[USMA:46007] Re: American football fields (was FIFA )

[Paul Trusten]

I had the honor of Meeting Kevin Wilks during my 2007 visit to  
Australia. He emphasized to me that he thought U.S. metrication would  
entail more of a psychological battle than a technical one. But, for  
Americans, I do not think this means trying to cross the path of  
greatest resistance in the early phase of the metrication process.

Wilks also wrote in that publication that, during the changeover in  
Australia,metrication officials sought to avoid becoming the "speech  
police," i.e., to walk carefully the along the boundary between  
measurement and culture. I believe is even more true for the people of  
the U.S. After a generation of Americans incorporates SI into their  
lives, THEN they will be ready to tackle (sic) a metricated U.S.  
Football field. I know this conflicts with the usual procedure for  
metrication, but I am seeing this from the perspective of an American  
who senses that pushing this too soon among Americans could poison our  
metrication efforts at the outset.







Paul Trusten

On Oct 12, 2009, at 15:35, Pat Naughtin <pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com 
> wrote:

Dear John,

Here is an extract from the report, Metrication in Australia by  
Kevin Wilks:
Sport And Recreation

The conversion of sport and recreation was planned by the Health and  
Recreation Advisory Committee with individual members reporting on  
progress in recreational activities such as shows, clubs, galleries  
and studios, professional sport, amateur sport, youth activities and  
safety.

Because of its expected impact on the ordinary citizen, conversion  
of sporting activities was seen as an important factor in the  
subconscious education of the public in metric units. For this  
reason horse racing, a highly traditional sport, was converted, with  
the support and cooperation of media commentators, in August 1972.

Greyhound racing converted in January 1973 and trotting converted in  
August 1973. All football codes were converted by 1974. Conversion  
consisted largely of "soft" conversion of distances in rules and  
dimensions of playing fields and all commentaries were provided in  
metric.

In most cases the dimensions of cricket pitches and tennis courts  
could not be varied and were sensible conversions of previous  
measurements.

All swimming and athletic events, including Olympic Games and  
Commonwealth Games, had been metric for years although, strangely,  
this did little to condition the public for metrication in other  
sports.

Where the sports controlling body was in the United States of  
America and conversion had not yet been considered, the rules  
remained essentially imperial. These sports included ten pin  
bowling, baseball, drag racing and quarter horse racing.

In certain sports in which a measurement was part of the title, such  
as the 16 footer and 18 footer sailing clubs, the rules were  
metricated but the names were retained. However, where practicable,  
motor races like the "Bathurst 500" (miles) have been varied to  
become the "Bathurst 1000" (km).

On occasions when international sporting events were held, the  
commentaries were recorded in old measurements for the benefit of  
the visitor countries.

By 1982, the various city and provincial Agricultural Shows had  
almost completed their metrication programs with the notable  
exception of the height of horses. Horse categories in hands and  
quarters of a hand (a hand is exactly four inches) had been used in  
British countries for many years and the practice was deeply  
entrenched. Most show societies required the height to be stated in  
centimetres in addition to hands but it was expected to be a long  
time before this "unit' disappeared. Height categories in  
centimetres were used in Europe but the hand was retained for  
commercial transactions with Britain.

In sports fishing, line breaking strain in newtons replaced the  
pound or pound force measurement. Conversion to the kilogram mass  
was not appropriate as the breaking strain specified for a certain  
kind of fish was not related to its mass. Kilogram force was no  
longer a legal unit of force and breaking strain in newtons was  
required under Standardised Packaging Regulations.

Despite the interest in sport in Australia and the very high degree  
of support given by the media and sporting commentators, conversion  
of sports did not appear to have been significant as an educational  
aid for

##

I disagree, slightly, with Kevin Wilks' final point. I think that  
the marking of the 50 metre lines and the 10 metre central squares  
has had a significant effect on the way that commentators and  
spectators discuss the game of Australian Rules football. As the  
lines are there all the time, players use them to judge the way they  
play; you might choose to shoot for goal rather than passing the  
ball to a member of your team depending on whether you are inside or  
outside the 50 metre line. See the beginning of this thread (below)  
where the original title was: Geelong wins national football  
championship – Whee!

Cheers,

Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain  
from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008

Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has  
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the  
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that  
they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or  
selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources  
for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial,  
industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and  
in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google,  
NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the  
USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication  
information, contact Pat at pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com or  
to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter 
 to subscribe.

On 2009/10/13, at 01:39 , John M. Steele wrote:

Metricating American football should be WAY down the list of  
priorities.  Trying to do it early will just make folks mad.  Once  
the US is nearly completely metricated, people will wonder about  
those yards and perhaps be willing to metricate football (its not  
like the rest of the world loves it and is just dying for a metric  
version).

However, a 90 m field and 9 m of forward progress probably make  
more sense than blindly pretending yards are meters.  The 90 m  
field fits existing stadiums and represents less than 1.6% change  
in total length, and progress for a 1st down.  I am not convinced  
that a small change of the magnitude invalidates all statistics, I  
think they could be "adjusted."  Certainly some other rules need to  
be revisited.  I would number to the 40 m line, leaving a 10 m zone  
between 40's (Canadian football has two 50 yard lines).  The meter  
line for kickoff (30 yard line) and taking possession (20 yard  
line) would have to be reconsidered, and the chainsmen would need a  
9 m chain.  Extra point attempts could be undertaken from the 2 m  
line.

