[OFF TOPIC] General Chat

[bmo 265]

56 minutes ago, bmo said:

There is a decent amount of football fans. There is a large Middle Eastern presence near Detroit which helps with that. The main issue is we don’t have a MLS team. Our best team in the Detroit area is Detroit City FC (4th tier I believe). The one match I went to was at Comerica Park (MLB stadium) between Roma & PSG. There was close to 40,000 people there which is close to selling out. There is definitely a passion for football here, but American football, baseball, basketball & hockey are still the top 4 by far. If we did have a MLS team, we could draw decent crowds, but over time I think the passion would start to die. I would love a MLS team, but they would be better off in other cities.

 

When I drive through the city & parks I don’t see anything but basketball courts. Football is just not part of American culture like it is in SA & Europe. Pay to play is another issue in football, but that is with every sport pretty much.

Also, pretty much every sport you play at a super competitive level is year-round. This doesn’t allow for kids to play multiple sports at that high level. We are seeing more 1 sport athletes than ever before. This is hurting football a ton because it is not a “mainstream” sport in America. People say it’s boring, “they just pass back and forth”, “soccer is for pussies”, “soccer isn’t a real sport”, etc. I have heard it all. This discourages some kids from playing & they switch to another sport full time. They might be good at football/soccer, but their parents don’t like watching it, so they encourage them to do something else. Nothing against my dad, but he never offered to pass the football/soccer ball around. He always wanted me to play catch or shoot baskets. Most American parents are like that. Football isn’t in our culture. It will never be in our culture. My rant about football in America is over 

[Olympian1010 8,297]

1 hour ago, bmo said:

There is a decent amount of football fans. There is a large Middle Eastern presence near Detroit which helps with that. The main issue is we don’t have a MLS team. Our best team in the Detroit area is Detroit City FC (4th tier I believe). The one match I went to was at Comerica Park (MLB stadium) between Roma & PSG. There was close to 40,000 people there which is close to selling out. There is definitely a passion for football here, but American football, baseball, basketball & hockey are still the top 4 by far. If we did have a MLS team, we could draw decent crowds, but over time I think the passion would start to die. I would love a MLS team, but they would be better off in other cities.

 

When I drive through the city & parks I don’t see anything but basketball courts. Football is just not part of American culture like it is in SA & Europe. Pay to play is another issue in football, but that is with every sport pretty much.

Quote

Also, pretty much every sport you play at a super competitive level is year-round. This doesn’t allow for kids to play multiple sports at that high level. We are seeing more 1 sport athletes than ever before. This is hurting football a ton because it is not a “mainstream” sport in America. People say it’s boring, “they just pass back and forth”, “soccer is for pussies”, “soccer isn’t a real sport”, etc. I have heard it all. This discourages some kids from playing & they switch to another sport full time. They might be good at football/soccer, but their parents don’t like watching it, so they encourage them to do something else. Nothing against my dad, but he never offered to pass the football/soccer ball around. He always wanted me to play catch or shoot baskets. Most American parents are like that. Football isn’t in our culture. It will never be in our culture. My rant about football in America is over 

 

Yeah, it’s interesting to hear the differences between the Great Lakes and West Coast.
 

We have a FIFA certified Football center in my town (complex of 40 or so pitches for youth and senior level competitions). Our sister town also has their own large park they use as a football center (probably 10-15 pitches). There’s also 3 additional parks that have full size pitches available for use. Football is definitely the most played sport around here.

 

Basketball courts also dot all of our parks as well. I can’t think of a park that doesn’t have a Basketball court. We probably have more youth Basketball clubs than American Football clubs as well.

 

Some of our Football fields double as American Football fields. We have a couple of youth clubs in town, but I think they’ve seen a steep decline in membership as tackle football has become less popular due to the serious risk of major injury.

 

Many of our parks have quality skate parks as well, as California is essentially the spiritual home of Skateboarding.

 

No ice rinks in town, nor in our sister city. We do have a bunch of melted ice rinks (swimming pools) though  

[Dolby 757]

On 28/08/2020 at 12:24, Grassmarket said:

There is a solution for malaria - DDT spraying.  But rich modern countries have forced a ban on it because it kills birds.    So children in poor countries must die to protect birdlife.

To be frank, DDT spraying is less effective when used it in large amounts (mosquitoes become drug resistant). But, there are a number of medications which are quite effective in preventing deaths due to Malaria and are also cheap. One such medication is the much talked about HCQ. 

[Grassmarket 4,296]

11 minutes ago, Dolby said:

To be frank, DDT spraying is less effective when used it in large amounts (mosquitoes become drug resistant). But, there are a number of medications which are quite effective in preventing deaths due to Malaria and are also cheap. One such medication is the much talked about HCQ. 

I used to live in Borneo in the 60s & 70s and they sprayed all ditches - there were a lot, it’s very rainy - every week.  It was very effective, malaria almost disappeared.  Probably some bad health issues for the guys that did that job, though! 
 

Agree about the long-term evolutionary battle, but if they started, or restarted, spraying in Africa they would easily get twenty years of improvement, which is a lot of saved lives.

[Monzanator 5,113]

10 hours ago, bmo said:

I feel like Hockey is hit or miss. Either you like it or you don’t. There are some diehards, but not many “casual sports fans” will watch hockey. It is popular in certain cities, but I have noticed that interest around Detroit has gone down. Fans aren’t filling the seats like they used to at Joe Louis. The atmosphere isn’t the same in “Hockeytown” anymore. The game I attended Joe Louis might have been the best sports experience I have ever had. Crowd was wild & into the game. The Wings were average that year as well. Now, the atmosphere is dead at the new arena. The venue is pretty much half empty at every game.

Red Wings are like the worst NHL team in the last 5 years? People usually turn away when your team sucks especially if you enjoyed a dynasty of sorts not so long before. I suppose driving Steve Yzerman out of town has backfired on Red Wings' front office like nothing else and they still haven't recovered since (or is Yzerman back in Detroit these days?).

 

It's different when the place is dead like Coyotes since I can't believe anyone follows hockey in the desert and I feel like unlike other major leagues, NHL is one league where they ought to stick to NorthEast & Canada. The Kings brought Gretzky before and has it really helped to build a hockey culture in California? I'll say not. Kings must be like the 8th most popular team in LA behind Lakers, Dodgers, Raiders, Rams (even when you consider they were forced to Anaheim back in the day), Trojans and hell, UCLA Bruins are probably more popular than LA Kings? I'd say Kings are only ahead of Chargers in that order. St. Louis Blues feels like the westernmost NHL team where there is any significant hockey following to begin with.

[Federer91 3,381]

So, Godzilla was given Japanese citizenship.  Congrats to the big fella i guess 

 

 

[konig 1,591]

7 hours ago, Federer91 said:

So, Godzilla was given Japanese citizenship.  Congrats to the big fella i guess 

 

 

WTF?

[konig 1,591]

A sadly thing of Latin America is the big criminality, in this case, i supose for the big competition between criminals, here you have the video of the "horse thief", please enjoy.

In the future, may be he use armor, sword or arch.

 

[Grassmarket 4,296]

10 hours ago, Federer91 said:

So, Godzilla was given Japanese citizenship.  Congrats to the big fella i guess 

 

 

Good, he is now liable to be taxed on all the reconstruction costs he has incurred.

[Olympian1010 8,297]

16 minutes ago, Grassmarket said:

Good, he is now liable to be taxed on all the reconstruction costs he has incurred.

So this is how Tokyo plans to finance the rescheduled Olympic Games huh?