Commish still wants a real team in London

[.RoCkEtS1]

No. The only other country that should get an NFL team is Canada. Toronto would be a great market.

[ram29jackson]

How about brokering a deal between the players and owners and avoiding a damn lockout? Worry about that shit before worrying about a team in London.

who is the woman sneezing ?



The Commish believed the stupid crap that rush Limbaugh was rumored to say. He cant be that bright.

[killgod]

if they didnt care about American Football, why is the game on Sunday sold out?

Putting 70 or however many thousand fans in the seats is one thing. Getting millions to watch regularly is another. That's where your money comes from.

[BigHouseUSA]

Have you heard how this game is being sold in the UK? LMAO, talk about putting lipstick on the pig known as the TB Bucs. I heard an ad saying that the game would feature "two teams likely headed for the playoffs"........?????????????????????

Here is my semi-related NSFW WTF pic:

http://marvin.hb0da.org/~beavis/archive/files/wtf.jpg

I think you're insulting some of the UK's NFL fans. There's a solid amount of NFL fans over there, definitely enough to fill Wembley without cheap PR for it.

But like killgod said, even if there is interest enough to fill a stadium, on top of everything else, I doubt the TV revenue would be enough.

[relaxedanderson]

I think you're insulting some of the UK's NFL fans. There's a solid amount of NFL fans over there, definitely enough to fill Wembley without cheap PR for it.

But like killgod said, even if there is interest enough to fill a stadium, on top of everything else, I doubt the TV revenue would be enough.

There are enough fans here to fill Wembley once a season but I can't see that many people dragging themselves to see the 1-9 London Crapnames against the Houston Texans on a damp, miserable November evening.

Also, British sports fans love nothing more than history and tradition; we don't tend to take kindly to "plastic" franchises springing up. A game against the 49ers would see more locals turning up in red and gold than in London's colours.

It's a non-starter of an idea and it would completely humiliate the NFL (or maybe just Goodell if he was properly lined up as the scapegoat in advance). First game would be an 80,000 sell out, second game would be three-quarters full, third would be half-full. After the fourth game Sky Sports would realise that people would rather see a decent game between two contenders at a full stadium and pull coverage in favour of a Colts-Pats game. Then, after slipping to the expansion standard of 0-6 they'd stop showing the results on the news and the papers would start ripping into the whole debacle.

Wembley would throw the team out in their second season because they're losing money opening it up for 15,000 supporters here and there and they'd be forced to move to somewhere like Upton Park or The Valley...which becomes even more embarrassing to see half empty.

Third season they'd go on tour, playing each game in a different city to try and drum up support but no one's interested. They can't even attract any mediocre free agents and all their decent draftees are just counting the days until they can leave.

There wouldn't be a fourth season.

[jaxjaggywires]

I can see it now...

"With the first pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the London Limeys select...QB Joe Schmoe, USC"

Cut to Schmoe, with a look on his face of "Well, I'm the first pick...but I've gotta move to another continent. Fuck..."

[Archer]

^^^ this

They don't even care about American football in London, so why the push for this shit? I also heard Goodell wants a Super Bowl overseas - WTF???? Stop with this marketing overseas crap. Same with David Stern.

...and the proposed 18-game schedule is a joke too.

100% wrong

But yeah .... it's a terrible idea for many many many reasons

[Archer]

Have you heard how this game is being sold in the UK? LMAO, talk about putting lipstick on the pig known as the TB Bucs. I heard an ad saying that the game would feature "two teams likely headed for the playoffs"........?????????????????????

Here is my semi-related NSFW WTF pic:

http://marvin.hb0da.org/~beavis/archive/files/wtf.jpg

Nah the PR did nothing for the most part ..... this was the exact lines from it

"The re-building Tampa Bay Bucs v The Powerhouse Patriots"

"The Bucs v The Manchester United of american sports"

"The Bucs v the most succesful team in recent nfl history"

The pats have the second or third biggest fanbase in the UK ..... every bit of media focus has been on the Pats

Plus the people over here aren't idiots when it comes to who is good and who isin't. They do get 3 games on sundays + NFLTA + NFL Gameday so it's not like everybody can't see the Bucs are horrible .....

[MVP1991]

Terrible idea

[relaxedanderson]

NFL Europe didn't survive because who wants to watch a bunch of NFL rejects playing second rate football? A real NFL franchise might have a chance of surviving, given proper support.

My thoughts are changing on this slowly, if they hold 2 games here next year and build the support up over time, it could be a plausible idea. They're obviously not going to move a team here next year, or open an expansion team any time soon. But look at the Jaguars, they're averaging less than 45,000 for their home games. I'm pretty sure they could beat that in London over a season.

Invest some money in building the grassroots over here, get some English players in the team, or league, and you've got yourself a recipe for success.

I just can't see it working BR.

There's a lot of hostility here towards American Football, similar to soccer in the States. Add to that the fact that both the British people and the press love nothing more than to see something go tits up. Just look at the Olympics, if they'd put the choice of slogan up for a public vote it would have been "London 2012: It's Going To Be Shit!"

We love a moan and we love to have a gloat at a nice, big fuck up.

Ok, there's enough of us fans in the UK to make a once-a-year showcase a success but are fans from Newcastle or Glasgow really going to make 8 separate trips to London in the run-up to Christmas?

I think the NFL has more pressing matters on its hands before it starts worrying about putting franchises or Superbowls in London. How about putting a franchise in a US city that is begging for one; rather than a city with about 20 football league teams, four top flight rugby teams, two first class cricket counties and Test venues and countless other world renowned championships. And before they even think about playing a Superbowl in Wembley at 2am in the driving drizzle/rain/sleet they need to start putting them in places that have actually earned them like Chicago, New York or Green Bay.

Christ, a regular season game in Germany would be a good start, they're mad for the sport over there.

[DJ Fog]

Does anyone else read the "pro-real time in London" in their heads with a British accent? Makes the thread so much better.

[Hasselbeck]

It'd be a terrible idea, and that's why ultimately it will never happen.

Just because Goodell wants it doesn't mean it will go down..

[Derrville]

The game does look horrible in HD.

[relaxedanderson]

So, yes. Get ready for the London Shaguars. Or the English Muffins. Or the Britain Dental School Dropouts.

In my experience the only way they could get a lot of Brits interested would be if they called them the London William "The Refrigerator" Perrys and somehow found a way to get both Joe Montana and Dan Marino playing for them at the same time.

That'd be worth about a month of publicity.

[adembroski]

I think it could be done, but not quickly... and not London first. Berlin or Tokyo (MAYBE Dublin if the ticket prices were kept low) would be far better candidates. The game is more popular in those countries than in England.

Clearly the NFL is interested in expanding overseas, but I tend to agree with the flock here... the first out-of-US move has got to be Canada (though I think that's in the works, it's just not newsworthy). San Francisco vs. Arizona sold out Aztica, and both teams were terrible at the time, so maybe Mexico is a solid candidate too (though I think international relations and the combination of corruption and poverty are probably deterrents to the NFL).

LOL @ The English Muffins, btw. I think if they DO put a team there, they should stick with local naming conventions. London AFF. I can't imagine London Royals or British Knights necessarily going over well (didn't mean to reference the shoes, just coming up with appropriate examples). NFL teams aren't clubs, so the second "F" stands for Franchise.