CAL AND HAWAII – THE RIGHT MATCH FOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL SYDNEY CUP IN AUSTRALIA
September 5th, 2016
How do you pique a foreign market’s interest in American football? Schedule two teams like the University of California Golden Bears and the University of Hawaii Rainbow Warriors to play each other for the season opener in one of the country’s biggest venues. In this case it was at ANZ Stadium in Sydney, Australia for the College Football Sydney Cup with a reported attendance of 61,247 fans and possibly tens of thousands more watching the broadcast throughout the country. So if you are trying to get a bunch of people in Australia, or any other nation outside of North America, to become hooked on watching this sport you need one word: Excitement.
Let’s face it. If you are trying to get someone who knows nothing about your sport interested in it, the first game you take them to had better be exciting. Cool stuff needs to go down. Otherwise, you will have a tough time convincing them it is worth a second look. Unless you buy them enough beer and sit right in front of the cheerleaders. But what you will typically hear from people in other countries who are not American football fans is that the game is too slow and that they stop playing too often (in addition to the fact that American Football is the most complex team sport on the planet……..minor detail). So the remedy is to take them to a game featuring lots of big plays and lots of scoring. The spread style offenses of Cal and Hawaii definitely delivered in that regard. There were multiple scores in all four quarters of this game to keep the masses entertained. This is how you lure tender new fans into the tangled web of American college football.
By the way, the score was 51 – 31 with Cal defeating Hawaii. The game was played on Saturday August 27th and was broadcast to US markets by ESPN at 12 noon local time. Apparently, the announcers for the US market where not even in the same country which is a curious side note.
In sharp contrast, on Saturday September 3rd we had Georgia Tech defeating Boston College by a score of 17 – 14 in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic. This is a triple option offense against a team known for its vaunted defense. If you a true fan of football you would still want to see how those two teams match up against each other. However, if you are trying to convince your Irish girlfriend that this is the greatest sport in the history of the universe……..she would have fallen asleep on the couch if you were watching at home or would have wandered off to the Guinness tent in the parking lot for another pint if you were at the game.