Why won't they show Aussie football on American Espn?

Question

Man, I got into it when I saw it in Europe.But here in America, ESPN just show highlights. What's your take on this?

Answer 1

Becasue the WNBA is more important than that. Check ESPN Deportes! HAHAHA

Answer 2

for two reasons,

1.  ESPN doesn't believe there is a big enough audience for them to show it.

2.  Time difference is an issue too. As I said above, ESPN probably wouldn't capture a big enough audience if they showed it live due to the time difference.

However they do have some bars where they show it live due to the interest it has over there, and the amount of clubs that are being started up by aussies who have relocated.

Answer 3

Unfortunately the problem's twofold ...

Firstly the game is a difficult one for people who haven't grown up with it to understand, much like another wonderfully engaging sport in cricket.  Grid iron, basketball and baseball are the mainstays of American sporting culture, and as entertaining and involved as they are they're all relatively simple to pick up, understand and become involved in.

By contrast, Aussie Rules is fairly simple on the surface of it but is a lot more complex once you start trying to understand the nuances of the sport - and it's this understanding of a sport's nuances that determines whether one can develop a passion for it.

So the task of getting the general American populous to accept and understand Aussie Rules is a big one, as they have to overcome their current subconcious belief that sport should be very straight forward.  Even in the UK, where they have a history of inventing and accepting odd sports, sporting fans find Aussie Rules incomprehensible.

The second hurdle is that the AFL (Australian Football League - www.afl.com.au) don't have the financial or manpower resources to adequately market and develop the sport in the US.  Although there are small AFL leagues in Europe (Denmark, UK, Netherlands, Sweden, and most places there's a reasonably large Australian expat community), it's never really taken off in the US.

They're currently running youth training and recruitment programmes in various overseas countries (e.g.: South Africa and Ireland), but don't have the ability to adequately market the sport in the US - where previous attempts failed.

Even cricket, which has more traction in the US thanks to a significant following from expat Brits, Australians, South Africans, Pakistanis, Indians, etc. has difficulty in getting network interest in broadcasting the World Cup or other important world cricket events (e.g.: Pakistan v. India, Australia v. England).

If you're looking for the odd small "fix" of Aussie Rules, check out YouTube - and you'll find lots of highlights and occassionally you'll find recaps of the previous week's matches.

I've lived in a number of different countries around the world, have been to watch (or even taken part in) most sports and can understand the passion of all the major American sports, as well as the "world game" (football/soccer) - and even the more localised niche sports like hurling and gaelic football in Ireland.

Although I enjoy them all I still think Aussie Rules and cricket rule the roost in terms of sheer entertainment and engagement ... once you understand them - although I am biased, having grown up with them in Australia, whilst being exposed to all of the other major sports around the world through travel and the plethora of sports offerings on television!

SOME ADDITIONAL NOTES FOR INTEREST:

- from ESPN.com, by Jim Caple

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/caple/030311....

ESPN owes an enormous debt to Australian Rules Football, which filled large segments of programming in the days before the network had contracts with the NFL, NBA and baseball. There never was any explanation of the game's rules (the broadcasts were simply tapes of Australian broadcasts), leaving American viewers perplexed by the chaos on the field. My college friends and I spent many a night watching the odd broadcasts from Down Under, trying to figure out the rules and chuckling at the long-coated referees who signaled scores with as much precision and bravado as Robert DeNiro snapping out a gun in "Taxi Driver." It was the perfect sport to watch while drinking.

It was even better in person, though I still was puzzled by the rules. How far can a player run with the ball before he has to pass it? When can a player take a shot at the goal? Is tackling allowed or not? If it is, how come they don't do it more often? If it isn't, how come the occasional violent tackle went unpunished?

- from Wikipedia

Aussie Rules in the US (in case you want a "local" live fix, depending where you live)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_...

Australian Rules footballers who've converted to Grid Iron

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Foo...

Answer 4

Nobody cares about stupid aussie football in america you q***r

Answer 5

Claude that has to be the dumbest answer I've ever heard.

Simple, straightforward sports my foot. Baseball and gridiron are incredibly nuanced sports with endless permutations of strategy.

On to the question. Between gridiron, baseball, basketball (men and womens), hockey, golf, tennis, NASCAR, soccer, boxing, horse racing and about a dozen other sports, we're already at saturation point. Who has the time or inclination to keep up with yet another athletic pursuit?

Answer 6

probably the same reasons that gridiron gets the same sort of attention here in Australia,there just isn't the market to warrant showing it on the box and the fact AFL is probably not understood over there and will struggle for ever and a day to gain any recognition amongst the sporting public of America -its the same for gridiron here,when you grow up with footy and rugby its hard to get into a foreign sport.

or it could be because the NFL and other American sporting associations are scared AUSSIE RULES WILL TAKE OVER THE WORLD.............LOL.