Oct 30 2007
Why Aussie Rules Will Spread Further Than Gridiron
We Americans have a rich tradition trying to impose our cultural will on the rest of the world. We sell everyone else on American music, American movies, American fashion and American food. In years past, everyone else just bought right into this crap, because it looked sexier than anything they had.
We’ve been trying to do this with American football for the last two decades, too. First, it was the World League of American Football, which devolved into NFL Europa and finally closed its doors after 16 less-than-memorable seasons. Then there was last Sunday’s big London experiment. Look! A regular season NFL game in England! This one counts!
This beat-you-over-the-head-with-our-culture approach, however, isn’t going to serve the NFL very well, because every other country plays some form of football that’s different from America’s game. There’s no guarantee that these people will accept our armor-plated battle chess as readily as they accepted Jerry Lewis and Baywatch. We can storm into town with our football, and they’ll just say, “But… but… isn’t this football?” And they’ll have a point.
You know who has a much better approach to international expansion? The Australians.
Both American football and Australian football are games that evolved from other codes and became national obsessions in their home countries. Both countries are somewhat isolated from the rest of the world, and both the AFL and NFL are looking to take their brands of football worldwide.
That’s where they split. Where the NFL drops a full league in Europe and demands your love for what they’ve done for you, the AFL is attempting to grow its game organically. There are now amateur and semipro footy leagues in 13 different countries, including the U.S. The NFL International site seems to be more about getting other countries to watch NFL games, rather than encouraging people to play American football.
What’s more, the AFL is cultivating footy talent in places far away from Australia. Ireland’s contributions to the Australian game continue to grow, while AFL clubs are mining for talent in Minnesota, China and South Africa.
Does anyone out there think the NFL would have a prayer in South Africa, where rugby union is a national obsession and the 2010 FIFA World Cup is on the calendar? Yet the AFL has found a way to make their football game work there — and not only that, but South Africa has a national footy team, and the St. Kilda Saints picked a South African native, Luke van Rheenen, in the 2007 rookie draft.
Sure, the AFL is making a splash with preseason games in other countries, but they’re doing much more than that. They’re introducing people in other countries to their brand of football at the amateur level and showing them that footy is just a fun game to play. It’s a simple message, but it’s got a lot more power behind it than any bombastic marketing strategies Roger Goodell can cook up.
Perhaps the NFL commissioner should rethink his plans for world domination. If the game at Wembley is any indication of the future, the rest of the world is going to get really, really sick of being force-fed NFL games. Why would other countries waste time watching a football code they can’t understand and can’t play?
RSS Feed
I think you’re right, Dave. I think that Aussie rules is easier to follow to a newbie than American football.
I think you’ll find that van Rheenen was only born in the RSA, he grew up in Australia, and in any case, he hasn’t yet debuted at AFL level.
The AFL has quite a few players that were born overseas (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_overseas-born_AFL_players), but that in itself doesn’t demonstrate the fantastic “grassroots” efforts that are being made, mostly by volunteers, around the world.
The AFL hasn’t got a true international recruit yet but I don’t think it won’t be too far away, although I believe it will more likely come from closer to Australia, from countries like Papua New Guinea, New Zealand or pacific islands like Samoa. These countries have shown solid growth in junior participation without anywhere near the level of commitment and funding that the South African government and the AFL have put into the game there.
I think you’ll find that there is American football played at amateur level in countries like Australia too, but very few people play it or watch it because they don’t understand it. I definately think that participation does help people to understand the idiosyncracies of football games, just look at soccer for a case in point. To get the best results, it is important that the participation be as broad as possible, not just grown men, but children and inclusive of both sexes.
Another big advantage that the AFL has over the NFL is that it doesn’t require the amount of playing equipment. Some in developing countries even actually play it without boots or mouthguards (although neither recommended). Though it isn’t all plain sailing for Aussie Rules. A major disadvantage is obviously finding big enough fields and enough players to play full sized games (though this can be overcome by playing with modified rules). Though I still very much admire what the NFL recently achieved in London in terms of sheer spectacle.
I recently attended the US Footy National Championship in Louisville Kentucky as part of the tour group “The Convicts”. It was impressive to see how far spread the game of Aussie Rules was across America. However it is still very amateur. I think why the game is succeeding in other countries is because there seems to be a large contingent of Aussie ex pats everywhere driving such competitions. Through the rules on limiting Aussie involvement in playing is keeping locals involved and driving the growth as they learn our game and begin to love it like we do.
I don’t feel there is the same level of interest in American expats around the world to get together and organise an American Football competition.
If anybody wants to trade teams, you can have the AZ Cardinals. :p
Umm…. you should probably do some fact-checking. Long and short of it… the NFL already does this. There are American football leagues in all the countries you’d expect (UK, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, France, Germany, the Scandinavian countries, Japan, , etc). There’s even 70+ teams in Australia and a “World Cup”.
