USAFL and others

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childsy_1985

Draftee
Sep 29, 2010
13
4
AFL Club
Adelaide
I was just wondering how much support the AFL gives to international competitions such as the USAFL. I have been watching USAFL games on youtube for a while now and I have been impressed with how some of the guys have picked up the game, but where aussie kids grow up watching the game most of these guys are picking it up for the first time. Does the AFL help out with coaching and teaching people new to the game how to play?

for anyone who doesnt already know you can watch USAFL games on this youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNfA98KyPPvSiYQ6DYRjWA
just a guy with a regular camera providing commentary but its still good to watch
 
childsy_1985 said:
I was just wondering how much support the AFL gives to international competitions such as the USAFL. I have been watching USAFL games on youtube for a while now and I have been impressed with how some of the guys have picked up the game, but where aussie kids grow up watching the game most of these guys are picking it up for the first time. Does the AFL help out with coaching and teaching people new to the game how to play?

for anyone who doesnt already know you can watch USAFL games on this youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNfA98KyPPvSiYQ6DYRjWA
just a guy with a regular camera providing commentary but its still good to watch
Click to expand...
Talking to some of the guys from the USAFL , they receive little support from the AFL. They have built this competition in the country since 1997. About 34 teams around the country and about 4000 people play from what I'm told
 
This could be down the track some interesting news for the USAFL -Some might say drawing a very long bow for the future.
In an article by Michael Body in The Australian today - Only avail online to subscribers.
"Cricket Steps up push into US market."
In brief the Big Bash League will air live weekly on NBC Sports (85 million domestic subs) for 1 year and options to renew.
Cricket Australia has resigned 5 yr deal with US Cricket Nwork -Willow -now owned by an Indian Group.
A big push now on by CA and the ICC to promote the game at grassroots and College with new staff and with a new office in Colorado.
Right where does the USAFL Come in -This is the long bow - Cricket need Cricket grounds grounds to play on and so does the USAFL. May not happen but worth thinking about in the future.
Anybody reading this from USAFL suggest do some checking.
 

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childsy_1985 said:
I was just wondering how much support the AFL gives to international competitions such as the USAFL. I have been watching USAFL games on youtube for a while now and I have been impressed with how some of the guys have picked up the game, but where aussie kids grow up watching the game most of these guys are picking it up for the first time. Does the AFL help out with coaching and teaching people new to the game how to play?

for anyone who doesnt already know you can watch USAFL games on this youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNfA98KyPPvSiYQ6DYRjWA
just a guy with a regular camera providing commentary but its still good to watch
Click to expand...

Just started this account on behalf of our club, the Baltimore Washington Eagles, to connect with footy fans in Australia and share info on how footy is going in the US.

The USAFL, from my knowledge, doesn't receive a lot of support from the AFL. There are very few full-time staffed positions in the USAFL dedicated to the league.

Individual clubs are left to their own devices to raise money and recruit players. Because there isn't a constant pool of money, clubs fluctuate in performance depending on what years they get decent sponsorship/donations/recruits and when they don't. The BW Eagles, for example, spent several years at the top of the competition, then dropped off for several years.

The two powerhouse clubs at the moment are Austin Crows and New York Magpies.

The Florida teams also do pretty well re money, players, as do the California teams.

AFL clubs provide assistance to teams they are affiliated with. For example, we're affiliated with WCE and they've sent us some gear. NY Magpies have an official affiliation with Collingwood, etc.

A lot of former players/AFL staff move to the US post-career, and they help wherever they are. We have Danny Seow, former Collingwood/Melbourne player, coaching us, as well as a former development assistant at Gold Coast. There are also ex-VFL/SANFL players scattered across the teams.

But no, there's nothing organised from the AFL. That's a real shame because I can tell you, when Americans pick up this sport, they absolutely love it, including women. Our women's league is full of Americans, whereas the men's league is probably 50/50 Americans/Aussie expats. There's potential here that the AFL hasn't tapped into.
 
