Atomic Sports Media: The Other Side of the Pond

May I first say thanks to Atomic Sports Media for giving me this breakthrough. My first article went up last night. Please, visit their site and read my article over this copy if you can; if you want sports reporting, go to their top notch sports site! :)


I visited Amsterdam in late June, during the last ever World Bowl game, played between the Hamburg Sea Devils and Frankfurt Galaxy. I was lucky enough to see the game in my hotel, a game in which the Sea Devils dominated, winning 37-28.

The game was actually quite entertaining, particularly given that it was the highest-scoring World Bowl in its 15-year history. What was far from entertaining, however, was my quest to find Amsterdam Admirals memorabilia in the city itself. After looking in every souvenir shop (and believe me, there are HUNDREDS), I traveled to the Amsterdam ArenA, the Admirals’ home ground. Much to my own personal dismay, even they had nothing. I would have to call the team’s merchandisers to order anything I wanted, which required a Dutch address and a waiting period of 28 days.

As wild a tangent as this may seem to an article concerning the demise of NFL Europa, it certainly highlights something: although the National Football League was losing €40,000,000 (or $55,072,000) a year funding its developing players in their Spring league, it did not seem to fully commit to the concept of fully integrating a fan base.

This was the only thing that seemed glaringly apparent at first, but I was to learn more in the following days. After all, I’d be damned if I was going to leave that country without an Admirals baseball cap. So, during the rest of my vacation to Amsterdam and afterwards, through my originally tiny demand, I met remarkable people who supported or were involved with NFL Europa.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if they knocked NFLE on the head,” said my hotel’s barman, an Irishman formerly from Dublin. “I came over here with an eye on the scores, then became a massive fan. Attendances have always been low. I’ve never seen the ArenA more than a quarter full - there’s never more than 12,000 there.”

“Why, though?”

“Because it’s crap.”

Lo and behold: four days later, the league officially folds.

And it was crap. I looked back on World Bowl XV and remembered the poor yardage, the strangely low amount of first downs per team, and the average (at best) passing game. I think the absence of the real NFL had a profound effect on me - at least, that I would watch any wrong-ball, regardless of ability, that wasn’t rugby.

I call it wrong-ball because I’m English, if you hadn’t guessed already; I find this nationality of mine also plays a large part in my general distaste for how NFL Europe was run, and why many Europeans may have felt the same way - in effect dooming the American mindset in a different climate from early on.

Although it may sound like a crass stereotype, American sports - to the average European’s mind - are littered with team movements; examples being the Quebec Nordiques moving to Colorado to become the Avalanche, or the Los Angeles Rams being relocated to St. Louis (both, coincidentally, in 1995). My own beloved Penguins were under threat of being moved to Kansas City or similar due to financial pressures; and although I have never been to Pittsburgh (yet), I felt this was soul-destroying.

A team I did follow, however, was the Scottish Claymores. Or, should I say, the Hamburg Sea Devils. At least, that’s who they were replaced by. The British football fan base was already crippled by the loss of the London/England Monarchs in 1998 and the loss of the Claymores sealed the deal. Although I am well aware that the movements were not franchise-like (in that the upper management did not transfer abroad), many British and European fans certainly felt this to be the case, and this was reflected in the poor attendance. Only one soccer team has moved, to my knowledge, in Britain - Wimbledon FC to Milton Keynes, 60 miles away (and that’s a long way in England for a sports team!). What happened? 30,000 fans to 5,000 in six months. They were ‘jovially’ renamed Franchise F.C. and universally hated by everyone. Oops!

This theory of movement being ultimately detrimental to a thriving fan base seems to be supported by the fact that the only original European WLAF team of 1991 to have survived the duration - Frankfurt Galaxy - was the only team to average more than 25,000 fans per game, weighing in at an average of 33,043 in 2007. Only Rhein Fire and Hamburg drew more than 20,000 in the same year. Established areas will do well; constant movements and league reshuffling forces fans to ask, “So, which joke outfit will we be playing this year?”

If only the NFL had taken Europe seriously after dropping the Mickey Mouse North American teams (Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks, anyone? Ohio Glory?! You know them!) by expanding the European venture to more than six teams. I know that if more established cities had been approached, it may have had more life in it. Birmingham, England for example; Paris, France; Rome, Italy; areas with a strong tradition or love for contact sports (okay, scratch Paris maybe…). There would be more games than just ten and it would make the postseason more competitive.

I think it is this year’s events that have highlighted the potentially untapped audience of football. More than 500,000 requests were placed for the NFL’s trip to London, a between the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins. So much so that fellow ASM writer Jon Bellwood (a close friend of mine) and I couldn’t get any. Great. Maybe if the NFL tried to put that much effort into making their European concept that interesting, fans would have overlooked the lower standard of play. Besides, the amount of wasted talents on show in the lower parts of the depth charts of NFL teams who never see a play all season could at least be loaned out, resulting in benefits for both sides.

Never mind though, eh? It’s all over now. And good, too. At least this way I can get to watch an NFL game in Europe I want to watch (if what the NFL promises will come true, and more games will be scheduled for overseas).

Oh, and my pristine Rhein Fire and Frankfurt Galaxy jerseys will sell for an absolute fortune on eBay!

The Bollocks: Failed Spin-offs

Given that many of my articles to The Bollocks are also in the Blogger community, I find there's little point in posting them in their entirety. Besides, The Bollocks is another of my projects so I'd rather you looked at our lovely interweb fun there, too. I'll always post a link to this page should I write for them.

Anyway: visit The Bollocks now and my newest article, Failed Spin-offs: Video Games, or click the picture below.