very glad to hear it as I have no interest in seeing the Rams play and so at least this way it doubles the chance of their being a team I would take the time to go and watch. I went the Niners/Broncos game and even though both teams (at that time) sucked it was still great fun and a great atmosphere. No way am I shelling out to watch the Pats trounce the rams this year however.
I'd be fine with that. To be honest thought I'm not sure how much interest there is for a full time NFL team here. Seems to me that there are a lot of NFL fans in the area but they already have loyalties somewhere else. At my work alone there are big fans of the Dolphins, Red Skins, Colts, Browns and I think someone else is a Jets fan. I know a few friends/family that are a combination of fans of the following teams: Eagles, Bucs, Pats, 49ers and two Bills fans. A number of them have the Bill as their "second team" though. I guess if they move here some people will drop their allegiances (not me though!) and they will add some additional fans just because a team is here. Hockey is still the big draw here, despite the Leafs sucking so bad (don't get me started on that) but I think it would work in the long run. The Bills games here don't really sell out, but I think that has a lot to do with ticket prices which they dropped this year but they are still crazy expensive. $85 for 500 level seats with a view of the jumbotron!? The only cheaper seats are like $50 and seem to be obstructed view/no view of jumbotron. Last year I went to Buffalo with a group of people to see the Jets game. We sat almost as far away as possible on the 50 yard line. I paid about $50 for the ticket, chipped in $10 towards tailgate food/booze and maybe $40 for the hotel. So it cost me about $100 for food, a night in a hotel and a ticket. $100 in Toronto gets me shitty seats and maybe two drinks if I'm lucky. If they came here they would have to drop the prices significantly or nobody would go.
Jags surrendering FOUR home games over four years to London... The Wrath of Khan. http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8289496/jacksonville-jaguars-play-four-home-games-london
I just saw this - come back Rams, all is forgiven!!!! Seriously though what a terrible move - a team that has probably the lowest profile of any team in the UK is now going to be here in back-to back (to back and back) years - - if they play a good, high profile team then maybe people will be interested but as it is this is an awful move, I would prefer them just to not bother.
I agree about the logistics being a pain in the ass, but for an east coast team, the flight is 6-8 hours to London, and maybe 5-6 to LA, so not much difference there. I'm sure there would be some way to finagle a team's off-week into the London trip for several weeks out of the year. I think the off-weeks run from week 4 to 11, off the top of my head. Remember that Goddell has talked multiple times about the possibility of expanding to London, so seeing a weak market team like Jacksonville move overseas isn't so far-fetched. http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/Roger-Goodell-possible-NFL-franchise-in-London-102211 Obviously, the first priority is getting a team in LA, but if moving a team fails, and you have expansion instead to 34 (which I'm against), London works in that scenario, as could Mexico City, I suppose. To me, it's just way too convenient that Jacksonville happens to be the team that jumped at the opportunity to lose home games every single year. I know it's pure conspiracy theory, but for all we know there's a quid pro quo behind the scenes with Goddell for financial help, or ease getting the team out of Jacksonville otherwise.
The problem isn't the east coast/London travel, it's the west coast/London travel. San Diego/London is 11 hours, and San Francisco/London and Phoenix/London are 10. Obviously you can't have a bye week both before and after going to London, so teams are going to have at least one game where they're playing a week before or after that kind of flight, which is not reasonable. Then there's the London team itself, for which every flight is at least 6 or 7 hours; the players will either be exhausted by the middle of the season, or the team will routinely have 3 or 4 game road trips, neither of which is reasonable. IMO unless you have a division of European teams (which I vehemently oppose) the idea of a team in London is insane from the point of view of quality of play. Of course, that's not the reason why it would be done.
