American sports in Australia

In the 1990s, American sports such as baseball and basketball seemed on the verge of becoming major players in the Australian sports market. Both have since fallen away.

The rise and fall of the American sports could be directly linked to the relative popularity of America in Australia. In the 90s, America was very fashionable, and baseball and basketball rode on that fashion. As is always the case; however, fashions follow a cycle of boom and bust. Where once being American was cool, now it is not and American sports have suffered accordingly.

Aside from America currently being unfashionable, the American sports also suffer as they don't have regular international competition. With the exception of Australian football, Australians like to watch sports that pit Australia against the best players from the world's leading nation. Potentially, the American sports could offer this, but their power bases are in America and Americans prefer the outside world to watch their domestic leagues, not have their representative teams being tested by the outside world.

Baseball

Baseball has a long history in Australia, but one that has never really taken off. It was brought to Australia by American gold miners in the 1850s. The climate of the time was very pro-American. So much so, the Labor Party used American spelling in order to associate itself with the progressive ideals of America, and distance itself from theconservative ideals of England.

Despite the popularity of the US, baseball never took off. Cricket remained the dominant summertime sport; perhaps because it offered international competition. To avoid direct competition with cricket, baseball was usually played in winter, and cricket players used baseball to keep their skills up.

In the 80s, baseball made an assertive move by becoming a summertime sport, and creating a national league. As the mood of the time was very pro-US, baseball was able to position itself as the trendiest game on the block. Baseball caps were all the rage, advertisers showed kids in baseball attire, and it was cool to have commentators use words like "offence" and "defence" for a non-contact sport.

In the 93/94 season, the Australian Baseball League seemed on the verge of challenging cricket. Average attendance was nearly 4,000, total attendance reached 500,000 and more than one million persons watched baseball on television. From a spectator point of view, these figures showed that domestic baseball was more popular than domestic cricket.

Less than five years later, the ABL had collapsed. As a sport built on fashion, baseball benefitted from the boom, but also suffered from the inevitable bust. Furthermore, without regular international competition, baseball didn’t have the media profiling players likely to represent Australia, didn't have the media making national heroes out of players, and didn’t have a team to keep flying the sport's flag once the domestic league fell over.

While Australian baseball is irrelevant from a spectator point of view, it still has some potential. In 2003, there were roughly 57,000 Australians playing baseball in around 5000 teams. These teams produced the players that defeated Cuba at the 1999 Intercontinental Cup, and won the silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Even though Australia's playing strength is strong, the prospect of a national baseball league is unlikely. The current market situation is even more competitive than it was in the 90s, and any attempt to establish a league would end in failure. Perhaps baseball's best hope to grow would be if a Sydney team entered one of Japan's baseball leagues and drew support Australia wide, and from east Asian tourists. Shared time zones, and significant trade between Australia and Japan would make such an arrangement appealing to television broadcasters and sponsors.

Basketball

Like it was for baseball, the 90s were very good for basketball. It was one of the most watched sports on TV, had a very successful national league, and was very popular amongst young people. Many basketball fans even felt their game was in a position to challenge Australian football for the title of Australia's most popular sport. Today, basketball is not on TV and many of the teams have gone bankrupt. Media, corporate and spectator interest is low.

Like baseball, basketball suffered due to America falling out of fashion. Aside from its image problems, basketball probably suffers due to comparisons to Australian football. In some respects, basketball is like an indoor version of football, except that it lacks the physical component, and unpredictability.

Gridiron

Australia's first organized gridiron teams were established in 1984. By 1995, gridiron was being played in every Australian state and territory by approximately 100 teams.

Although gridiron is basically a non-entity in Australia, arguably, Australia is one of the few countries that would be capable of producing a sufficient number of players with the size and temperament to be able to defeat America in gridiron. With kickers and receivers from Australian football, and rugby players providing the grunt in defense and offence, a reasonable team could be put together.

Psychologically, the prospect of defeating Americans at their own game would appeal to many Australians. If given the chance to play against the best America had, many sports minded Australians would be prepared to put up with decades of humiliation in the path to ultimate victory. Not many other countries in the world have the underdog mentality that would suffer loss after loss in the aim of knocking off a top dog.

Even though America could potentially make a strong foe out of Australia if it invested enough money, it is unlikely to do so. Americans don't have the same desire for international competition as do Australians. Furthermore, American sports administrators are more concerned about making money than growing their game. They want the world to watch their domestic competitions. They don't want their best to be challenged by the world.

The lack of American support for Australian gridiron bothers few Australians because few Australians consider it to be a worthwhile sport. It is generally considered to be slow, and boring. That said, compared to test cricket, which goes for five days and stops for cups of tea, gridiron is non-stop action. If Australians can find test cricket interesting, then surely they could find gridiron interesting.

Netball

In an interesting quirk of history, commonwealth countries largely rejected the American sport of basketball, but embraced the American sport of netball. Perhaps the answer for the quirk lies in America's rejection of netball. Without a strong American league being protected as the pinnacle of the code, international netball was able to thrive. This international game appealed to the ladies of the commonwealth, and especially the Australian ladies in the commonwealth. On the other hand, basketball had a strong American powerbase which naturally protected its interests to the detriment of the game itself.

Perhaps if America had been more concerned with growing their games, rather than have the world watch their competitions, then more of their sports would have had the international appeal seen in netball.

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