No more NFL in Mexico after 49ers-Cards?
Don’t expect the NFL to stick around Mexico very long after Sunday’s game between the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers, the first regular-season game played outside the United States.
NFL Mexico, which oversees the sport in this country, says it has no plans to push for a team anytime soon. It appears content to follow the lead of the NBA and Major League Baseball, which played games that counted in Mexico in years past, but haven’t seriously considered sanctioning Mexican franchises.
“A franchise in Mexico, it’s not a priority for the short or medium term,” said Geraldine Gonzalez of the league’s Mexico City office. “It’s not so viable.”
NFL surveys say 20 million Mexicans, a little less than one in five, are fans of the league.
Still, Gonzalez said the fact that few play football has prohibited a sports culture from forming around homegrown talent. Factor in concerns about security, logistical difficulties and whether fans can afford ticket prices, and an NFL team here starts to look about as likely as Giants Stadium hosting Mexican cockfights.
“There are a number of communities in the United States that have raised their hands and said, ‘We are ready for a franchise,’ including Los Angeles,” Gonzalez said. “The league will first look out for its interests within the United States.”
The NFL is not alone. The northern city of Monterrey hosted baseball in 1999 and a three-game series in 1996, but a bid to bring the Montreal Expos there part-time, instead of playing in Puerto Rico, fizzled in 2003.
NBA commissioner David Stern has mentioned Mexico City as a possible site for an expansion franchise, and the Houston Rockets beat the Dallas Mavericks 108-106 here on Dec. 6, 1997. But the league has not been back for a regular-season contest.
More: msn.foxsports.com
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Mexico credit card clients balk at ID photos
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Credit cards with identification photographs "have not done well, especially with women, because nobody likes those photos that come out on (drivers') licenses," Alfaro said.
Taxis and dark
NFL - 49ers, Cardinals set for historic Mexico trip
Sunday 2nd October 2005 will be a momentous date in the 86-year history of the NFL, as it will be the date of the first ever regular season game to be played outside the United States.
The San Francisco 49ers will take on the Arizona Cardinals at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, with a crowd of 85,000 expected.
The event is part of Hispanic Heritage Month, and could pave the way for further games to be held outside the USA, including a proposed game in London.
The game will be broadcast by 18 broadcasters
Mexico to order full disclosure on credit cards
Mexican central bank Gov. Guillermo Ortiz said he will require banks to disclose all charges when they advertise credit cards, part of a bid to push down lending rates that have restrained economic growth.
Banks in Mexico charge as much as 40 percent a year on credit cards, or triple the U.S. average. More than two-thirds of Mexico's $13.7 billion credit-card market is controlled by units of New York-based Citigroup and Bilbao, Spain-based Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria.
"Interest rates on consumer credit are too high," Ortiz said. "Transparency is the best way to foster competition."
Ortiz,
Before you travel to Mexico
Visas & immigration
Latin Americans, especially officials, are very document-minded. You should always carry your in passport (or a plasticated copy of it) in a safe place about your person,or if not going far, leave it in the hotel safe. lf staying in a country for several weeks, it is worthwhile registering atyour embassy or consulate. Then, if your passport is stolen, the process of replacing it is faster and easier. It's a good idea to keep some additional passport-sized photographs together with photocopies of essential documents - including your flight ticket - in a separate place
Lloyd, 49ers bring warm reception to Mexico City
Before he makes those twisting, leaping, diving, over-the-shoulder, finger-tip catches, San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Lloyd has seen them before - in his mind.
Two weeks ago, there was a running, no-look, one-handed grab that generated a rare first down in the 49ers' lopsided loss.
"It was like, `I've been here before, catch it and go,'" Lloyd said.
That's largely what he did last week ago against Dallas in pulling off the NFL's longest pass play of the season. Lloyd got by Cowboys cornerback Anthony Henry, caught Tim Rattay's in stride at midfield and outran
Cardinals can take ugly play to Mexico - literally
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Heading into Sunday's game against the 49ers, Arizona is 0-3. It was supposed to be different this year. With a commanding coach in Dennis
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The strange but surreal scene of flash bulbs popping throughout Azteca Stadium in the opening shot of ESPN's prime-time Sunday night football telecast told us the first NFL regular-season game outside the United States should be something special.
Oh, well, close enough.
The ho-hum matchup between the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers ended up being a disappointment in spite of the enthusiasm of almost 105,000 fans in Mexico City who cheered like it was the Mexican Super Bowl.
Literally, a real snoozer
The NFL scheduled two of its least competitive franchises to
NFL will find football thriving in Mexico
When the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers play at Azteca Stadium on Sunday, they’ll discover something Mexicans have known for some time: Football is alive and thriving in this country.
And that’s without the NFL.
Consider the annual Clasico, a nasty rivalry that goes back decades and pits the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Pumas against the Aguilas Blancas, or White Eagles, of the National Polytechnic Institute.
This is Redskins vs. Cowboys, Raiders vs. Chiefs — Mexican style.
“What a game,” gasped the stadium announcer, his voice straining over the din of 45,000 fans. “And you, the
