New York A s anyone with an unhealthy addiction to Saturday
Night Live and presidential debates can tell you, Americans stage a contest like no one else. And that doesn’t just apply to the race for the White House. So if you find yourself in the mood for a slice of Uncle Sam as an election curtain-raiser this weekend, tune in to the American football. Or — if you can swing yourself a ticket somehow — go to Wembley and see for yourself.
The NFL is coming to London, with the San Diego Chargers taking on the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. It will be a perfectly packaged event too, four hours of banging entertainment: that’s what the Yanks do so well. And whatever your opinion of a sport in which the action flows for all of ten seconds at a time — at a push — I hope the decision-makers in our own national game will be watching. There are lessons to be learnt.
Back in February, accompanied by a chorus of agreement from outraged pub-bores across the land, the FA dismissed out of hand an admittedly sketchily thought-out Premier League proposal for England’s top clubs to play one game a year (the ‘39th game’) overseas. In the winter. In a nice hot place like Miami, or Dubai, or Sydney, or Buenos Aires. But, the wisdom went, fans wouldn’t want to miss their home games, and players wouldn’t want to travel. They’re overworked as it is. Our hearts went out to them. But in America, they know that the future of sport is global. Some fans in New Orleans aren’t exactly thrilled — they miss out on a home tie from their season tickets. But, actually, the clubs aren’t complaining. Far from it: they vie for the chance to be the lucky ones who go long-haul when their rivals get to play back home. Can you imagine the endless objections to the small print from whingeing Wenger, furious Fergie or the others should the idea take hold in the Premier League? Though whether they’d object to the extra merchandise sales is a different matter altogether.
But English football needs to look and learn. Playing overseas works. In 2005, the NFL went to Mexico City and drew a six-figure crowd. Last year the New York Giants played the Miami Dolphins in a regular-season game at a packed Wembley. The pitch may have been waterlogged, but not even the inevitably torrential rain spoiled the event.
This time, despite the teams lacking the star cachet of the Giants, who went on to win the Super Bowl last season, the initial offering of 40,000 tickets sold out in 90 minutes. The second batch, 15,000, were gone within half an hour. No wonder the NFL has committed to another London game for the next three years.
And it’s not just American football that’s seen the future. The NBA took a regular-season basketball game to Tokyo as long ago as 1991, and is looking at European teams taking a permanent place in their league. The NHL started the ice-hockey season in London last year — and kick-started the current season in Stockholm and Prague. If only baseball would come to Britain too. And Spanish league football games. Australian beach volleyball anyone? The more the merrier, I say.
Live action sells a spectacle better than TV rights in the wee small hours. Of course, NFL was prime-time over here in the 1980s, on Channel 4. But that was back when Frank Bough was an innocent Grandstand anchor, and watching Arsenal involved George Graham orchestrating an offside trap. The competition was easier then. We want a little showbiz with our action these days. And no one understands that better than the Americans.
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