Americans and Sports


is the ground in chicago ? one of me bro in laws used to live there, was having a tour round city and assed a ground ( was a college one, almost certain ), was massive, stunned by size for college team . Didnt realise magnitude of the college game.
No, it's in Champaign which is about a 2 hour drive south. It's definitely not worth checking out! The Bears play in Soldier Field right on the lake near the heart of the city next to the museums. That's probably what you saw. That stadium is huge and still is just about the smallest in the NFL! Northwestern U is in Evanston, the town immediately north of Chicago. They are in the Big 10 like Illinois but are a private school a lower enrollment and have a much smaller built in alumni base than the rest of the conference. Their stadium still seats like 50,000. Michigan's stadium is ridiculously large. Seats close to 110,000 and it's just one bowl. It's insane and Michigan State's stadium also holds 75,000. Football isn't even wildly popular in Michigan compared to the South. Then again a high end college team only plays 7 or 8 home games a season. It's not a huge time or financial commitment for the fans/alumni that live within driving distance.


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Let me try. College football starts in late August, the main season wraps up around early December, most teams play a dozen games. There are also post-season games after that, more later.

There are a variety of levels, and I think close to 1,000 colleges with teams. The main level is NCAA Division I -FBS. That has about 130 teams in 10 leagues (more frequently called conferences). The leagues have some history - there are schools that have been in the same league together for over 100 years - but there was a big realignment about 25 years ago. Schools play about nine games in their league, and the rest in 'non-conference' games. Each league ends its season with a championship game between the top two teams - most leagues are divided into two regional divisions and the best record in each gets to the championship. Five of the leagues - The Southeastern Conference, the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big Ten, the Big 12, and the Pac-12 - are considered the best leagues, and referred to as "the Power Five." These are the biggest programs, mostly from big state research institutions, with big stadiums. Roughly 15 of them, mostly in the SEC and Big 10, have stadiums of over 80,000 capacity.

During the regular season in autumn, nearly every Power Five game is televised, and a large chunk of the other FBS games are, as well. So on a typical Saturday in October, games start on television at about 9 a.m. Pacific, and don't end until 10 p.m. that night, and you usually have close to 40 or more to choose from. If I have a free Saturday, I'll typically watch 2 or 3 games in full, and parts of others.

The post-season is where it gets weird. It starts with those conference championship games mentioned earlier, played in early December. After that, a selection committee chooses the top four teams for a playoff for the national championship in early January. And if that seems strange, note that until the early 90s, the championship was unofficial and chosen by two separate polls, one of coaches, one of media. Teams who had a winning record and didn't make the top four typically get invited to a "Bowl" game, mostly played between Christmas and New Year's in warm-weather sites. It counts on a team's record, but it really a hyped up exhibition game. There are about 40 of those. There is discussion of expanding the playoff to eight schools - each of the Power Five champions would get an automatic spot, and the committee would chose the top champion from the other five leagues, plus two at-large teams. I would like this as my main team is Boise State, in Idaho. I didn't go there (I went to a Division II school), but my son and other relatives did. Boise State plays in the Mountain West, an FBS league not in the Power Five, and would be a regular contender for that sixth playoff berth. To be fair, there probably isn't a good way to account for all 130 teams, but there are lots of complaints about the present format.

The biggest teams lately are Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State. All have been in the playoff multiple years. Most of the Southeastern Conference, or SEC, is very strong, this is Alabama's league, and typically has four or five of the top 10 teams nationally. My 'second' team is South Carolina, for reasons that date back to the mid-1980s. They are in the SEC, but haven't been particularly good the last couple years. I can watch pretty much every Boise State and South Carolina game on TV. I've been to a handful of Boise State games, it's a 9-hour drive each way. South Carolina is 3 time zones away, hoping to fly back sometime in the next couple years. Playing to fly out to Wyoming in September to watch a game against Montana State - youngest son goes to school at Montana State, which plays at a lower level, and we have family friends that are Wyoming people.
The loyalty and passion is college football is probably the strongest of any US sport, especially in the south and midwest. It has it's quirky traditions of tailgates and chants and pre-game rituals. Some are corny, but they are mostly authentic. Louisiana State used to have a live Bengal tiger in a cage right by the tunnel where the opposing team ran out.

