2021年经济学人 衰落的足球，缩水的利益（在线收听）

The Americas

美洲版块

Cnandian football

加拿大足球

Shrinking balls, shrinking interest

衰落的足球，缩水的利益

Canadian football is wasting away

加拿大足球正在消亡

IN CANADA, FOOTBALL (meaning the Canadian version of the American sort) generally comes far below ice hockey in terms of the emotions it generates.

在加拿大，足球（加拿大版的美式足球）带来的观众情绪远低于冰球。

The latter occasionally sparks riots by demented young fans; the former is watched mostly by a dedicated but older crowd, who huddle in cold stadiums with Thermos flasks.

冰球偶尔会引发疯狂年轻粉丝的骚乱，而足球经常是年龄大一些的忠实观众，抱着保温杯挤在冰冷的球场里。

But it is not for lack of effort by its promoters. In the 1990s the Canadian Football League’s (CFL) marketers tried to attract American football fans with the slogan “Our balls are bigger”.

但这并不是因为发起人缺乏努力。上世纪90年代，加拿大橄榄球联盟的营销人员试图用“我们的球更大”这样的口号来吸引美国球迷。

Last year the pandemic stopped the league entirely, but this year the games restarted and they are trying again.

去年，疫情让联赛完全停摆，今年的比赛重新开始，他们正在进行又一次尝试。

October 11th, Canadian Thanksgiving, will be a big day of sport. It is a chance to boost the fanbase.

10月11号是加拿大的感恩节，也是足球界的大日子，同时也是扩大粉丝基础的好时机。

Canadian football differs from the American variant in that its teams are of 12, not 11, players and the playing field is somewhat larger (the balls were bigger once but since 2018 have been the same size).

加拿大足球与美国足球的不同之处在于，加拿大的球队有12名球员，而不是11名球员，而且比赛场地更大（之前球也更大，但自2018年以来一直保持同样的大小）。

The rules slightly differ too. The season usually starts in June, when the NFL, America’s league, is not running.

规则也略有不同，加拿大足球赛季通常在6月份开始，那时美国国家橄榄球联盟（NFL）正在休赛。

The sport has been in decline for years, particularly beyond the interior plains, its heartland.

这项运动多年来一直在衰落，尤其是其核心区域内陆平原以外的地区。

The BC Lions, a team based in Vancouver, drew an average of 18,000 fans to its games at BC Place in 2019.

总部位于温哥华的BC雄狮队2019年在卑诗体育馆的比赛平均吸引了1.8万名球迷。

Fifteen years ago they routinely had twice as many.

15年以前，他们的粉丝数量是这个数字的两倍多。

Derek Mager, a data analyst who consults for CFL teams, describes the fans as mostly hardy old timers: “They’ve been doing it for as long as they can remember and as long as their grandparents can remember.”

德里克·马格尔是一名为加拿大橄榄球联盟（CFL）提供咨询的数据分析师，他认为大多数球迷是顽强的老一辈人：“从他们记事起，从祖父母记事起，他们就一直在这么做。”

Executives such as Amar Doman, the new owner of the BC Lions, hope that they can bring in new blood.

BC雄狮队的新东家阿马尔?多曼（Amar Doman）等高管希望他们能带来新鲜血液。

In 2019, before the pandemic shut things down, the league recruited players from Europe and Mexico in the hope of bringing in an audience outside Canada.

2019年，疫情导致各项活动停办之前，该联盟从欧洲和墨西哥招募了球员，希望能吸引加拿大以外的观众。

It has also signed television broadcast deals in the United States and in Mexico to simulcast Canadian games.

它还在美国和墨西哥签署了电视转播协议，实时转播加拿大的比赛。

Earlier this year the CFL announced that it was in talks on a partnership with the XFL, an alternative American football league owned in part by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, a Hollywood star. It came to nothing.

今年早些时候，加拿大橄榄球联盟宣布正在与XFL洽谈合作事宜，XFL是一家由好莱坞明星德韦恩·“巨石”约翰逊（Dwayne“the Rock”Johnson）部分持股的另类美式足球联盟。结果一无所获。

Years ago the NFL and the CFL used to compete for talent, most notably in 1991 when Raghib “Rocket” Ismail, a star player for Notre Dame, an American university, passed up a spot in the NFL and took $26m to play in Toronto instead.

几年前，美国橄榄球联盟和加拿大橄榄球联盟经常争夺人才，最引人注目的是1991年，当时美国圣母大学的明星球员拉吉布·“火箭”·伊斯梅尔（Raghib“Rocket”Ismail）放弃了美国橄榄球联盟的一个席位，转而拿了2600万美元去多伦多打球。

Nowadays salaries in the NFL are over 30 times higher than further north. Canadian football has to compete not only with other sports, but also with Netflix and the like.

如今，美国国家橄榄球联盟的薪水比更靠北的地方高出30多倍。加拿大足球不仅要与其他运动竞争，还要与Netflix（美国奈飞公司）等公司竞争。

It will take more than a Hail Mary pass to turn it around.

要想扭转局面需要的不仅仅是孤注一掷（万福玛利亚传球指成功几率非常小的远距离传球，不太可能成功的无奈之举）。