IT was back in 1992 that Gay Mitchell first suggested Dublin should try to host the Olympics – a ludicrous suggestion and one that came to mind this week when the story about the Pittsburgh Steelers playing in Dublin sprouted its head.
Not just any game, mind. No, the buzz was that this would be a regular season fixture, not one of those pre-season walk-throughs where the star players play a quarter at best - and at half-pace at that - before being benched for the remainder of the afternoon.
Yeah? Really? Ok guys, whatever.
Here's a few reasons why that ain't gonna happen any time soon. First up? Money, baby. Why would the NFL come to lil ol' Ireland when it could dump its wares on a mega-market like the UK (which it has been doing), or Germany.
Over 80 million people live in Germany. Sixty million are in the UK. Ireland's population is, what, four million? And even that is probably on the way south given the new wave of emigration that has unfolded.
Not exactly a key demographic, are we?
The Germans are mad for gridiron. When NFL Europe folded four years ago, five out of the six sides were based there (the Amsterdam Admirals were the other) and the sheer size of the country makes it a leading contender to host any potential tie.
Added to our European neighbours are the claims of Mexico where the one and only regular season game to be played there attracted 103,467 people to the Azteca Stadium and Canada which is similarly festooned with NFL addicts.
The Buffalo Bills have already taken a number of their home games away from the upstate New York area and across the border to Toronto. Buffalo have been awful for years and Canada has its own version of the NFL and yet the Bills still get huge crowds.
Ireland? Give me a break. We had the same palaver a few years ago when there was talk of bringing an F1 race to the island and Bernie Ecclestone killed that myth off quickly by saying the economics just didn't add up so let's all get real here.
All this Pittsburgh talk has been based squarely on the convenient fact that the club's former owner is Dan Rooney, an Irish-American and currently Barack Obama's representative in the Phoenix Park but this is aspirational stuff at best.
A flyer as we call it in the media.
Did you see any Steelers representative quoted in the story when it emerged this week? No, you did not. What did you see but a source from Mary Hanafin's department who was never going to come out and say that it was mere pie in the sky.
Even Croke Park were forced to dilute the fervour.
Bottom line? If you want to see an American football game in the near future and don't want/can't afford a trip to the USA then take in Navy-Notre Dame in the Aviva next year or put your name down for the next instalment at Wembley later this year.
Oh yeah, that's if the threatened NFL player strike which shows no sign of being resolved just now doesn't put paid to the season, or most of it.
See? Dublin? Not. Going. To. Happen.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/GVbWQf8oPsM/post.aspx
Lee Carsley Radio industry Bank of England Argentina Dmitry Medvedev Alex Reid
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