http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2007/06/28/report-league-to-pull-plug-on-nfl-europa/ According to Pro Football Talk, the NFL has decided to disband its international league, NFL Europa, and will announce the decision Friday. The move is the latest signal that the NFL is re-thinking its attempts to gain popularity abroad and focus more on marketing the NFL itself rather than minor American football leagues. It's also a bit of a rebuke to the league's previous commissioner, Paul Tagliabue, who wanted the league's European offshoot to become an important part of his legacy. But the current commissioner, Roger Goodell, was decidedly less interested in keeping afloat a league that reportedly lost upwards of $30 million a year. Although it attracted a few European fans to the game of American football and developed a few players who eventually contributed to the NFL, in general NFL Europa would have to be considered one of the big failures of a league that has had mostly successes in recent years. Seems cheap to me I could see $100+ mil in losses but not $30 mil. That's just about 1 mil a team. The league is even showing great improvement in attendance. With the whole 17th game on foreign soil, doing this would be one of the dumbest moves the NFL could do.
ProFootballTalk.com MOMENTUM FOR NFL MINOR LEAGUE BUILDS Once upon a time, pro football agent Ron Del Duca wrote an item for this site advocating the replacement of NFL Europe with a true minor league system. More than three years after the fact, reality could be catching up with Del Duca's idea. Under the plan first proposed by Del Duca back in 2004, NFL Europe would be scuttled. In its place, a true NFL minor league would be created, and it would play games in the fall. The system would allow NFL teams to allocate players to the minor league, and call them up as needed. We're now told that a growing number of NFL management types are in favor of launching such a venture. The value is that the players would be able to fully participate in the offseason program, and then get live game reps during football season, at a time when they otherwise would be hanging around and waiting for guys on the 53-man roster to get hurt. The teams would be based in cities that don't currently have NFL teams, and every team would allocate its practice squad to the minor league. With 32 NFL franchises having eight guys on their practice squads, that's 256 players right out of the gates. The rest of the minor league could be made up of guys who have yet to make the cut in the pros, and who otherwise might be fodder for the soon-to-be-former NFL Europa. Eight teams would be an ideal starting point, and the games could be played in the middle of the week. Since Tuesday and Wednesday evenings typically feature no college or pro football broadcasts, a middle-of-the-week television schedule would be ideal. One of the potential barriers to the creation of a true NFL minor league is the reported plan of a new league, the UFL, to drop teams in several non-NFL cities and lure some of the same the same guys who would otherwise be courted by the NFL's junior circuit. The mere establishment of an NFL minor league could be interpreted as a sign that the NFL is worried about the UFL, and the NFL won't want to create that impression. So while we believe that it's a great idea to develop a true NFL minor league, we think that it won't happen unless and until the coming UFL experiment crashes and burns. In other words, the NFL minor league will launch in 2010. POSTED 9:03 p.m. EDT; UPDATED 9:34 p.m. EDT, June 28, 2007
Funny , not less than an hour ago I was reading the same thing in print. The author went on to say that every year NFL E is to wrap up and it never does. He also goes on to say that its a sport (like many) thats heavily supported by TV. Well NFLE is certainly not available in the UK , it it was I would watch it. The NFL is not popular in the UK , trur or false? (hint , Wembley stadium is to host a game that had phone lines jammed for hours). Someone isn't doing their homework in the NFL
That's what I don't get how come there is no TV deal for you guys? Isn't there a TV network that could get the rights for each country to air the games. I wish they kept the other teams and added a team in France so you could have a Western Division and a German Division.
The Scottish team ( Claymores ) were hugely popular and they pulled the team and re-located it to Hamburg , apart from Amsterdam , its essentially a German league. There is a network called NASN and they do broadcast it in Germany , but the same company refuses to screen it here , no reason given , ( I used to subscribe). Its baffling , the NFL want to develope the game , but regfuse to give the already hardcore NFL supporters any kind of media outside of the regular season. The TV coverage over the years has sometimes been erratic , but lately Sky TV have been pretty good in their coverage. But with regard to NFLE , I think they want it to die , why I don't know. I thought it was alot better with one or two teams in selected Euro countries , I always liked the Monarchs Vs Claymores and Barcelona dragons was always a good game. RIP NFLE
They did , but NASN bought the rights to it. If you notice NASN don't advertise that they have NFL coverage anymore. I amongst others took them to task over it. I tried to get the signal coordinates and put them in manually (for sky) , but it won't work , encoded??? I now don't subscibe.
They're too interested in soccer over there, and they hate our football simply for the fact that we call it football. I think 17 years was a a pretty good trial run, if they don't have fans by now they're not going to. Looked like a bunch of Florida Marlins games over there.
Could this mean a possible farm-league relationshp formed between the NFL and CFL, maybe leading to another US expansion for the CFL?
How cool would it be for the jets to have their OWN minor league football team. Talk about something to fill the offseason. I think it's a GREAT idea, and is a long time coming.
I don't get that. How could the CFL be used as a farm league when it is a different brand of football? If it's to be a farm league the fields will have to be altered and the rules will have to mimic NFL rules.
I don't necessarily think that would have to happen entirely. I mean, sure, there could be some rule changes, but I still think that the CFL could be used as a developmental league for the NFL. The brand of football is different in that the players are a bit lighter ont he lined and a LB in the CFL, and there is more passing, but I would assume that the best players would end up playing, and other than college there is now nothing out there to compete with the CFL in terms of being the best 2nd teir football league out there unless you count Arena, which I would say is quirky below CFL.
I used to watch the CFL when ESPN first came on and used to show it. Vince Ferragamo was about a year removed from starting the Super Bowl for the LA Rams and he went to play for the Montreal Alouettes. That's when I used to watch it, Warren Moon was in Edmonton and they were a dynasty. Fun stuff. Now it's so randomly on it's hard to catch, ESPN is more interested in their homemade bullshit and bad comedy.
That would be a much better idea. Thats the whole irony , there are alot of fans here , wait until you see the Giants/Phins game and consider that the UK is the same size as one of your states.
and later under his breath he said " Its my ball and I'm going home" Cheers Roger the dodger , you just alienated alot of fans in Europe , Come back Paul Tagliabue