And as for Nebraska, their glory years have passed, been rough for them the last decade or so. They were a power from the 50s to the 90s. One of the stands behind the end zone looks a lot like the Roker End did, just with bench seats rather than terraces. I've been in the stadium, never seen a game there. It holds just over 80,000.

Probably more than you asked for, but once I got rolling, hard to stop.
Excellent stuff! Bring on August! I work in University sector so will choose a team based on good academic departments in my field.
 
Let me try. College football starts in late August, the main season wraps up around early December, most teams play a dozen games. There are also post-season games after that, more later.

There are a variety of levels, and I think close to 1,000 colleges with teams. The main level is NCAA Division I -FBS. That has about 130 teams in 10 leagues (more frequently called conferences). The leagues have some history - there are schools that have been in the same league together for over 100 years - but there was a big realignment about 25 years ago. Schools play about nine games in their league, and the rest in 'non-conference' games. Each league ends its season with a championship game between the top two teams - most leagues are divided into two regional divisions and the best record in each gets to the championship. Five of the leagues - The Southeastern Conference, the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big Ten, the Big 12, and the Pac-12 - are considered the best leagues, and referred to as "the Power Five." These are the biggest programs, mostly from big state research institutions, with big stadiums. Roughly 15 of them, mostly in the SEC and Big 10, have stadiums of over 80,000 capacity.

During the regular season in autumn, nearly every Power Five game is televised, and a large chunk of the other FBS games are, as well. So on a typical Saturday in October, games start on television at about 9 a.m. Pacific, and don't end until 10 p.m. that night, and you usually have close to 40 or more to choose from. If I have a free Saturday, I'll typically watch 2 or 3 games in full, and parts of others.

The post-season is where it gets weird. It starts with those conference championship games mentioned earlier, played in early December. After that, a selection committee chooses the top four teams for a playoff for the national championship in early January. And if that seems strange, note that until the early 90s, the championship was unofficial and chosen by two separate polls, one of coaches, one of media. Teams who had a winning record and didn't make the top four typically get invited to a "Bowl" game, mostly played between Christmas and New Year's in warm-weather sites. It counts on a team's record, but it really a hyped up exhibition game. There are about 40 of those. There is discussion of expanding the playoff to eight schools - each of the Power Five champions would get an automatic spot, and the committee would chose the top champion from the other five leagues, plus two at-large teams. I would like this as my main team is Boise State, in Idaho. I didn't go there (I went to a Division II school), but my son and other relatives did. Boise State plays in the Mountain West, an FBS league not in the Power Five, and would be a regular contender for that sixth playoff berth. To be fair, there probably isn't a good way to account for all 130 teams, but there are lots of complaints about the present format.

The biggest teams lately are Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State. All have been in the playoff multiple years. Most of the Southeastern Conference, or SEC, is very strong, this is Alabama's league, and typically has four or five of the top 10 teams nationally. My 'second' team is South Carolina, for reasons that date back to the mid-1980s. They are in the SEC, but haven't been particularly good the last couple years. I can watch pretty much every Boise State and South Carolina game on TV. I've been to a handful of Boise State games, it's a 9-hour drive each way. South Carolina is 3 time zones away, hoping to fly back sometime in the next couple years. Playing to fly out to Wyoming in September to watch a game against Montana State - youngest son goes to school at Montana State, which plays at a lower level, and we have family friends that are Wyoming people.
The loyalty and passion is college football is probably the strongest of any US sport, especially in the south and midwest. It has it's quirky traditions of tailgates and chants and pre-game rituals. Some are corny, but they are mostly authentic. Louisiana State used to have a live Bengal tiger in a cage right by the tunnel where the opposing team ran out.

And as for Nebraska, their glory years have passed, been rough for them the last decade or so. They were a power from the 50s to the 90s. One of the stands behind the end zone looks a lot like the Roker End did, just with bench seats rather than terraces. I've been in the stadium, never seen a game there. It holds just over 80,000.

Probably more than you asked for, but once I got rolling, hard to stop.
Have they thought about a cup competition where teams from all over the land could compete to qualify. Or be pre selected to compete on the basis of their previous standing.

