Cyprus-Forum.com

[Tim Drayton]

oh yeah go to Philadelphia and watch the Eagles play.....and then root against them, there is a courthouse inside the stadium....Unfortunately the police in Cyprus are extremely inept.....

One thing has always puzzled me. In the USA, baseball and American football are hugely popular spectator sports yet you never get this kind of crowd trouble or fighting between fans of rival teams there. Why is this?

Oh

Right, I stand corrected.

[YFred]

TC but I prefer to identify as NC...

What does that make the small number of Turkish-speaking Cypriots who never left Limassol? SCs?

Was there any that never left. Did they not go back in the 80s?

[Tim Drayton]

TC but I prefer to identify as NC...

What does that make the small number of Turkish-speaking Cypriots who never left Limassol? SCs?

Was there any that never left. Did they not go back in the 80s?

I believe that a small number never left. When I say 'small number' I mean a very small number, just a few families. You are right that others have returned. Last summer I took a walk around the old Turkish quarter of Limassol and was astonished, when passing a group of toddlers playing in the street, to hear that they were speaking in the Cypriot dialect of Turkish.

[Tim Drayton]

I may be mistaken and am prepared to stand corrected, but I believe that the Turkish Cypriot owned business shown below, which is located in the old Turkish Cypriot quarter of Limassol, never closed.

[Kikapu]

oh yeah go to Philadelphia and watch the Eagles play.....and then root against them, there is a courthouse inside the stadium....Unfortunately the police in Cyprus are extremely inept.....

One thing has always puzzled me. In the USA, baseball and American football are hugely popular spectator sports yet you never get this kind of crowd trouble or fighting between fans of rival teams there. Why is this?

Oh

Right, I stand corrected.

Tim, don't pay any attention to what "Cowboy" says. Here are the real facts.

Americans being a violent society, you will never know it by the people who go and watch Baseball, American Football, Basketball, Ice Hockey and even Soccer. They are also one of the friendliest people you would meet as strangers, even if it's as superficial as Hollywood is. At the stadiums for all the above mentioned sports, there are never separate sections fenced off for the visiting team's fans from the home team's fans or police escorting visiting team's fans coming and going from the stadium. From this respect, Americans are very mature people when it comes to sports, specially for American Football games, where the fans arrive very early before the game time and start their "Tail Gate" parties. (No, Tim, I'm not talking about orgy scandals.! ) People drive to the stadiums' parking lot and start their grill parties with booze and music. Any fans from out of town are often parked next to the home crowd. There’s never a problem. There is a lot of camaraderie between the home and visiting fans, each wearing their team colours. Losing a game may be disappointing at times, but not to a degree of becoming ballistic and stupid to break things and cause a fight. It just doesn't happen at all in Pro Games, College Games or High School Games.The ONLY time you may have any problems, will come from overzealous parents at "Little League" baseball games while watching their small kids playing baseball.!

[Tim Drayton]

oh yeah go to Philadelphia and watch the Eagles play.....and then root against them, there is a courthouse inside the stadium....Unfortunately the police in Cyprus are extremely inept.....

One thing has always puzzled me. In the USA, baseball and American football are hugely popular spectator sports yet you never get this kind of crowd trouble or fighting between fans of rival teams there. Why is this?

Oh

Right, I stand corrected.

Tim, don't pay any attention to what "Cowboy" says. Here are the real facts.

Americans being a violent society, you will never know it by the people who go and watch Baseball, American Football, Basketball, Ice Hockey and even Soccer. They are also one of the friendliest people you would meet as strangers, even if it's as superficial as Hollywood is. At the stadiums for all the above mentioned sports, there are never separate sections fenced off for the visiting team's fans from the home team's fans or police escorting visiting team's fans coming and going from the stadium. From this respect, Americans are very mature people when it comes to sports, specially for American Football games, where the fans arrive very early before the game time and start their "Tail Gate" parties. (No, Tim, I'm not talking about orgy scandals.! ) People drive to the stadiums' parking lot and start their grill parties with booze and music. Any fans from out of town are often parked next to the home crowd. There’s never a problem. There is a lot of camaraderie between the home and visiting fans, each wearing their team colours. Losing a game may be disappointing at times, but not to a degree of becoming ballistic and stupid to break things and cause a fight. It just doesn't happen at all in Pro Games, College Games or High School Games.The ONLY time you may have any problems, will come from overzealous parents at "Little League" baseball games while watching their small kids playing baseball.!

Thanks Kikapu. I have never been to North America, but this is the picture I had formed. My real point is that football (I mean 'football' in the UK sense) authorities worldwide should study the success of mass spectator sports in the USA and seek to draw on whatever it is they are doing right.

[Vuryek]

TC but I prefer to identify as NC...

What does that make the small number of Turkish-speaking Cypriots who never left Limassol? SCs?

Thats allways a problem to put a letter in front of C. Ok lets imagine that I only used C... better I think

[Paphitis]

TC but I prefer to identify as NC...