Pretending meters are yards is about a 9.4% change in total length,  
and progress for a first down.  Besides not fitting most stadiums,  
I would argue that this would change the nature of the game and  
invalidate statistics far more than a 1.6% change.

FIFA rounded the rules of the game in an apparently intelligent  
way.  Important measurements were rounded to the nearest  
centimeter, and less important measurements were rounded further.   
I think a thoughtful approach would allow any game to be  
metricated, but not until the folks in charge of the rules or laws  
of the game are ready to undertake it.

--- On Mon, 10/12/09, STANLEY DOORE <stan.do...@verizon.net> wrote:

From: STANLEY DOORE <stan.do...@verizon.net>
Subject: [USMA:46001] Re: FIFA Football Fields
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>
Cc: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>
Date: Monday, October 12, 2009, 8:35 AM


    Most comments here on conversion of American football to metric  
have addressed the problem from the rules and game playing  
standpoint.  However, only one addressed it to a new field length  
(90 m) standpoint.
    Changing field length to a full 100 m would require  
reconstruction of stadiums to provide space for a 100 m field.  A  
90 m field would fit most current stadiums; however that would  
require changing rules and void all previous statistics.
    Leaving American football fields size as is (100 yards plus end  
zones) and current rules would have the nostalgic but practical  
advantage for Fred Flintstone Units (FFU) in this case.
    Stan Doore

----- Original Message -----
From: carlet...@comcast.net
To: U.S. Metric Association
Cc: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Friday, October 09, 2009 12:31 PM
Subject: [USMA:45985] Re: FIFA Football Fields

Metricating US football would weaken the offense, particularly the  
rush, and strengthen the defense - the offensive team would have to  
go about 10% farther to get first down.  However, since teams have  
both an offense and defense, most would be equally affected.  The  
likely result would be somewhat lower scoring.

Carleton


----- Original Message -----
From: "Kimbrough Sherman" <a...@loyola.edu>
To: "U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu>
Sent: Friday, October 9, 2009 10:50:01 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada  
Eastern
Subject: [USMA:45982] FIFA Football Fields

I don't believe that the use of metric measures will at all alter  
U.S. Soccer, but, incidentally, the fixed measures of the field and  
goals Worldwide http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ 
lawsofthegame.html are in former hard English Yards (Penalty and  
goal areas) and feet (height of crossbar) and soft metric.  The  
Penalty Area is specified at 16.5 Meters to accommodate the  
original dimension of 18 Yards.

American Football, as Stanley Doore has mentioned does have a real  
problem with conversion.  The concept of "first downs" would be  
altered by a ten-Meters requirement, and if the fields were  
enlarged to 100 Meters, with two 10 Meter end zones, there are  
almost no stadium floors that would accommocate these fields (more  
than 11M longer).

In my opinion, American Football should keep the "Yard" as its  
measure and children can be instructed that it is a football  
measure, and left to die a slow and painless death as people get  
tired of explaining it in the far future.

American Football is the only U.S. Sport I know that would suffer  
(statistically, and logistically) from SI adoption.
From: owner-u...@colostate.edu [owner-u...@colostate.edu] On Behalf  
Of STANLEY DOORE [stan.do...@verizon.net]
Sent: Friday, October 09, 2009 5:49 AM
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:45976] Re: Geelong wins national football championship

Congratulations Pat.
    It is my understanding that soccer fields do not have a  
standard size.  This makes it very easy to use metric dimensions  
entirely.  Great!
    Not so with US football fields which have a standard size.   
Performance statistics are therefore based on the yard.  Stadiums  
also are built with this in mind.
    Soccer fields could be standardized on rigid metric dimensions;  
however, wouldn't there be problems when trying to fit a  
standardized metric field size into various sized stadiums?
    Stan Doore
----- Original Message -----
From: Pat Naughtin
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Saturday, September 26, 2009 4:33 AM
Subject: [USMA:45897] Geelong wins national football championship

Geelong wins national football championship

So what, I hear you chorus. Who cares that Geelong has won the  
title as the Australian Rules football championship? However, this  
bragging is not the purpose of this email.

The ground that the football game is played on is slightly variable  
in size but it has all of its markings in metres. Seehttp:// 
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_Australian_football This means that  
the sports commentators have continuously available references that  
they use to describe each game. The metric influence is continuous,  
especially the two arcs marked 50 metres from each goal. This has  
had the effect of making the descriptions wholly metric.

I doubt that the transition to metric in Australian Rules Football  
would have happened so quickly without the constant metric  
reference lines on every ground built into the rules of the game  
itself. Perhaps there are some thoughts here for other metrication  
transitions!

The game, today went for 100 minutes, but if you would like to get  
a flavor of the action there is a 10 minute sample athttp:// 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIOvSv9Q1Gk&feature=fvw Geelong are the  
only team to wear horizontal stripes of navy blue and white – watc 
h for the Gary Ablett goal at 5:15.

Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain  
from http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008

Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has  
helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the  
modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that  
they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or  
selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources  
for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial,  
industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and  
in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government,  
Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK,  
and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com for more  
metrication information, contact Pat at pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com 
 or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter 
 to subscribe.