Rafael Nadal?is into the quarterfinals at the Olympics in his first tournament
in two-plus months.
Jerseys Authentic Wholesale .Nadal, winner of
14 Grand Slam events, beat 15th-seeded Gilles Simon of France 7-6 (5), 6-3 in a
match delayed a day by rain. He also plays doubles and mixed doubles later
Thursday.The 2008 gold medalist withdrew from the French Open because of an
injured left wrist and has said he wouldnt be playing this week if it werent the
Olympics.Nadal was supposed to be Spains flag-bearer in 2012 but missed the
London Games because of a bad knee. He finally led out the delegation at last
Fridays opening ceremony.In his toughest test of his three singles matches so
far, Nadal had 28 unforced errors in the first set but just 12 in the second.
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appearances for Milwaukee this season. He is 18-20 in his career with three
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returning to Rangers Ballpark, his baseball home for all but the last of his 13
major league seasons.
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Thats about all he can do right now, so hes trying not to think about when he
might be able to play again for the Los Angeles Lakers. Its an exciting time for
Formula One, with new owners Liberty Media outlining a bold new vision for the
sport. Though some seem worried about the new owners Americanising F1, ESPN
looks not at what F1 can do for the U.S. but what the U.S. can do for F1.Game
PassF1s viewing audience -- both at live races and those watching broadcasts --
is dwindling. There are many reasons for this, but the falling TV audience is
largely down to the slow shift away from free-to-air TV. In Britain, Sky Sports
recently announced it will have the exclusive rights for F1 from 2019 onwards --
meaning British fans will only be able to watch live races behind a paywall from
that point. That will align the UK with Spain and France, which follow the same
model, and is likely to be replicated elsewhere in Europe -- which accounts for
around 60 percent of F1s current audience. There are many solutions to this, and
one of them might be across the pond.The NFL and NBA are exemplary in taking
their sport to the fan, rather than making the fan come to them. NFLs Game Pass
costs £139.99 but guarantees you every second of every game (including the
play-offs and the Super Bowl), interview, training session, documentaries and
pretty much any NFL game to have happened in the last 10 years. Compare that to
the hefty amount to pay for Sky in the UK, for example, which spends much of its
time between races (and even during race weekends) showing re-runs of this years
races or old interviews. Fans have no say what content is on but with Game Pass
you watch what you want, when you want, and theres plenty of it. The model is
replicated by the NBA -- a quick comparison between the NFL/NBA and F1 websites
show the glaring difference the latter needs to address.To its credit, F1s
recent social media input has been much-improved but the sport has seemed scared
of embracing the very fans it is also confused about losing in such big numbers.
American sports are all about taking themselves to the phone or laptop of the
viewer rather than expecting fans to pay a lot of money for a limited amount of
third-party content -- its about time F1 started doing the same.Color RushF1
should be the pinnacle of cool in sport. Its fast cars and beautiful people at
glamorous locations but in recent years this seems to have been lost somewhat.
Just look at the state of modern-day car launches compared to the ones of old.
Nothing says sexy quite like a press release with renderings of your new car,
does it? F1 appears to have gone backwards in recent years on that front. The
NFL is one sport willing to think outside the box. Color -- or should that be
colour? -- Rush is one example. The idea is simple -- teams wear match-up
specific uniforms which are garish, alternate versions of their usual kits. Each
team now has a kit for this purpose, giving the NFL perfect social media fodder
and plenty of viral opportunities. Ditto to the throwback jerseys, which will
see a team pick one week to wear a kit from a previous season in the NFL.?
Imagine this in F1.A Mercedes running the inverted colours for Malaysia, with
the green of sponsors Petronas for its home race, or Ferrari running a throwback
livery for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, or McLaren-Honda going red and white
for the Japanese Grand Prix. The latter two, especially, would create enormous
hype and attention. In the modern age of social media, this is what fans want to
see. Red Bulls camouflaged livery for winter testing last year is a good example
-- an image that probably reached a lot of people who didnt even know that
testing was taking place in Barcelona that week or otherwise have no interest in
F1.This idea would also help the problem F1 seems to have recently of bland,
unappealing liveries. Four of the teams run predominantly grey/black schemes
which just do not look great on the race track. Haas is one of them. The teams
sponsors are likely to get a fair amount of exposure in Austin this year but how
much more would they get -- especially in America -- if they unveiled an
unashamedly over-the-top star-spangled livery for that event? It may sound
incredibly simple, but sometimes the key to winning fans over is getting them to
say Wow, thats cool. And funky liveries are much cooler to the casual fan than
an MGU-H, new brake duct or a 60-place grid penalty...A lotteryOne thing which
keeps sports like the NFL and NBA so enjoyable is their changeable nature every
year, with the Draft and Draft Lottery acting as a great leveller season on
season. Now this isnt something that can be replicated for drivers in F1 but the
idea could be used elsewherre -- for example, in shaking up the calendar.