Grounds are indeed the biggest stumbling block to the growth of 18 a side footy. While growing a cricket culture here would increase pressure for facilities I struggle to see that happening, frankly in my lifetime, to any great extent.
As far as help from the AFL, I just wish we could get some kind of television deal done. My god, I was sitting in a local pub in Wichita while hosting a Grand Final watch party and there was Chinese Arena Football on another channel. Seriously, I think a properly packaged AFL Game of the week concept could pull better ratings than the CAFA.
 

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BigBrainUSA said:
Care to elaborate?
Click to expand...

Start with the title "How the AFL tried, failed, and keeps trying To break into the US".

How has the AFL tried ?
The AFL hasn't tried so how has it failed ?
How does the AFL keep trying to break into the U.S.A.FL. ?

The whole article is one big whinge with a lot of possible justification,
but the title is completely false.
The AFL was originally on cable TV. That was responsible for a rush of take-up in North America back then
but the cable networks were only looking for fill content until they got their 'real' sports operating.
The AFL should have tried to get some ongoing exposure but didn't.
Nobody knows how hard the AFL tried but it's generally agreed that is was a lost opportunity.
Then there were some exhibition games when there was beer money to be had.
The exhibition games were successful, especially in Canada but exhibition games leave little legacy.

The article is right in that steady football development is all down to organic growth.
The article implies that AFL combines are an attempt to woo Americans to Australian Football.
Absolutely not. AFL combines are to find potential AFL players full stop.
To my knowledge, AFL combines have done nothing to boost local football leagues.
The success of Mason Cox and Mike Pyke in North America and the success of countless Irishmen in the AFL
has had no effect on recruitment of local players to local clubs.

There is one universal constant with the organic growth of football around the world and that is
that each league and club demands that the AFL should me doing more at grassroots level.
The logistics of that subject could be debated 'ad infinitum' I will say that from my experience
the USAFL is reluctant to liaise with any entity outside of the AFL.
 
Just as an aside, has it ever been considered to put this forum underneath the "Australian Football League" umbrella forum?

It may not necessarily fit there in a logical sense but I'd assume that there would be some overlap in terms of interest between it and the "footy industry" forum and perhaps to a lesser extent the "Women's footy and AFLW".

I personally rarely post here but scroll down every couple of weeks to see if there is anything new. I don't suspect there are a massive numbers who are interested but would think perhaps there could be more momentum for discussion if the forum was more visible to those who hang out in r

In terms of the article, to an outsider it seems like the title is misleading more than any serious error within it
 
NoobPie said:
Just as an aside, has it ever been considered to put this forum underneath the "Australian Football League" umbrella forum?

It may not necessarily fit there in a logical sense but I'd assume that there would be some overlap in terms of interest between it and the "footy industry" forum and perhaps to a lesser extent the "Women's footy and AFLW".

I personally rarely post here but scroll down every couple of weeks to see if there is anything new. I don't suspect there are a massive numbers who are interested but would think perhaps there could be more momentum for discussion if the forum was more visible to those who hang out in r

In terms of the article, to an outsider it seems like the title is misleading more than any serious error within it
Click to expand...

Australian Football would be generally horrified if Australian Football International was put under the AFL.

The point which fans of Australian Football international say that is that AFL does nothing for the organic growth
of Australian Football overseas.
The point of fans of Australian Football is that the AFL as keeper of the code the AFL does nothing for the organic growth
of Australian Football in general.
The point of fans of the AFL is that it does what is good for the AFL and just sometimes
that benefits Australian Football in general.
 
RedV3x said:
Australian Football would be generally horrified if Australian Football International was put under the AFL.

