Dear Commissioner Goodell,
Do you want to spread football to other countries? Then bring a goddamn franchise to Los Angeles.
Do you know how many Koreans watch MLB as Dodgers fans because Dodgers brought Chan-Ho Park? Do you ever wonder why there are 1.6 billion Houston Rockets and New Jersey Nets fans? It is thanks to the two very skilled guys named Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian. Manchester United, the world's most successful sports franchise, opened up a whole new market by signing Park, Ji-Sung (who is doing quite well this season.) Do you see a trend?
Currently Pittsburgh Steelers -- unfortunately missed the playoffs this year -- is probably the only NFL team that any Korean knows because Super Bowl XL MVP Hines Ward is half-Korean. Thanks to Hines Ward, Steelers playoffs games used to show on Korean television. Think about how amazing that is. Your league has made zero efforts to advertise in Korea, but people in that market are watching NFL, even though they know practically nothing about the sport.
A hypothetical LA team would naturally recruit heavily on Asian and Hispanic population to appeal to the local demographic. Even if it does not, it will attract Asian American and Hispanic American fans, who will naturally transmit their love of football through their frequent traffic with their homelands. Sooner or later, people in Asia and Central/South America would be watching football! It's that simple!
You somehow seem to be married to the idea of spreading football in Europe. The Korean has to ask: Why? Why obsess over that London game, when 16 years of NFL Europa plainly showed that Europeans do not care about football? Both MLB and NBA realize that Asia is the future of professional sports. Asia has an up-and-coming economy, and its people are receptive to new forms of entertainment.
The Korean will repeat: BRING A FRANCHISE TO LOS ANGELES. It will pay off in more ways than you can ever imagine. The Korean will write the same rant every year until you comply.
Sincerely,
The Korean
Before the Korean goes onto his pick, it must be noted that a former California Golden Bear Scott Fujita is a starting linebacker for the New Orleans Saints. Fujita is also an outspoken advocate for gay rights, which got him featured on a New York Times article. Fujita also might be the second Asian American starting in the Super Bowl (after Hines Ward,) since Fujita was adopted into a family of Japanese American father and a white mother. (Fujita himself is not an ethnic Japanese. About his heritage, Fujita said: "I have no Japanese blood in my body. But I’m Japanese at heart.")
Fujita, exercising his Berkeley-educated mind to murder Manning and Addai
This will be a tough pick, mostly because the Korean has been busy with work and hardly followed pro football this season. (He did not even play fantasy football this year.) There are many factors to consider, like: How did benching starters affect the Colts' karma? How does Dwight Freeney's injury affect the Colt's defense? What will the Saints do as the "America's Team"? Don't the Saints have the better running game, the staple of playoff football?
But at the end of the day, the Korean just can't pick against Peyton Manning. Simple as that.
The Korean's pick: Colts 31, Saints 21.
Bonus prediction: Dallas Clark will score a TD.
The Korean's Glorious History of Super Bowl Picks That Are Never Wrong
2009 pick: Steelers 24, Cardinals 13
2009 result: Steelers 27, Cardinals 23
2008 pick: Giants 27, Patriots 20
2008 result: Giants 17, Patriots 14
2007 pick: Colts 24, Bears 21
2007 result: Colts 29, Bears 17
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
-EDIT 2/7/2010- Fuck you Manning, fuck you. You eat a bowl of cocks for breakfast. You ruined the Korean's perfection. Now the Korean is only 75 percent correct in his picks.
GAAAAAH!!!! Losing sucks.
Saints 31, Colts 17
OP:
ReplyDeleteDo you want to spread football to other countries? Then bring a goddamn franchise to Los Angeles.
After the NFL left Orange County (the Rams) and Los Angeles (the Raiders), there has been little point in watching professional football. Sure, we have the Chargers in neighboring San Diego County, but they're all the way down there.
Simply put, for me the Superbowl is only exciting in that clever new television commercials will be available, and Golden Palace dim sum restaurant will be a little less crowded.
Ah, geez. Now you went and made me write an entire post about football (where I agree with you quite a bit). As an enticement, it contains pictures of cheerleaders.