What does that make the small number of Turkish-speaking Cypriots who never left Limassol? SCs?

Thats allways a problem to put a letter in front of C. Ok lets imagine that I only used C... better I think

You can use whatever you like Vuryek! Most of us know where you stand and where you heart lies, and that you were meaning C but only used 'NC' to avoid confusion.

[Malapapa]

TC but I prefer to identify as NC...

What does that make the small number of Turkish-speaking Cypriots who never left Limassol? SCs?

Thats allways a problem to put a letter in front of C. Ok lets imagine that I only used C... better I think

You can use whatever you like Vuryek! Most of us know where you stand and where you heart lies, and that you were meaning C but only used 'NC' to avoid confusion.

If you were to use the 'C'-word to describe yourself, I'd know exactly what you mean too, Paphiti.

[Kikapu]

oh yeah go to Philadelphia and watch the Eagles play.....and then root against them, there is a courthouse inside the stadium....Unfortunately the police in Cyprus are extremely inept.....

One thing has always puzzled me. In the USA, baseball and American football are hugely popular spectator sports yet you never get this kind of crowd trouble or fighting between fans of rival teams there. Why is this?

Oh

Right, I stand corrected.

Tim, don't pay any attention to what "Cowboy" says. Here are the real facts.

Americans being a violent society, you will never know it by the people who go and watch Baseball, American Football, Basketball, Ice Hockey and even Soccer. They are also one of the friendliest people you would meet as strangers, even if it's as superficial as Hollywood is. At the stadiums for all the above mentioned sports, there are never separate sections fenced off for the visiting team's fans from the home team's fans or police escorting visiting team's fans coming and going from the stadium. From this respect, Americans are very mature people when it comes to sports, specially for American Football games, where the fans arrive very early before the game time and start their "Tail Gate" parties. (No, Tim, I'm not talking about orgy scandals.! ) People drive to the stadiums' parking lot and start their grill parties with booze and music. Any fans from out of town are often parked next to the home crowd. There’s never a problem. There is a lot of camaraderie between the home and visiting fans, each wearing their team colours. Losing a game may be disappointing at times, but not to a degree of becoming ballistic and stupid to break things and cause a fight. It just doesn't happen at all in Pro Games, College Games or High School Games.The ONLY time you may have any problems, will come from overzealous parents at "Little League" baseball games while watching their small kids playing baseball.!

Thanks Kikapu. I have never been to North America, but this is the picture I had formed. My real point is that football (I mean 'football' in the UK sense) authorities worldwide should study the success of mass spectator sports in the USA and seek to draw on whatever it is they are doing right.

I really do not know what the Europeans can learn from the Americans, since the American Society in general is far more violent than the societies in European countries.

But here are few things to think about.

I think there's just way too much football (soccer) in Europe which tends to overshadow of any other major sports. Soccer is played al the time it seems, from national leagues to Europe leagues to various cup competitions and so on. It is almost around the clock sports. Then you have the problem where there are only few soccer teams in each European country that has all the money to buy all the good players. Predictably, these rich teams are the ones who are competing at the highest level and also the ones who tend to win the most. All the rest of the clubs are just there to make up the numbers and are treated as step child of the whole soccer world. Naturally, supporters of these "poor" teams can have a lot of resentment towards the "richer teams, and the fans of the richer teams also look down on the poorer teams supporters. Then comes the attitude by the "poor" fans is, "if we can't beat you on the field, we'll beat you off the field". Perhaps not consciously, but subconsciously. I think there is a lot of psychology takes part in the lives of the soccer fans, which may well be very destructive at times. Most European soccer fans do not get much time off from the sport to give themselves some different outlook on the sport. They are on the edge most of the time, just because the soccer season never seem to end really.

What happens in the US is somewhat different. All the major sports take a turn to be played. Before football season finishes, basketball season starts, and before Basketball season finishes, Baseball season starts and before Baseball season finishes, the football season starts again overlapping each other for a short time. Ice hockey is a winter sport and indoors. Soccer I believe runs through the summer season. The point is, each major sport takes a break for a good few months. Also, each team are only one or two players away from becoming a great team, therefore all the teams are fairly equal in performance. To maintain this, each year when college players get ready to enter the Pros, they are selected by the teams in a "draft". In football for example, the team that finishes last in the league, gets to pick first for the player (one) of their choosing for the position they most want. Then the team that finished second from the bottom, gets to pick their one special player that they believe they need and so on. The team that won the Super Bowl Championship, gets to pick last. Once the champions pick the player they want, 32nd position, then the rotation goes back to the worst team to pick their next one player and so on. This system keeps the level of talent in each team fairly even, and hence the fact, every team is just one or two players away from becoming a champion. There is also a salary cap for each team, which means, what ever the amount is, that's the max that each team can spend on the players salary. It is a very good system, which gives every fan from every team a chance for their team to become a great team and win games.