Once selected they could play a series of play off\ knock out matches to progress t towards a show piece final

You'd be surprised how many times the so called elite look like shite even against semi pro or amateurs
 
Have they thought about a cup competition where teams from all over the land could compete to qualify. Or be pre selected to compete on the basis of their previous standing.

Once selected they could play a series of play off\ knock out matches to progress t towards a show piece final

You'd be surprised how many times the so called elite look like shite even against semi pro or amateurs
They do this in basketball with the March Madness tournament. It's class seeing some of the smaller schools giving the bigger programs a kicking.
Football seems to be stuck in its ways for now unfortunately
 
Have they thought about a cup competition where teams from all over the land could compete to qualify. Or be pre selected to compete on the basis of their previous standing.

Once selected they could play a series of play off\ knock out matches to progress t towards a show piece final

You'd be surprised how many times the so called elite look like shite even against semi pro or amateurs

No cup competition, in part because the logistics of moving 80 people across a large country on short notice would be a nightmare. But there are some of those matchups in the regular season. Most of them are 'money' games, the bigger program gives the smaller one a financial guarantee, sometimes pushing toward $1 million, because the bigger program can still make money off an extra home game. On occasion, there's big upsets there. There's a second tier to Division I football that has it own championship, typical schools there might get 10,000 people a game. North Dakota State, which plays in an indoor stadium that holds about 17,000, has beaten a number of top-tier teams. I work at a Division II school, we dropped football about a decade ago, but we had a couple wins against schools from the second tier of Division I, including one where our opponent was opening up a new stadium and we were brought in to be the cannon fodder.

The post-season basketball tournament, where Division I is just one tier of about 350 schools, kind of has the feel of a cup competition - 68 teams, about half of which get in by winning their leagues, regardless of how small-time the league is. There are always a couple big upsets in the early rounds.
 
I’ll try to answer as best I can. Teams do have fans and there are season tickets that are sold. Fans are spread all over the place in this country. I was born is Virginia far away from Washington DC. From birth I essentially inherited my parents loyalties to the teams in Pittsburgh since there were no local teams where I was born. With no fear of relegation or the excitement of promotion, my weekends aren’t even dented in the slightest if any of them lose. Teams that lose consistently over here are rewarded with a high draft pick in of itself has a high value attached to it.

In comparison My weekends take a huge hit when the lads let me down.

I follow the Carolina Panthers and i was in the wired position of being upset when they won against Washington late in the season, knocking our draft position from 3rd to 8th.
 
They are very common. They are all but mandatory for the NFL and the better teams in the other sports. The better teams might hold back a handful of tickets for general sale, but they will be at the top of the stadium and still cost a fortune. I know in the Michael Jordan era, the Bulls season ticket waiting list was two to three times the actual capacity of the arena. Then he left and within a year the arena was lucky to be two-thirds full.

Now plenty of season tickets are gobbled up by corporations and ticket brokers, so it's often easy to find tickets on secondary markets, but it could cost you a fortune.
I’ll add in that NFL teams have only 8 home games. That makes each game important As a season ticket holder.
Austin, Texas. Population around 900k. No NFL, NBA, NFL or NHL team. Only just getting a MLS team. College football stadium has an official 100k capacity, soon to be bumped to 112k.

Think something like 22 states (including Hawaii and Alaska in that) don't have an NFL team. It's likely why franchising and closed systems work for America. NFL is likely the peak money maker as they play the fewest games. Many neutrals can and will watch a game. Not many neutrals will watch MLB games as there's so many played in a season that you'll just about have time to watch your own team. Basketball might be a mix. Quite a lot more games than the NFL, but still half of what the MLB play so might get neutrals watching a big mid season match up.
There’s high school foot teams in Texas that draw some crazy numbers. Football is life in Texas
 
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In the NFL the worst team today can quickly become one of the best, because of the draft and salary caps. So it's not so much like here where players will always leave a low end team for a Manchester United etc.

For example in 2011 the Panthers had the 1st pick and the Broncos had the 2nd, because they were both shit. Then in 2015 they played each other in the super bowl. Worst to best in 4 years.
Plus the schedule for a lower finishing team is easier the following year.
 
