So essentially you're saying your a Jets fan, not a football fan? That's not meant to be a dig or anything just wondering. I lived in London for 3 years and I never went to those games either, but there seemed to be broad support of the games from fans of all backgrounds. I was out of town for two of them, but might have hit up the Giants game if I was there. All expansion involves putting a team where fans already have loyalties decided, otherwise you'd never expand anywhere.
I am a Jets fan who will happily travel to watch my team and a football fan who will watch a game if its on the tv but would not stump us $150 to watch it. For me the game gets well attended in London as its a bit of a gimmick and people who can't get to a game in the US go. Repeating that 8 times a year and it would struggle massively for me ...however having seen the crowds at Tampa recently a franchise in Greenland would be more succesful than that!!
The game tomorrow still had tickets available at the start of the week. maynardsmyhero also got it right in that NFL fans in the UK already have a team and would be unlikely to change who they support. I could see it working though,as others have mentioned the travel is only a major problem for a west coast team and the potential earnings to be made in Europe means the NFL will flirt long and hard with the idea. But you can't host 4 games and expect the UK to be crazy enough for an NFL team.We're probably at least a decade away before it could work and the NFL would have to do more to expand the game. We have less games on TV than we did a few years ago and the NFL need to consider getting the 1PM and 4PM games(6PM and 9PM) over here on free terrestrial TV so the average couch potato will stumble across it and get interested.
This is a point I disagree with as all expansions deal with this at first but most overcome it. The English sports scene is far more tribal then the American one, a couple years of play, a new generation of fans, and a winning season and you'd have your base well established IMO. Richard Branson is going to have people flying to space in the next few years, the Concord had the trip from London to NY down to 3.5 hours in the 1970's-90's... I'd like to think if we're talking about a 5-10 year plan for the London Franchise that the travel considerations would be greatly reduced by then. This is a very valid point.
That's fair. Presumably you'd get to see the Jets once a year, which would be good for you. I would love to know what the benchmarks are for considering it a success (ex: tickets sold, merch revenue, TV revenue, ect).
Get to 3 games a year plus every game on tv so i am pretty much immersed in it. I think it would have to be a sell out all weeks otherwise somewhere such as LA would kick off for losing a franchise they wanted. Having said that when they had the raiders and rams it was hardly a success.
That's impressive. Since I moved out of the US I get to 1 game a year and watch most online. I plan to move back to the UK at some point in the next few years so I would love this if it happened. Clearly I have an interest in seeing this happen and that's probably why I'm more focused on seeing the positives of the proposal. With that said, at the end of the day would want whatever is best for the league and the fan experience. In regards to sell outs, I would think ticket sales would take a back seat to overall revenue generated by the exposure to Europe so even if the games weren't selling out they team could still be profitable and grow the game worldwide. A team in LA wouldn't really have an argument against that.
But all those expansion teams were being placed into markets where football is already established.A UK football team would not only need to establish itself but the sport too. The UK is pretty much a one sport country,it's actually not that bad in parts of England where Cricket and Rugby get decent coverage but bar England winning the Ashes or the Rugby World Cup/Six nations then football dominates the media. An NFL team in London has to compete with 5 premier league teams,several other lower league teams who probably outdrew the London Monarchs when they were in existence.That's a lot of competition for media coverage and people's time and money.A bad season and people's will stop going to games,papers will give less and less page space and the TV contracts won't be there. American football is still a minority sport but the potential is there.The sport has gathered a lot of momentum,exciting superbowls on the BBC,these international series games televised live on the BBC and a thriving grass roots game(American Football is the biggest university sport in the country).But they need to turn this sport in Otherwise a London team will go the way of the Scottish Claymores,who done well considering their gameday attendances,but got dwarfed by the big soccer machine.
See London Monarchs. The only way a team in London would succeed is if it had instant success. By that I mean, not only a winning season but also a trip into the POs, then the fanbase would be born. One season of sucking will see tumbleweed swirling around Wembley. Wembley? They couldn't sell out White Heart Lane. Goodell is THE worst Commissioner the NFL has had, so far. Why he has to constantly try and 'fix' the game, it ain't broke Roger!! Terrible idea.
Problem with the Uni game here is that once they finish, many never play again, its a passing fad fro many. I've coached at Uni and the problem as coaches we face is that 99% of the guys coming in have never played before and some don't even know the rules. To get them for the short period of time that we have doesn't make a good sport or good athletes, generally. On the independent teams, the game is struggling HUGELY with many teams unable to afford the game day costs, which has been the sports Achilles heal from day 1. As its a contact sport, the first requirement is an ambulance in attendance, usually St.Johns. But they don't come cheaply. When we had the first recession, it killed off alot of team in the UK, I think at one point there were 600 'competing' teams, now I would guess there are under 100. From the standard I've seen, our top teams are as good as an average high school team in the US, and that's being kind. This country will never ever embrace US football the way we do with EPL and other sports.
What team did you use to coach Gus?It better not be those dirty Raiders. Sure the standard of play isn't great but it's more important that people are playing rather than playing well.Funds can be a problem but only for those not willing to fundraise,the only other problem it raises is for new teams trying to start up. Teams should be getting more funding now anyway that BUAFL is part of BUCS,however that now leads to a bigger problem,the multi institution rule has gone so teams can only recruit from their university.That will lead to a lot of problems for the smaller teams and universities in terms of numbers.
Dirrrty Raiders, Nope. Used to coach at Durham Uni (Saints). I understand that people need to be playing, but alot of players (IMO) step through the door and instantly think they are going to be ______(insert popular player here), and after a few hits and not being what they thought, slope off after a while. Hey, and what about trying to get Linemen, lol thats the biggest joke. Its like rugby league, everybodies seemingly built the same way, except for the odd fatty who comes along. Success breeds popularity, without it dreams soon fade. What the sport needs (at grass roots) is someone like Alan Sugar or Richard Branson to throw a massive amount of money at it and play a slightly different style , eg: like the Canadian game. Bigger field, easier to play. Not that I'm saying the Canadian game is better than the US game, noy for a freakin minute!! Maybe Brett Favre might play over here?
I really do not understand why the NFL would consider London over any of the big German cities. Germany was the most supportive of the countries that had NFL Europe teams.
The NFL in EUROPE? I thought there was something similar in the past, it didnt work out to well though...God what was that called...Hell I dunno, listen Goodell your crusade to be the first to conquer the NFL in EUROPE will fail, if you wanna add some international teams stick with Toronto, the Toronto Bills.
If Goodell awards a franchise anywhere outside of the US (that includes Canada and Mexico too)....he will ruin the NFL. The NFL isn't broken.....I wish this fucktard would stop trying to fix it.
It will be a completely different level of play. How you could you even compare NFL Europe to the real NFL?!?! What's your rational for that? What if he took and existing team and moved them out of the US?
same deal....I wouldn't move an existing team either. I would keep everything the way it is. I mean...why would you even consider putting a franchise in Europe....that would fuck up time scheduling like you wouldn't believe. Plus the players would have to go play a game 3 or 4 time zones over....some of these guys can barely play going from one coast to the other. And...like some people have already mentioned...NFL Europe didn't exactly rake in the fan interest.
