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Professional sport is far richer than it has ever been, and yet all sports seem united by a desire to generate even more cash. Cheap Nike Air Max 1 With Free Shipping . The motivation is the same, whether it is in FIFAs wish to expand the World Cup beyond 32 teams, India playing West Indies in a T20I series in Florida, or in the NFL playing three games in October in London.While cricket attempts to take hold in America, so Americas game attempts to grow in England. This year is the tenth consecutive one in which regular season games in American football have been held in London. What began as an idiosyncratic novelty has gradually become an accepted part of the British sporting calendar. The number of games per season in London has risen from one to three and will rise further, to four in 2018. Even as the number of matches has swelled, it has not been able to keep pace with demand.Of the 15 NFL matches that have been played at Wembley Stadium to date, only one has not been a sell-out. Sky Sports now televises more than 100 live games a year, and the average audience has doubled in the past decade. Meanwhile the BBCs highlights show, which launched last year, now receives a total audience of one million. The BBC also shows four live games every year - the three in London and the Super Bowl, the NFLs annual championship game.Games in London are a deliberate loss leader, Alistair Kirkwood, head of NFL Europe, explained earlier this year. The matches make a loss for the NFL because of the costs of paying for the clubs to relocate for a week, and compensating the home club for losing revenue. But the NFL sees this as a short-term investment and envisages matches in Britain ultimately helping to make all 32 clubs richer through more lucrative sponsorship, merchandise sales and commercial rights.Perhaps the most important part of the NFLs approach to growing the game in England is that it is about more than just monetising Americans who have settled across the pond. It is about developing new fans too.For the last two years, the NFL has organised a fans day in Regents Street, central London, using everything from inflatable tackling dummies, cheerleaders and American food and drink to show off the sport to new fans. About half a million people showed up. Most stumbled across the event rather than sought it out, yet in many ways that is the point. It was designed to increase awareness of the NFL among those who knew and cared little for it.Here there are many lessons for cricket. The raft of high-profile cricket events in the USA in the last year - the Warne-Tendulkar Legends series, the staging of Caribbean Premier League games and the West Indies-India internationals - seem to have been designed squarely to make cash out of the expat market. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with that. But there is a problem when a bunch of 1990s stars slugging it out in a baseball stadium is seen as a substitute for a meaningful development strategy.Getting the NFL shown on free-to-air TV - through the BBC highlights show, which is designed for the non-hardcore fan - is central to the sports approach to Britain. Yet so far there have been no attempts to get cricket on free-to-air TV in the States. Indeed, the India-West Indies T20Is were not shown on any TV channel in the USA at all.Nor has there been a substantive attempt - Courtney Walsh bowling to the mayor of Indianapolis doesnt really count - to make cricket accessible, relevant or even known beyond those who already follow the game. Sadly, this is in keeping with the history of the sport in the USA.A lot of focus does tend to go on to the commercial side of things, an ICC source said of those in charge of US cricket two years ago. And when marquee matches have been held in Malaysia, Singapore and even the United Arab Emirates, organisers there too have rarely used them to win new converts to cricket.The most successful sport yet at entering a new market has been basketball in China. It has done so through an enlightened, long-term approach, focusing both on the grassroots and professional game, and the fortuitous emergence of the superstar Yao Ming. The NFLs approach to Britain and elsewhere is being governed by this template.Yet such sophistication has long been absent in crickets approach to growth, which has been impatient and top-down, seldom recognising the importance of engaging children without a national affinity to the sport or the sheer time such expansionism requires before it yields financial rewards.Cricket in the US hasnt developed the same kind of commercial or managerial sophistication as the NBA in China or the NFL in the UK, says Simon Chadwick, a professor of sports enterprise at the University of Salford in England. Cricket needs pitches, players and points of engagement, not just Warne and Tendulkar. The sport needs to give people in the US reasons to watch and reasons to play.The historic failure of those running US cricket is borne out by the terrible participation rates for junior cricketers. There were only 1230 junior cricketers playing in the US in 2014, according to the ICC census. In contrast, there are now 6000 junior players in American football in Britain, plus another 5000 players at universities. This is not just vindication for a decade of matches in London, but also the work that American football has done in establishing itself at grassroots level.Osi Umenyiora, a former NFL star who was born in England, is paid by the NFL to help identify athletes in their late teens and early 20s who could take their skills to American football. While the ICC has taken some important steps to reform American cricket over the last two years - like suspending USACA, whose leadership stymied US cricket for many years, and creating an ICC Americas team to compete in the Caribbean domestic 50-over tournament - transforming grassroots cricket and ending the exclusivity surrounding the sport will take many years.The most important lesson that cricket can learn from this NFL story is that other sports are coming into crickets traditional territories - from the NFL in Britain, to European club football in India - while making a concerted effort to grow in the most lucrative untapped sports market of them all: China.There comes a point when the