Kraft Says London Is Ready For A Team

[TheImmortalGoud]

http://espn.go.com/boston/nfl/story/_/id/8557623/robert-kraft-owner-new-england-patriots-says-london-ready-own-team

LONDON --- At the NFL's FanFest rally on Saturday in Trafalgar Square, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft shared his belief that London is ready to have its own professional football team.

"You're already hosting the premier league, and we believe we're the premier sport in the world," Kraft told thousands in attendance. "I think London has shown, with the way they've handled the Olympics and every other major sporting event, that it's time for you to have your own NFL franchise, based in London."

Kraft was speaking in advance of Sunday's International Series game between the Patriots and St. Louis Rams at Wembley Stadium (1 p.m. ET). He was joined on stage by coach Bill Belichick, quarterback Tom Brady, tight end Rob Gronkowski, punter Zoltan Mesko and receivers Brandon Lloyd and Wes Welker.

Later, in a meeting with reporters, Kraft expounded upon his thoughts and how the Jacksonville Jaguars will play "home" games in London in each of the next four seasons (2013-2016).

"As these things develop and there's a permanent home team now, I'm sure they'll develop a great following," Kraft said, before broadening his thoughts to the league-wide level.

"Whatever we can do to cultivate playing football throughout the world ... We've been discussing that the NFL, I don't know if we've done as good a job as we could educating the rest of the world what a great game it is."

Sunday's game between the Patriots and Rams marks the sixth regular-season NFL game played in London. The league has scheduled two regular-season games to be played in London in 2013 -- the San Francisco 49ers vs. the Jaguars, and the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. the Minnesota Vikings (a "home" game for Vikings).

In his meeting with reporters, Kraft was asked if he feels playing in London this year puts the Patriots at a competitive disadvantage.

"I sort of feel like this is a home game for us when we're playing the Rams," he said, pointing out that it's technically a Rams home game even though they had to travel a longer distance.

"It's part of the challenge of organizing yourself. You get different time zones, you get players sick, you get players injured," he said. "It's just part of the operating experience. We only look at the positive side and we think the way we've set things up, hopefully we have a competitive advantage week in, week out, home or away.

"I think every football coach in America that coaches in the NFL would prefer to have every one of their games at 1 o'clock Sunday at home. But that's not the way the world works."

Earlier at Saturday's FanFest, Rams coach Jeff Fisher and several players, including quarterback Sam Bradford, spoke to the crowd.

But it was Gronkowski, the Patriots' third-year tight end, who stole the show by taking a microphone and spiking it onto the stage to replicate one of his trademark touchdown spikes.

"Gronk showed his true colors," Kraft said. "Let's hope he does that during the game tomorrow."

 

[Houston]

The NFL isn't ready for a London team.

 

[JimLeavy59]

The NFL needs to fuck off with this London shit.

 

[f16harm]

I respect the hell out of Mr. Kraft.......but he needs to back the truck up on this shit. He's a smart, successful man, surely he can't agree with the gigantic clusterfuck and idiocy this would create. Goodell or other owners must have blackmail on him.

 

[SuperKevin]

God help the team who has to play a home game on a Thursday in London following a Sunday night game

 

[BigBucs]

Yea, this shit is stupid. The traveling alone is reason enough to say fuck this shit.

God help the team who has to play a home game on a Thursday in London following a Sunday night game

They would probably bring two teams coming off a bye into that game.

 

[Hitman]

London is ready for a team before we put one in Canada or Mexico? Fuck you, Mr Kraft.

 

[Golden Taters]

London is ready for a team before we put one in Canada or Mexico? Fuck you, Mr Kraft.

Mexico?

MEXICO!?!?

 

[MVPete]

WTF happened to the EFL?

 

[Hitman]

Mexico?

MEXICO!?!?

Why not? There are more American style football fans in Mexico than London.. They have semi-pro leagues down there even..

 

[JimLeavy59]

Canada or Mexico should be getting NFL teams before London.

 

[wr50l]

It seems like the owners want it, so it will happen.

Technically speaking, they could move into the currently vacant Olympic Stadium and be playing next year, but I wouldn't think you'll see a team in London for another 10 to 20 years. As far as the logistics are concerned ... sure it's a long flight, but that isn't going to stop the NFL from finding a solution. There's just too much money on table here to be ignored; the NFL at the end of the day owns an effective monopoly on the sport, has saturated the USA, and is just looking to expand into the places where there is space.

 

[wr50l]

God help the team who has to play a home game on a Thursday in London following a Sunday night game

You think the NFL wouldn't have an alternative to that? Look fellas, you understand that the league sets the schedule every year? You also understand that the league not only sets the schedule, it also decides the very parameters by which team A is assigned to play team B. This is such lazy thinking from naysayers; if the NFL wants a team in London they will have it, and if they want an extra bye week or a revamped schedule template to accommodate that then they will do that. The logistics of the idea are not an issue that can't be resolved and they are not the issue that is holding the league from moving the Jags to London tomorrow.

 

[Maynard]

can we work on LA before we focus on london or canada

 

[PP]

Scott Zolak was on the radio during the pre-game and he was asked about this. He said the newspaper has a 20 page spread and you have to go to page 18 to find anything related to the NFL. The Patriots didn't have an official practice, they walked out of their hotel and went across the street to Hyde Park in the wide open to do their walkthrough and nobody even bothered them.. London won't give a shit about the NFL anytime soon.

 

[wr50l]

Scott Zolak was on the radio during the pre-game and he was asked about this. He said the newspaper has a 20 page spread and you have to go to page 18 to find anything related to the NFL. The Patriots didn't have an official practice, they walked out of their hotel and went across the street to Hyde Park in the wide open to do their walkthrough and nobody even bothered them.. London won't give a shit about the NFL anytime soon.

I guess the owners who have created an absolute hegemony of a sports league already and could probably be trusted to have an idea of what's going on in their own expansion plans ... well they must be barking up the wrong tree then. Those silly buggers have only gone and given us even more NFL games from now on, so they must be paying too much attention to those insane viewership growth rates which mean nothing.

 

[Point Blank]

It would suck playing for that squad, butt loads of traveling every week. No bueno..

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

People act as if flying to London is like flying to the moon.

"OMG HOW ARE TEAMS GOING TO MAKE THAT FLIGHT EVERY WEEK OMG"

It's not all that different than flying from the west coast to the east coast. I'm sure the players would survive.

The biggest hurdle is not the flight, the biggest hurdle is not fan interest. The biggest hurdle is convincing players (particularly free agents) to live there.

 

[Goober]

I would rather play for a team in London instead of a team in Mexico.

 

[EmpireWF]

Isn't all this more the NFL forcing their sport on Europe, unlike the NBA?

Does it really open up that much more revenue than anything domestically?