Commish still wants a real team in London

[jaxjaggywires]

Commissioner Goodell just said he wants an actual NFL team in London. This has been talked about before, but I just wanted to re-iterate what a bad idea I think this is. Do college kids want to bust their asses in college for 3+ years to prove themselves worthy of an NFL roster, only to have to move to a country that damn near none of them have been to?

Horrible idea...bad for the league, bad for the players.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Not a fan.

The closed down NFL Europe (Europa) down because it was a poor business decision to keep it up and operating.

The team in the UK (Scottish Claymores) even had to cease operations because the market for American style football in the UK was less so then it was in the middle of Europe (Germany, specifically). I think they ended up moving them to Hamburg (someone correct me if I am wrong) and NFL Europa didn't last much longer afterwards.

The idea to move a team to Europe sounds dumb to me.

Stick with the US, and maybe move to Canada if you can find a market. Try L.A. or Toronto or something.

Travel costs would be ridiculous.

 

[kmanharris]

I don't think they are worried about travel costs. I am more worried about my team having to fly to England to play a game then fly back to the United States. God forbid they fly to England for a MNF game then have to fly back for a Sunday game. Traveling will take its toll on the players very quickly

 

[Sean]

NATIONAL Football League, we gonna change the name too? i Understand the NBA cause Canada is so close, but i agree bad idea, keep it all in America, i dont mind the occasional away game in another country

 

[MmmmBeeeeer]

I agree with everything in this thread, not to mention, games from London in HD look like shit.

 

[davie]

London games - good idea (only because I'm going on Sunday )
London franchise - horrible idea. Would distort the seasons of every team that has to play them + they would probably have an awful road record keeping them out of the playoffs.

 

[Bear Pand]

London games - good idea (only because I'm going on Sunday )
London franchise - horrible idea. Would distort the seasons of every team that has to play them + they would probably have an awful road record keeping them out of the playoffs.

I remember several college teams like Purdue not wanting to travel and play Hawaii cause of things like this. I'd feel bad for any US based team that got stuck in a division with a Europe based one. Not to mention having to see teams like Oakland or Seattle travel there for road games.

 

[Apocalypse]

No.

 

[jeffx]

Goodell is an asshole.

^^^ 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.

 

[SHOGUN]

LOL @ Stern and Goodell still trying to push this overseas bullshit.

 

[BigHouseUSA]

This would just be awful.

Having a game a year there is fine, but there's so many reasons this wont work.

 

[ralaw]

^^^ 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.

It's just about legacy and ego. Goodell just wants to have his prints on the NFL game and as of right now this is the best thing he can think of.

 

[jaxjaggywires]

It's just about legacy and ego. Goodell just wants to have his prints on the NFL game and as of right now this is the best thing he can think of.

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.

 

[PEYMAN18]

A team in London would be horrible for the NFL.

I might be biased but put a team Canada first before the UK....

 

[Aso]

If a 1:00 game is played in London wouldn't it be like 8 AM on the West Coast?

 

[.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.