My kinda town

Brian Dougal invited me up to his old neck of the woods in Wisconsin last weekend to see a college American Football match. In my time here all the Yanks have ever done is bang on about how they preferred college sport to pro and I just didn't get it. After all, how many people used to watch you play football for the school on a Saturday morning?

Well it was a blast, young boys in shoulder pads & crash helmets aside, we started drinking in a car park - tailgating they call it here - at 10.30am. The crowd of which half were young ladies in tight fitting red tops were boisterous and fun and the whole town of Madison was a sea of red with the air full of the smell of hot dogs.

The game kicked off at 1pm and there was 83,000 people in the modern stadium, yes you read that right. 83,000! The atmosphere was excellent and we were stood on terraces in the student section and it was the nearest you are going to get to a real football match in Europe.

After attending professional ice hockey, baseball and basketball I can see why sports fans prefer the college game. People have much more affinity to college's for a variety of reasons than they do the franchises, because that is what pro teams are. The atmosphere in the stadiums is far similiar to our own football matches with singing and chanting whereas you'll find most pro stadiums are souless and the atmosphere's contrived with more people interested in the half time entertainment than what is going on, on the pitch.

Plus pro sportsman earn an absolute stack, have little or no affection for the teams they play for, leagues have a major drug problem which they try to sweep under the carpet and television sits above the MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA like god almighty.

Next time you are in the US, try to get to a college game. You will see and taste the difference.