The point which fans of Australian Football international say that is that AFL does nothing for the organic growth
of Australian Football overseas.
The point of fans of Australian Football is that the AFL as keeper of the code the AFL does nothing for the organic growth
of Australian Football in general.
The point of fans of the AFL is that it does what is good for the AFL and just sometimes
that benefits Australian Football in general.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure you understood what I was suggesting

I'm suggesting this forum be put under the AFL section where it could get more traffic and perhaps better belongs

More generally, in terms of what the AFL can do for international Australian football, I think you are vastly simplifying things

Just say the AFL were to increase their support to international grass roots Australian football to $3M a year and it was made public. How do you think this would go down with the average "fan of Australian football"? If you think it would be met with broad support I suspect you are very misguided
 
NoobPie said:
I'm not sure you understood what I was suggesting
I'm suggesting this forum be put under the AFL section where it could get more traffic and perhaps better belongs
Click to expand...

I like the idea of more prominence , yes, but international football definitely does not 'belong' in AFL.
Unfortunately, international football has nothing to do with AFL.

NoobPie said:
Just say the AFL were to increase their support to international grass roots Australian football to $3M a year and it was made public. How do you think this would go down with the average "fan of Australian football"?
Click to expand...

The average fan of AFL probably would say why is the AFL spending this money.
The average fan of Australian Football probably would say why isn't the AFL spending money on Australian grassroots.
The average fan of Australian Football international probably would be ecstatic.
And I would by ducking to avoid flying pigs.
 
RedV3x said:
Some interesting new for the U.S.A.

www.theage.com.au

Greater Western America: Giants seek USA game

The Greater Western Sydney Giants and the AFL are exploring the novel concept of playing a game for premiership points in the United States.
www.theage.com.au www.theage.com.au
Click to expand...

A very curious sentence lies in the article which I have extracted below.
The USA push has come, in part, at the suggestion of a small group of Americans who have become generous patrons of the Giants.

Well it raises a lot of questions - Who are they and how generous are they, and are they Sydney based.
Their combined financial resources must be to put modestly -ok.
To actually even influence the Giants and the AFL to even discuss it is no mean effort.
Havent they heard of the USAFL -If I was on the USAFL board and reading this info some inquiries would be made to the Giants to make at least some contact.
However if the fixture goes ahead they (USAFL) will be involved anyhow.
My thoughts on the US Sports market are - It is extremely competitive and has a lot of media noise attached, and minor sports tend to get drowned out in that noise.
 
TWLS said:
A very curious sentence lies in the article which I have extracted below.
The USA push has come, in part, at the suggestion of a small group of Americans who have become generous patrons of the Giants.

Well it raises a lot of questions - Who are they and how generous are they, and are they Sydney based.
Their combined financial resources must be to put modestly -ok.
To actually even influence the Giants and the AFL to even discuss it is no mean effort.
Click to expand...

Hopefully, there is substance to this story.
It's about time Australian Football had some benefactors.

TWLS said:
Havent they heard of the USAFL -If I was on the USAFL board and reading this info some inquiries would be made to the Giants to make at least some contact.
Click to expand...

The U.S.A. has it's national championships that are worth about $3 million in turnover.
It has been my thought for decades that for a little money they could have a national league
by playing the premiers of the major leagues in a conference style setup.
A USAFL National League would open up more underwriting and promotional opportunities.

TWLS said:
However if the fixture goes ahead they (USAFL) will be involved anyhow.
Click to expand...

I would hope that they would play the 49th Parallel Cup as an international feaure.

TWLS said:
My thoughts on the US Sports market are - It is extremely competitive and has a lot of media noise attached, and minor sports tend to get drowned out in that noise.
Click to expand...

Yes, Most people don't understand the dynamics of sport.
The U.S.A. is a big consumer-driven country but soccer is small in the U.S.A. because Americans have quality choice.
When if comes to football Australia is even more competitive with four main codes of football.
The U.S.A. is a big consumer-driven country so people think it would be easier to start up an enterprise there
but there is an optimum size of a city to launch a product.
Imagine you wanted to stage a game in L.A., a city with the population of Australia.
The promotional cost and effort to sufficiently dominate the headlines for the neccessary period would be immense.
The same with new York,It's difficult but not impossible.
Personally I'd be trying to take the game to Vancouver or Toronto
where there have been proven crowds, costs are much lower, there's more interst and there has been more development.
 
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