ReplyDeleteKorean,
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is absurd that there's no NFL franchise in the second largest media market in the US. What's even more absurd is that there is a large percentage of people in Toronto that believe that they can and will get a shot at an NFL franchise (Buffalo Bills) ahead of Los Angeles. This is despite the fact that: 1) they can only find 30,000 fans / game to support their own CFL team, the Argonauts. 2) CFL is much more entertaining than the NFL. 3) there is no reason for the NFL to move a franchise a 100 miles north to a market they already have locked down.
Now, the Argonauts are a pathetic franchise but how these idiots think that paying $100+ to watch to watch an equally pathetic franchise lose in a less entertaining game will be an improvement is beyond me. It probably has more to do with Toronto's deep seated need to recognized as being in the big leagues as defined by Americans than any real desire for a football team.
The best part of being an Angeleno was the fact that I could watch decent games over regular TV when I lived in L.A. I wasn't forced to endure the torture of watching the crappy Raiders and Rams when there was actually a solid pairing of quality teams taking place elsewhere around the NFL. Anyway, who the hell can afford to actually go to a game nowadays without taking out a 2nd mortgage?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think your statement, "The Korean is 3-0 in those picks, including New York Giants over the 16-1 New England Patriots," is wrong. The Pats were 18-0 and trying to win their 19th for a perfect season. There season ended at 18-1 after the loss to the miracle-producing Giants.
Douglas,
ReplyDeleteGratuitous Canada bashing! Nice.
John,
You are right. Correction was made.
Korean,
ReplyDeleteMore like gratuitous Toronto bashing, but not really. Besides, where I come from, western Canada, Toronto bashing is bred in the bone.
I understand that you really want a franchise in LA, but your examples don't really support your position that having a team in LA would help spread the NFL's popularity abroad.
ReplyDeleteIf anything your examples of Park, Ward, Yao and Yi show that the NFL should be encouraging and supporting recreational football leagues in Asian countries and predominantly Asian communities so that later they can cull talent and build a fan base abroad as people cheer for someone "like them."
The exchange that goes on between Koreans and KAs in LA and Korea has very little effect on how football is perceived in Korea. When LA had teams Koreans weren't interested and if they get a team again they will still likely be uninterested. (This exchange does help fill the rosters of the few football club teams at the SKY universities in Seoul, but doesn't do much to catch the interest of the general population)
I think you should focus more on merchandising in next year's rant. Talk about how people in China, Japan, Korea (and everywhere else in the world for that matter) will buy merchandise just because it says LA or NY, so much so that even teams not located in one of these cities have tried to change their names to include the city (e.g. any number of teams that play in NJ but continue to call themselves NY or the Angels trying to become the LA Angels despite being located in Anaheim.)
On a side-note I've been thoroughly unimpressed with the Colts ability to win decisively this season, even against sub-par teams like my own Niners. I'm going to call out a friendly beer bet that the Saints win. Feel free to collect next time you're in Seoul if I'm wrong.
I don't know about the viability of football in Asia, but concerning Europe the problem is quite simple: the European media don't care.
ReplyDeleteWhy? No idea, maybe because of the soccer lobbies, maybe because they're stupid/too conservative.
Football is one of the fastest growing sport in France, it has now as many players as Ice Hockey or other sports that are more covered by the media and more "famous". The French national championship is never ever mentioned, most French people don't even know there's one.
In recent years the Superbowl -to my knowledge, the only football game shown live on French TV (not counting satellite TV)- has had up to one million viewers (a huge number for a Sunday night, remember that it takes place from 12AM-4AM in most of Europe).
In Germany and England, the sport is even more popular. Yes, Europeans are "ready for some football" but what we need for it to be a success are:
-A real national and/or European championship, not something like NFL Europe (basically an American championship taking place in Europe).
-A real media coverage from European media and as long as we won't have this, nothing substantial will happen.
That being said: Go Saints!