There’s high school foot teams in Texas that draw some crazy numbers. Football is life in Texas

Oldest son moved to east Texas for a new job last summer. He's near Longview, a city of about 80,000. The high school in the city has sent something like 23 players to the NFL. Stadium holds about 7,000. They have a season-ticket base, and single-game tickets go on sale Tuesday for Friday night games. If you don't buy Tuesday, you probably won't get in.

And 7,000 is nothing, lots of places over 10,000 seats, a couple pushing 20,000.

Basketball is similar in some places. Town of 14,000 where my kids went to school drew 3,000 for the basketball game between the public and private school two years ago, group of us arrived two hours early and still ended up sitting in the top row.
 
One other note about tailgates - especially in college football. There is not one area or a parking lot where there is a tailgate. The entire TOWN turns into a complete party / carnival on game day, of which there are about 8 per year for any given team.

I went to Michigan, which was pictured above and has gotten 115k in the gates recently, despite being perennial underachievers. At least 5 times that many people will be partying at the pubs, tailgates, houses, etc across town from the crack of dawn, until well into the night - especially if they win. Many people live right there, so there is no issue with driving etc. You walk up to the game from your house. Obviously the students lead the charge here, but there are plenty of adults who live in town as well.

There's truly nothing like seeing that atmosphere - have done a few in the south as well - Tennesee, Texas - a great time.
 
Some of our American based posters might be best placed to shed a bit more light on this, @burchmackem, @NYMackem, @njmackem etc...

With your various sports, franchises, conferences, teams moving across country etc - Do Americans actually get it? Are they just sports fans, or do they have supporters?

Take for instance when the Dodgers left Brooklyn - what the frig happened to their fans? Did they even have any? Were people upset?

More recently the Raiders have bounced from Oakland, to LA, back to Oakland, and now reside in a swanky new stadium in Las Vegas. This is a team with 3 Superbowls to it's name. Have all their fans bounced along with them? The ever faithful cross the Sierra Nevada every other week to cheer them on?

Do season ticket holders exist? Would Phase 3 ever be a thing?

Do grown men cry when success/abject failure rears it's head in the post-season?

Do fathers pass their loyalties onto their sons?

Are weekends completely ruined when their team loses?

Do they care?
Winnipeg Jets in 1999 come from Atlanta.
The old Winnipeg moved to Phoenix.
The fans didn’t follow them out of Winnipeg and they were happy as fuck when the franchise returned
One other note about tailgates - especially in college football. There is not one area or a parking lot where there is a tailgate. The entire TOWN turns into a complete party / carnival on game day, of which there are about 8 per year for any given team.

I went to Michigan, which was pictured above and has gotten 115k in the gates recently, despite being perennial underachievers. At least 5 times that many people will be partying at the pubs, tailgates, houses, etc across town from the crack of dawn, until well into the night - especially if they win. Many people live right there, so there is no issue with driving etc. You walk up to the game from your house. Obviously the students lead the charge here, but there are plenty of adults who live in town as well.

There's truly nothing like seeing that atmosphere - have done a few in the south as well - Tennesee, Texas - a great time.
It’s called a white out in Winnipeg. They close streets off, put up tv screens around the city and allow outdoor drinking
 
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No cup competition, in part because the logistics of moving 80 people across a large country on short notice would be a nightmare. But there are some of those matchups in the regular season. Most of them are 'money' games, the bigger program gives the smaller one a financial guarantee, sometimes pushing toward $1 million, because the bigger program can still make money off an extra home game. On occasion, there's big upsets there. There's a second tier to Division I football that has it own championship, typical schools there might get 10,000 people a game. North Dakota State, which plays in an indoor stadium that holds about 17,000, has beaten a number of top-tier teams. I work at a Division II school, we dropped football about a decade ago, but we had a couple wins against schools from the second tier of Division I, including one where our opponent was opening up a new stadium and we were brought in to be the cannon fodder.

The post-season basketball tournament, where Division I is just one tier of about 350 schools, kind of has the feel of a cup competition - 68 teams, about half of which get in by winning their leagues, regardless of how small-time the league is. There are always a couple big upsets in the early rounds.
Right so none pro sport is where you might watch real competitions
 

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