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The Americas
美洲版塊
Cnandian football
加拿大足球
Shrinking balls, shrinking interest
衰落的足球，縮水的利益
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）帶來的觀眾情緒遠低于冰球。
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.
冰球偶爾會引發瘋狂年輕粉絲的騷亂，而足球經常是年齡大一些的忠實觀眾，抱著保溫杯擠在冰冷的球場里。
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”.
但這并不是因為發起人缺乏努力。上世紀90年代，加拿大橄欖球聯盟的營銷人員試圖用“我們的球更大”這樣的口號來吸引美國球迷。
Last year the pandemic stopped the league entirely, but this year the games restarted and they are trying again.
去年，疫情讓聯賽完全停擺，今年的比賽重新開始，他們正在進行又一次嘗試。
October 11th, Canadian Thanksgiving, will be a big day of sport. It is a chance to boost the fanbase.
10月11號是加拿大的感恩節，也是足球界的大日子，同時也是擴大粉絲基礎的好時機。
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).
加拿大足球與美國足球的不同之處在于，加拿大的球隊有12名球員，而不是11名球員，而且比賽場地更大（之前球也更大，但自2018年以來一直保持同樣的大小）。
The rules slightly differ too. The season usually starts in June, when the NFL, America’s league, is not running.
規則也略有不同，加拿大足球賽季通常在6月份開始，那時美國國家橄欖球聯盟（NFL）正在休賽。
The sport has been in decline for years, particularly beyond the interior plains, its heartland.
這項運動多年來一直在衰落，尤其是其核心區域內陸平原以外的地區。
The BC Lions, a team based in Vancouver, drew an average of 18,000 fans to its games at BC Place in 2019.
總部位于溫哥華的BC雄獅隊2019年在卑詩體育館的比賽平均吸引了1.8萬名球迷。
Fifteen years ago they routinely had twice as many.
15年以前，他們的粉絲數量是這個數字的兩倍多。
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·馬格爾是一名為加拿大橄欖球聯盟（CFL）提供咨詢的數據分析師，他認為大多數球迷是頑強的老一輩人：“從他們記事起，從祖父母記事起，他們就一直在這么做。”
Executives such as Amar Doman, the new owner of the BC Lions, hope that they can bring in new blood.
BC雄獅隊的新東家阿馬爾?多曼（Amar Doman）等高管希望他們能帶來新鮮血液。
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，疫情導致各項活動停辦之前，該聯盟從歐洲和墨西哥招募了球員，希望能吸引加拿大以外的觀眾。
It has also signed television broadcast deals in the United States and in Mexico to simulcast Canadian games.
它還在美國和墨西哥簽署了電視轉播協議，實時轉播加拿大的比賽。
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.
今年早些時候，加拿大橄欖球聯盟宣布正在與XFL洽談合作事宜，XFL是一家由好萊塢明星德韋恩·“巨石”約翰遜（Dwayne“the Rock”Johnson）部分持股的另類美式足球聯盟。結果一無所獲。
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.
幾年前，美國橄欖球聯盟和加拿大橄欖球聯盟經常爭奪人才，最引人注目的是1991年，當時美國圣母大學的明星球員拉吉布·“火箭”·伊斯梅爾（Raghib“Rocket”Ismail）放棄了美國橄欖球聯盟的一個席位，轉而拿了2600萬美元去多倫多打球。
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，美國國家橄欖球聯盟的薪水比更靠北的地方高出30多倍。加拿大足球不僅要與其他運動競爭，還要與Netflix（美國奈飛公司）等公司競爭。
It will take more than a Hail Mary pass to turn it around.
要想扭轉局面需要的不僅僅是孤注一擲（萬福瑪利亞傳球指成功幾率非常小的遠距離傳球，不太可能成功的無奈之舉）。
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