growth of sports is a zero-sum game. Someone choosing to watch the NFL in Britain or the Premier League in India is doing so instead of watching cricket at that time. Other sports increased popularity could thereby undermine the commercial value of cricket.This is why crickets approach, in the US and beyond, must be about long-term development more than short-term profits. Expanding the sports global footprint is ultimately an insurance policy, a way of reducing a financial over-dependence on India and guarding against a drop in interest in crickets traditional powerhouses. Nike Air Max 1 China Wholesale . Now tied for second in the league in shootout goals, the 24-year-old likes to see what the opposing goaltender has in store before he ultimately lands on a move. Cheap Nike Air Max 1 Shoes . After taking two big hits this week -- losing at home and dropping back-to-back games for the first time all season -- Indiana struck back by playing its most complete game of the year. www.cheapnikeairmax1.com/ . For the Wild it was their first win of the season and they now have a record of 1-1-2 while the Jets fall to 2-2. Jets start a six game home stand Friday with another divisional game, home to the Dallas Stars. PARIS -- Somehow, a classic encounter between Germany and Italy is not the main attraction of the quarterfinal-stage at the European Championship.Icelands next act in what is already one of the most surprising stories in European Championship history is the match thats drawing most attention.Can the team, which surprised so many by beating England 2-1 in the round of 16, do the same to host France when they meet at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis?The island nation of just 330,000 people has undoubtedly taken the spotlight from all the others in the final eight, including Wales, which other times would be basking in its underdog status. And its overshadowed other themes, such as Cristiano Ronaldos quest for an elusive first title with Portugal.Heres a look at how the Euro 2016 drama is peaking after what most concede to have been a lackluster group stage:---MANIC MONDAYA truly memorable day in European Championship history whetted appetites for the quarterfinals.Two-time defending champion Spain lost to an Italian team thats defied its old reputation for dour, defensive play.That was just a warm-up act.Icelands 2-1 victory over England is one of the most surprising results in European Championship history. After all, as England great Gary Lineker quipped on Twitter, Iceland has more volcanoes than professional soccer players.---ICE, ICE, BABYNext up for Iceland: France in its national stadium on Sunday. Now, home fans are starting to believe their team can replicate the Euro 1984 and 1998 World Cup teams by winning on home soil.But, given what happened to England, and others, French fans will likely be a little wary now about the match that concludes the quarterfinals.Iceland, in its first appearance at the European Championship, has other achievements to brag about. The team also drew 1-1 with Portugal, daring to celebrate to the seeming annoyance of Ronaldo.Then came the late drama of Icelands last two group games against Hungary and Austria; the global discovery of national TVs hysterical match commentator; culminating in the delicious upset of England.---GERMANY CRUISINGQuietly, ominously, Germany cruised into the quarterfinals without conceding a goal.Italy coach Antonio Conte says the 2014 World Cup winner is the best team in France, which is part-truth and part-psychological.If one team can intimidate Germany, its Italy.Italys 2-1 win in a Euroo 2012 semifinal extended a tradition of German losses that includes World Cup semifinals in 2006 and 1970, and the 1982 World Cup final. Cheap Nike Air Max 1 Wholesale. Italy has played two top-class teams at Euro 2016 -- Belgium and Spain -- and comfortably won both 2-0---GOLDEN YEARSIf not now, then when for Belgium?A so-called golden generation is finally shining ahead of playing a Gareth Bale-inspired Wales that is united and must not be underestimated.Belgium failed to impress at the 2014 World Cup when tamely losing a quarterfinal to Argentina, and its inhibited play in losing to Italy in the first game of the group stage looked more of the same.Since then, Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne have starred in three straight wins -- the combined score, 8-0.However, how good were those opponents? Ireland, Sweden and Hungary all came through the Euro 2016 playoffs and would not have qualified under the old 16-team format.Wales need not fear Belgium in Fridays match after they advanced through the same qualifying group. Wales drew 0-0 in Brussels, then won 1-0 at home with Bale scoring.Belgium is unlikely to be short of fans. After all, the match takes place in Lille, near the Belgian border. And Hazard is a local hero, having started out his career in the city.---CRISTIANOS QUESTAt 31, this is likely Ronaldos last good chance to win a trophy with Portugal, an achievement that could propel him to another Ballon dOr over great rival Lionel Messi.Now at his seventh finals tournament, Ronaldo came closest at his first, but the Euro 2004 host lost in the final to Greece.A quarterfinal against Poland and a so-far misfiring Robert Lewandowski is an offer Portugal would surely have taken before the tournament. Belgium or Wales await the winner.---GETTING BETTEREuro 2016 picked up welcome momentum in a round of 16 spread over three days, each one having its own distinct character.Saturdays slow start slumped to a dire end; on Sunday, the big boys roughed up the underdogs; Monday peaked with two compelling dramas.The first half of the tournament was memorable mostly for the fans: A happy, noisy and friendly majority, but with nasty outbreaks of fighting and flare-throwing.The final two weeks needs to be remembered for the quality of the games and the goals. cheap falcons jerseys cheap ravens jerseys cheap bills jerseys cheap bears jerseys cheap bengals jerseys cheap cowboys jerseys cheap lions jerseys cheap texans jerseys cheap colts jerseys cheap jaguars jerseys cheap chiefs jerseys cheap rams jerseys cheap dolphins jerseys cheap vikings jerseys cheap saints jerseys cheap giants jerseys cheap jets jerseys cheap eagles jerseys cheap steelers jerseys cheap 49ers jerseys ' ' '