The story of Fujita was quite touching:-)
ReplyDeleteJoel wrote:
ReplyDeleteThe exchange that goes on between Koreans and KAs in LA and Korea has very little effect on how football is perceived in Korea. When LA had teams Koreans weren't interested and if they get a team again they will still likely be uninterested.
When LA/OC last had teams, it was 1994, when Korean overseas tourism was only then kicking in. There were no Korean or Asian players of any particular note that I recall.
If there were a team in Los Angeles and/or Orange County today, things might be different, particularly if a Hines Ward were playing. I think if we look at Park Chanho as an example you could see that sporting events would become a significant focus of tourism (loads of Korean visitors put a game at Dodger Stadium on their itinerary when Park was playing there) and broadcasting (showing MLB games became a cottage industry in Korea as a direct result of Park's participation in MLB, which later led to the regular broadcasting of some Japanese baseball in Korea as well).
I don't think it's a slam dunk, but it I think there's a new potential there owing to very different factors from 1994 and before.
Kushibo wrote:
ReplyDeleteIf there were a team in Los Angeles and/or Orange County today, things might be different, particularly if a Hines Ward were playing. I think if we look at Park Chanho as an example you could see that sporting events would become a significant focus of tourism (loads of Korean visitors put a game at Dodger Stadium on their itinerary when Park was playing there) and broadcasting (showing MLB games became a cottage industry in Korea as a direct result of Park's participation in MLB, which later led to the regular broadcasting of some Japanese baseball in Korea as well).
Park is an example of what I'm talking about though. It's more important to get a Korean on the team itself rather than put it in a market with a lot of Koreans. In theory the best scenario would be for people to come and visit friends or family in LA and schedule in a visit to see the hometown boy in action, but without the hometown boy on the team they are likely to not attend any games despite the team's convenient location in a city with a large Korean population. I mean how many Koreans take an interest in the Kings just because they're located in LA? I would dare say not too many.
Your example of Japanese baseball airing in Korea is the same case. Koreans want to see 이승엽 doing well against foreigners and representing Korea in a positive light. It's a source of pride. The fact that this sense of pride can't be gained by competing against fellow Koreans is one of the reasons Korean domestic sports suffer so much (with the exception of baseball which I feel has been given a new birth of life because of Korea's good showing in recent olympics and WBCs.) After watching their favorite players in MLB or European soccer leagues sometimes the attraction can go deeper, but you still need that initial catch.
The NFL needs to invest in children's leagues and school teams in diverse communities if they want their players to appeal to diverse markets; particularly with how expensive it is to maintain a football team because of excessive equipment and coaches.
The NBA has taken off internationally because of players like AK47, Dirk, Manu, Arroyo, Yao, Yi, Divac, Nash. Even 하승진 who maybe only played in a couple of games for less than 5 minutes became well known and brought some attention to the NBA which has lagged in popularity here since Jordan retired all because he was the first Korean drafted.
Anyway all I'm saying is having a team in LA won't hurt the NFL's chances abroad, but it's clearly not the most important factor.
Other then the superbowl, Football in Europe, has no visibility.
ReplyDeleteBut it's starting slowly. with video games, movies and ESPN is now broadcasted in Europe.
American football is seen as a violant and stupid sport. Don't ask me why.
The super bowl was broadcasted yesterday, but as David said, between 12am and 4am. There is absolutly no one who will watch it, expecpt people who know football and insomniacs. It should be broadcasted again the next day.
Joel wrote:
ReplyDeletePark is an example of what I'm talking about though. It's more important to get a Korean on the team itself rather than put it in a market with a lot of Koreans. In theory the best scenario would be for people to come and visit friends or family in LA and schedule in a visit to see the hometown boy in action, but without the hometown boy on the team they are likely to not attend any games despite the team's convenient location in a city with a large Korean population. I mean how many Koreans take an interest in the Kings just because they're located in LA? I would dare say not too many.
But the reason I think TheKorean is right is that the recipe for success is a synergy of the two — an ethnic Korean and an easy-to-reach locale with a lot of Korean-Americans.
Saints 31, Colts 17
ReplyDeleteMight I note that I predicted Saints 21, Colts 17?