Any more than that and your heads threaten to implode.
Click to expand...
The NFL is so infrequent with a huge off-season that this ain’t ya solution

Edit: feck you (seen the post above)
 
Get rid of ads/timeouts. I can still hear the BTSports ads from watching the NBA playoffs about 5 years ago. There was a Basketball game last year that took 17 minutes to play the final 20 seconds or something crazy. And the format of regular season into playoffs plus the huge amount of games just makes the regular season less interesting.
 
Vidyoyo said:
Simple, play less often. The average Brit seems to have a particular fondness for waiting around all week to see 2 hours of action. Any more than that and your heads threaten to implode.
Click to expand...
I completely agree. Basketball is absolutely bloody brilliant but it gets a bit draining watching the Los Angeles Sun Tanners play against the Anaheim Duckfeckers for the sixth time in a single season.
horsechoker said:
We have cricket matches that last 5 days.
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Yeah and cricket is absolutely fecking shite - that's not even an opinion it's a scientific fact.
 
Ajr said:
No time outs
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On the contrary. Bring tactical timeouts and video challenges to football. VAR would still do its job, but the challenges would be reviewed by a third party in New York for a different opinion.
 
It's an interesting question.

As someone who watches a fair bit of hockey, baseball and football from the other side of the pond...it's mostly a cultural/structural thing.

I can see why it doesn't appeal despite enjoying it myself..the games are more stop start, very commercial friendly with consistent advertising breaks between plays. I think when you look at football and rugby they have an element of stop start...but also flow quite naturally for significant periods.

It's also more of a day experience I find and more family orientated in the US (just from my experience). You'd never get away with what we do in football over here from what I've seen. Not that I would consider that a bad thing, just an observation.

The fact there is one ultimate trophy, may be another factor. Not many British sports work in a structure like that...usually a league title and cup competition the very least....and this leads to the next point.

No promotion and relegation. That's a big one.

The structure of the leagues and farm teams means you've the same teams year after year. If you're not all that good you have incentives to tank for draft picks which makes for a pretty miserable season.

If you're not in playoff contention there is nothing to play for apart from a shit show to see how many games you can lose to get the high picks.

Franchise moving locations when it suits obviously doesn't appeal when you consider the reaction to Wimbledon and Milton Keynes.

I am not sure there is any appetite to change any of that...again happy to be corrected by those who experience it more than I ever will.

It's been structured differently. Both as games in their own right and the institutions in which they play and to the masses who watch it.

Maybe why I've taken a real liking to Hockey. It's more like what I'm used to. Fast, lower scoring etc...and I love they will let folk just have a punch up, 2 minute penalty and move on.

But I'd happily watch whatever baseball or football was on. Can't get into basketball at all unfortunately. Scoring needs to feel like an event for me personally.

There is a following across the world for all those sports. From South America to Europe and Asia.

If it was anything, I'd be a fan of an additional cup knockout style competition. But not sure it would really work tbh. I'd be a fan of promotion and relegation but alot of teams below the elite level only exist as farm teams to the elite. Plus there's the draft etc.

Added time Multi-ball anyone?
 
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Split screens. On the other screen is something more enjoyable than American sports.
 
Rocky Balboa vs Anthony Joshua

Los Angeles Lakers vs Manchester United

Ted Lasso vs Alan Partridge

Sleepy Joe vs Slippy G

Elon Musk vs Alan Sugar
 
Get people playing the sport. If you've played ice hockey you'll be able to connect with it better. Even chucking around a pigskin with your mates in the park will help you appreciate the NFL more.
 
I watched The Last Dance on Netflix and Basketball looks genuinely interesting and fun to watch although that could just be because it's Michael fecking Jordan.
 
Tried to get into basketball but - and I know I'll sound like a filthy casual viewer - it's too simple. To me, it feels like there's no struggle to score. Nine times out of ten one side will go and score and the other side will just go up the other end and score, too.

NFL is too stop-starty.

I don't mind ice hockey, though.
 
I think most of the disconnect I have with them, they either have it where you are scoring every 30 seconds and just trading points, or are so stop start that and full of filler that the game just becomes a bore to watch.

Then add in all the claimed world series despite only American teams being involved just makes them sound stupid. And the fact the majority of games actually have no relevance.
 
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