http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/...-southampton-commercial-idUKBREA2D1CA20140314 I'm sure Dan aans GBS may enjoy some NFL-related Saints talk. DTLW
Green Bay is a small market team (Green Bay has less than half the population of Southampton) and is fan-owned (in the Portsmouth sense of run by businessmen but the shareholders are fans, so technically) rather than being a big city, billionaire-owned franchise team. It seems quite humble compared to, say, the Kraft Patriots dynasty, and has a sentimental spot to a lot of people because of that. I suppose the comparison with us is that we're quite plucky and people tend to like us too?
What, far inferior to a team in the same 'region' who play in a darker colour? (for the purposes of this post, I'm defining NFC North as a 'region')
Well, every NFL team is, they're all extremely successful money makers, I think he's purely referring to the sentiment/likeable (is that a word..?) factor.
But owing to the way the NFL works, there is no such thing as a plucky, small-market team. League-wide revenues and the salary cap ensure that you could put a team in the middle of the Alaskan tundra and it'd turn a profit.
Yeah, as I stated above. Similar to how we're billionaire-owned but still have a "plucky underdog" image. Not that the Packers are underdogs anyway, they're extremely successful in both the modern and historical game.
There is a stereotype in the US that Midwest fans and teams are the best. The East Coast fans are passionate, but hateful. They all turn on their players and team when they don't play well. They hate their rivals more than they like their own team. Philadelphia for example, is famous for booing Santa Claus. The East Coast teams get all the media so their players are always all over the papers and over-rated. Just a lot of drama. In contrast, the West Coast fans are too casual because when the weather is nice there are too many other things going on. They like their teams but they aren't diehard fans. They also play flashy games because they don't have to deal with freezing temperatures. And they get all the Hollywood celebrities at their games. So like the Lakers play fast break basketball that they called "Showtime." The West Coast teams supposedly are wimps, whereas the East Coast teams are bullies and dirty players. The Midwest teams play hard, but fair. The fans are diehard but respectful. They value teamwork and players who work hard. They love their teams through thick and thin. Their teams succeed because they play "the right way" and they run their organizations well. They don't have the largest media markets but they make up for that via passion and the respect they get from across the nation. The Saint Louis Cardinals in baseball and the Green Bay Packers in football are the epitome of that image. Both storied franchises with long records of success. Of course most of this is total BS. But that's why Krueger is bringing up the Packers.
You raise a good point: at least he didn't compare us to Cardinals fans. They have turned humblebragging smug into an artform.
If Southampton earns the nickname title town and the premier league trophy gets renamed the Mauricio Pochettino Trophy then we will be laughing. The story of Green Bay surviving against bigger cities and richer owners is a great one, but the reason for their survival is a simple one and that's success. If they hadn't of won all their titles in the formative years of american football then the town wouldn't of got behind the team with such enthusiasm. I agree with Ralph that the club needs to try and capitalise on the commercial aspect both here and abroad, but you can only truly make money if your team is successful on the pitch. Man Utd & Liverpool are not the biggest clubs in this country just because they wear red.
I think he's trying to say that the Green Bay Packers have managed to punch above their weight, considering where the franchise is located there are roughly 120,000 people living there (same as Basingstoke, where I live to put it into perspective!). They have a well recognised name, brand, style of play and are able to attract top quality players even though they aren't like some of the bigger names (Broncos, Patriots, Seahawks, Saints etc). If we can find a market for our size of club, and can get anywhere near what Green Bay has become as an entity (Branding, Players, Stadium, Fanbase) we'll be just fine.
Hit the nail on the head there Kingsland. To sell out a 80k stadium every game when the population of their city is only 105k is pretty impressive too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay,_Wisconsin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambeau_field They clearly have the support of their wider metropolitan area due to lack of any other top level sports teams for miles. Now, where does this sound familiar....