Several good points in the article and in the comments. I’m an American that grew up playing high school football somewhat poorly and love the college and pro versions of it. While in college, I did a semester abroad in Perth and played footy along with some other yanks. It was awesome! I then played with a team out in California for a year or two before getting too involved with other extracurriculars. But I could see AFL becoming popular even here. We’re bloodthirsty for sports and new ones develop all the time. With somewhat simple rules and no need for expensive equipment (right, Sean), it’s something that could spread - the key will be getting the kids to grow up playing it. Start in some places where the ex-pats gather (great point, Tim), get the kids to start kicking it around and then you’ll have something.
I think Aussie Rules might interest more Americans if it were more visible on TV here. Right now, you can only get a couple of AFL games per week during the season on Setanta Sports, which is a premium channel. If you could see AFL games on a channel like Versus, that might get some people’s attention. It certainly couldn’t bring in worse ratings than Premier League Darts.
Australia doesn’t have the kind of cultural/monetary clout that America does. AFL can’t put in nearly the amount of money into globalization that the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL can.
On the other hand, no one is really mad at the Aussies right now, nor are they likely to be in future. Can’t say the same for the USA and its cultural imperialism.
On the other hand (and I’m probably running out of hands at this point), many countries don’t have stadia or playing fields big enough for Aussie rules. And those that do, tend to be countries already dominated by rugby and/or soccer.
I wouldn’t rule out rugby league as a potential beneficiary of globalization, either. RL already has its strongholds in parts of Australia and England, and has a firm presence in many other countries. Just as amateur aussie rules (or marngrook football - hey, if gridiron works for the American game, why not marngrook for the Aussie game) is now played in the USA, so is rugby league also now played in the USA.
It’s all very amateur though, neither code has much of a chance of growing into something more professional in the near term.
“That’s where they split. Where the NFL drops a full league in Europe and demands your love for what they’ve done for you, the AFL is attempting to grow its game organically. There are now amateur and semipro footy leagues in 13 different countries, including the U.S. The NFL International site seems to be more about getting other countries to watch NFL games, rather than encouraging people to play American football.”
I think that’s spot on. NFL has become too much about marketing, and not enough about sport. NFL hasn’t really had to develop its own players, like other sports do, either: they pluck them, free of charge, from college football. NFL doesn’t “grok” grassroots development.
Also, the Buffalo Bills’ Ralph Wilson and his ideas to possibly move the Bills to Toronto and pretty much destroy the CFL Argos in the process smacks of not understanding what importance the CFL has in the game of football. After all, players who actually develop in the CFL can move onto the NFl and not cost the NFL a single dime in development costs.
Just ask Jeff Garcia, if he thinks the CFL should be around.
Anyway, good on the Aussies. Great game and far superior action-wise to the NFL.
I definitely agree about the lack of TV coverage for aussie rules. I assume the deal they got with Setanta Sports made sense financially but it doesn’t help grow your game when no one can see it. I think aussie rules would be perfect for Versus right now and the AFL should work hard to get a deal done so it is easier for us fans to watch the game. The really committed fans will do what they have to do to watch it on Setanta but for those of us who enjoy the games but aren’t going to change their whole lives to watch, something more accessible is a necessity. It would also help if the AFL’s video content on their website, provided by Big Pond, worked better. Every time I try to view anything it is slow or doesn’t work at all.
Have a look at footy darts a game about Australian football , Just a 4 stubbie game mate , one per quarter .
Oh yeh don’t worry about the magnetic darts , most people don’t have the skill to shoot a magnetic dart . it takes a lot of skill to propell the dart / ball through the air .
Any way enough crap , Play online http://www.sportsdarts.com.au or grab a game of footy darts , toss the coin , set the timer , and game is on .
Cheer’s
I agree that AFL with spread more than NFL.
But not by much…..Aussie Rules isn’t loved by the whole of Australia. It is mostly popular in Victoria where the league originated and has slowly spread across the other Australian states.
I think it has to first conquer to the other major cities in Australia before it goes abroad.
Football (Soccer) is and will always be the true global and real Football !
You’re wrong ‘Dean K’, Aussie rules isn’t just dominated in Victoria, it’s the most popular sport in Western Australia, Northern Territory and South Australia. Tasmania is even more mad about Aussie Rules than Victoria; I’ll give you my word on that. I live there and we thrive on the game.
‘Sean’ I think you’ll find that there are quite a few players who were born overseas and actually lived in their homeland. Need I mention the Irish born footy players such as Marty Clarke, Colm Begley, Jim Stynes (converted from Gaelic Footy to AFL at age 18) and of course, not to mention Tadhg Kennelly who is a premiership player with the Sydney Swans and has been playing since 1999-. I suggest you get your facts straight before you go ahead and spurt your crap.
And lastly, ‘Jake’, I suggest you do some fact checking. I’m not sure about the other countries you mentioned. But I sure as hell can tell you now that there are no 70+ NFL teams here in Australia, and there definitely isn’t this crap your saying about a World Cup. You’d have to tie us up to think we’d allow that shitty game get into this country when we have a perfectly good one now.