Wednesday, June 07, 2006

I Try Not to Agree with the Germans Too Much...

But they have a point here. If I were a German, I'd be pretty annoyed if my only beer option at a World Cup match was American swill. I was especially amused that the reaction to this article on Mayhem in the AM was Steak Shapiro telling the Germans to shut up because "it's called capitalism." No, capitalism is about having choices in the market and the better product winning, not forcing one inferior option down the throats of a captive audience that would prefer any one of a number of superior options. Also, I'm pretty sure that "it's called capitalism" could have been used by Tom Glavine to parry the insults from sports radio hosts in this town when he signed with the Mets for decidedly more money than the Braves were offering, but who cares about being consistent when we have the chance to be jingoistic?

Maybe I'm just defensive on this subject because I have very fond memories of sampling the best that Bavaria had to offer (over and over again) at the Augustiner Beer Hall in Munich in November 2004.


That's not me because: (1) that's a woman; and (2) she's standing upright.

2 comments:

LD said...

Yeah, they were way way off this morning on that. Shapiro also suggested that if they wanted choices, Germany shouldn't have sold exclusive rights. Well, that's just wrong. FIFA sold the exclusive rights, before they even awarded the site to Germany. Germany had no choice or voice in the matter.

And is it just me, or is it stupid that marketing control by Fifa is so tight that "Allianz Arena" is called "Fifa World Cup Stadium Munich" during the cup on all broadcasts because Allianz isn't a sponsor. Lame.

Eric said...

"We think this is about giving consumers a choice."

I love that quote in the article. Is he serious?

I think fans will just have to sneak their favorite beer in via this contraption:

http://www.thebeerbelly.net