日韩精品久久一区二区三区_亚洲色图p_亚洲综合在线最大成人_国产中出在线观看_日韩免费_亚洲综合在线一区

Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
Sports
Home / Sports / NFL

NFL strikes chord with British fans

China Daily | Updated: 2018-02-06 07:51
Share
Share - WeChat

LONDON - The Super Bowl was seen as a foreign novelty event when it was first broadcast live in Britain 35 years ago, but since London hosted the inaugural NFL International Series game in 2007, fans have flocked to Wembley and Twickenham to watch regular-season games.

British NFL supporters have continued to show a thirst for American football, with Wembley witnessing a record crowd of 84,592 to watch the Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Baltimore Ravens in September.

This year is particularly significant for NFL UK, as the Oakland Raiders will face the Seattle Seahawks at the new 62,000-seat home of London soccer club Tottenham Hotspur on Oct 14.

Not just a new venue, the stadium will mark the first time teams will play on a custom-built NFL field in London, which will be engineered to elevate from beneath the soccer pitch.

Yet despite this exciting development, questions remain over whether the NFL can forge its own path in Britain's crowded sports market and fulfill the league's aim of becoming "everybody's second favorite sport".

"I think this year's Super Bowl had more significance for us in this country than past championships because the New England Patriots are the most supported team in the UK, playing the Philadelphia Eagles, who had never won a Super Bowl but have a British-born running back (Jay Ajayi) in their lineup," said NFL UK managing director Alistair Kirkwood.

"We have an aspiration to be everybody's second favorite sport and the stats back up that we're starting to make substantial inroads. Through the regular season, we average more than a million viewers a week and that grows over the season. In the playoffs, it becomes substantially bigger.

"So I think we're quite a long way away from when we were seen as being an imported sport and something that happened thousands of miles away and maybe a bit of a novelty."

The notion of a London franchise has long been mooted, especially since the collapse of NFL Europe in 2007, but Kirkwood's point about the Patriots means even a British-based team would not necessarily convert the most ardent of fans.

When asked by Reuters if she would follow a potential franchise closer to home, UK Patriots fan club member Rebecca Downey said: "Nope. I could never love another franchise, even one close to home as much as I love the Patriots."

Unique window

With Sunday's game played overnight in Britain, it allowed a unique window for the sport to have no competition for viewers.

Dozens of bars and restaurants in London extended their opening hours significantly to host Super Bowl parties, and the Eagles' 41-33 victory was televised across four channels, three on satellite broadcaster Sky and the other on the terrestrial BBC.

UK-based Eagles fan club organizer Anthony Bullick said good communication is key to challenging the dominance of other team sports in Britain.

"The toughest hurdle for the sport to challenge the likes of cricket and rugby in the UK is the perception that there's too many breaks in play," Bullick said.

"When you speak to fans who started following the sport in the last few years, most say as soon as they understood the rules, they didn't really notice the breaks as they were discussing play calls and other in-game analysis."

Long way off

Even with more than 100 universities having their own American football teams, a national league patterned on the NFL remains a long way off, hence a British franchise is seen as the most likely next step from hosting matches.

Kirkwood concedes that a UK-based team could come to fruition within the next 10 years.

"We've got to a stage where that kind of concept becomes more compelling and much more doable," he said.

Reuters

Most Popular

Highlights

What's Hot
Top
BACK TO THE TOP
English
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US
主站蜘蛛池模板: 一区二区三区不卡免费视频97 | 综合久久久久 | 色黄视频在线观看 | 精品欧美在线 | 午夜国产亚洲精品一区 | 久久国产免费 | 国产在线精品一区 | 九九爱精品 | 超级在线牛碰碰视频 | 日韩一区二区三区在线播放 | 美女被网站大全在线视频 | 欧美日本国产VA高清CABAL | 色黄网站aaaaaa级毛片 | 91成人国产网站在线观看 | 国产精品视频一区二区三区不卡 | 日韩一级欧美一级毛片在线 | 老司机精品视频个人在观看 | 在线观看网 | 国产一级性生活视频 | 日韩视频在线观看免费视频 | 国产传媒在线播放 | 日日日bbb | 亚洲成人免费在线 | 欧美午夜一区 | 久久综合九色综合网站 | 狠狠操天天操 | 激情五月社区 | 一级a毛片免费观看久久精品 | 亚洲高清视频一区二区 | 天天干天天操天天射 | 比比资源先锋影音网 | 91视频在线| 国产日韩欧美在线观看不卡 | 奇米影视888狠狠狠777九色 | 四库影院永久在线精品 | 欧美日韩国产一区二区三区不卡 | 成人爽a毛片在线视频网站 婷婷色在线观看 | 欧美精品免费线视频观看视频 | 欧美日韩一区二区在线视频播放 | 奇米第四色网站 | 国产午夜精品视频免费不卡69堂 |