Cheap
Jerseys. As Kate Walker has suggested on ESPN before, F1 should
consider a lottery draft for places on the calendar. If the season is going to
keep getting longer, then why shouldnt it look different every year?For example,
imagine not knowing where five of 2017s races will be until December. To make
the end-of-season trophy presentation actually mean something other than a black
tie event for a handful of guests, this would be a perfect time to hold a draw.
Much like the Champions League, the season champion could pick names out of a
hat to hold the races which have put themselves forward as candidates. Imagine
2017s European Grand Prix at Magny-Cours, or an African Grand Prix at Kyalami,
or a second U.S. Grand Prix at Dallas, Laguna Seca or Long Beach, assuming all
were brought up to FIA standards, of course.Variation keeps sport interesting
and this is something American sports are constantly reinvigorated by. Its a
win-win -- old circuits get to pay for a one-off race, while fans get the chance
to see F1 at new circuits and drivers get to visit circuits theyve never been to
before. Each season looks vastly different as a result. Baku was a special event
this year, ditto Mexico last year, but the gloss and interest of new events can
be quick to wear off if fan numbers drop off in the following years.An event
away from the eventTheres been a lot of talk about spicing up the whole format
of the current F1 weekend. Theres a lot that can change, but how about something
that actually doesnt have any ramification on the season? The NBA holds an
annual Slam Dunk Contest for players which now crowns an annual champion. It has
no bearing on the season as a whole but is popular with fans, and did include
fan voting to determine the winner until several years ago. It gives players
additional bragging rights and gives lesser-known players a chance to create
superstar status but, most importantly of all, it gives people another reason to
watch other than who might win on Sunday -- especially if that question has only
two probable answers...F1 seems like the perfect place for this kind of
competition. Last year Christian Horner suggested the revival of the Procar
series, which saw F1 drivers race against each other in one-make machinery at
grand prix weekends. This lends itself to celebrity drivers, or drivers from
other series, pitting themselves against one another in equal machinery for what
ostensibly would be competition with a bit of fun added to it as well. Imagine
Lewis Hamilton going up against Jeff Gordon and Tom Kristensen, for example, or
Mika Hakkinen rolling back the years to take on Kimi Raikkonen as part of a
ten-lap sprint race. You know youd watch it. If an idea is exciting to think
about, then fans are going to want to watch it and thats something F1 cannot say
about the current product.Americas GameF1 has an incredible history -- a mix of
tragedy, bravery, legendary drives and quirky characters. The job of F1 should
be to tell this story to the masses, rather than relying on individual
television channels to do so. Again, America is great at doing this. I will use
NFL as an example. The excellent A Football Life documentaries follow retired
players and coaches and tell their life story, using footage of their career and
interviews with friends, colleagues and family. This is often available in the
Game Pass mentioned above and is perfect for filling a weekend without NFL --
think of all those quiet F1 weekends or summer breaks you could be spending
watching a historic F1 race or documentary of your choosing at the click of a
button. It doesnt just have to be old history, either.The NFL also runs a
documentary called Americas Game at the start of each season, telling the story
of the Super Bowl winners campaign through the eyes of three key people. The
Hard Knocks series is also excellent - following a team through training camp
ahead of the season. Its an intimate story of a team and, though F1 teams would
understandably be worried about revealing potentially secretive information to
rivals, a documentary series following that seasons championship contenders
would be perfect material for the end of a season or the start of the next one.
It could then be used by F1 to justify the cost of something like Game Pass, and
give fans more reasons to pay to watch just F1 rather than opting against
purchasing a channel just to see racing once every two weeks. ' ' '