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OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise

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OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#1 » by PkrsBcksGphsMqt » Fri Oct 2, 2015 4:37 pm

I think in the next 10-15 years, American pro sports leagues are going to take a major step in becoming world wide leagues, with the NBA likely becoming the first to set up European franchises.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/02/george-osborne-nfl-american-football-team-london

George Osborne wants to have an NFL franchise based permanently in London within the next five years to confirm the city’s status as the “sporting capital of the world”.

The chancellor met with NFL executives, team owners and former players at Downing Street as the Miami Dolphins prepared to face the New York Jets at Wembley stadium on Sunday.

Osborne said he would “love to have a team here based in the UK playing in the NFL” and he believed Britain was making steps towards that goal. “The real prize, the real touchdown for London, would be to get a team based here,” he said.

When asked about the potential timeframe for such a move, Osborne said: “Hopefully it is something we could achieve in the next few years, maybe four or five years’ time. These things can’t change overnight because obviously teams are already based in some home cities in the States. But I am in talks with the NFL, sorting out the arrangements.

“They get such a huge welcome, teams like the Dolphins and the Jets when they come here, there is a big fanbase here and it would mean a huge amount for our economy because it would confirm London as the sporting capital of the world – and that is what I want to see.”
The chancellor met the NFL’s Dan Marino and Curtis Martin during the visit, exchanging a Rugby World Cup 2015 ball for a gold NFL Super Bowl 50 ball. Osborne also received Jets and Dolphins shirts.

Marino said he believed logistics of bringing a team to the UK on a permanent basis would be the biggest challenge.

The former Dolphins quarterback and Hall of Fame member said: “There are other sports that do it – basketball, baseball, they go on the road for three and four weeks at a time. I think that’s probably the way they would handle having a team here … To play in London would be pretty interesting.”

Marino and Martin threw an American football around outside Downing Street as they gave Osborne a brief tutorial. The chancellor threw just one pass and Marino later joked that Osborne’s throw “needs work”.
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Re: OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#2 » by emunney » Fri Oct 2, 2015 4:50 pm

Does anybody in GB play football?
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Re: OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#3 » by MickeyDavis » Fri Oct 2, 2015 5:23 pm

I hope this doesn't happen. Logistical issues of course. And I certainly don't want expansion. So I assume IF there is no expansion the Jags would most likely move there. I understand that in business the goal is always to keep growing. Grow or die. The owners are always looking to increase revenue. And I suppose at some point TV revenue will level off. But just say no to overseas teams.
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Re: OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#4 » by Bernman » Fri Oct 2, 2015 5:55 pm

emunney wrote:Does anybody in GB play football?


The game was invented there. It houses the most popular league in the world. Most people play it.

Oh, you're referring to handball/pigskin. I've heard of "underground" leagues, but that's the extent of it. I'd be surprised if they would have even one Brit on the team there. That's why it won't work. On the whole they aren't interested in revering Americans. It's one thing in one offs with niche fan interest and the novelty aspect, it's a whole other being prideful on a game in game out basis by a local team. They really think they could get the appeal of the Packers, Steelers, or even the Cardinals there? Fat chance. Not to mention the travel nightmare.
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Re: OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#5 » by RRyder823 » Fri Oct 2, 2015 6:19 pm

To much of a logistics nightmare for the NFL but they do seem to be trying hard for it so I guess I'd say about a 2% chance of happening just to leave the door open.

Really for any American based sports league its just to much of an issue just from a logistics percpective to really be all that feesible. Could some leagues "possibly" work out an over seas team? Sure. But the hassle and the risk aren't really worth it.

"Maybe" a strict euro division for any sport that decides to try it could try an overseas mass expansion, where they add effectively half another league overseas, and then the winner of that league plays our Champs, with cross matchups here n there over the course of a season, could work I guess. But once again..... RISK/REWARD.... And hell the NFL allready tried that allready on a smaller scale and failed horribly

Just seems like a bad idea for the NFL. Not only that though. It's extra dumb when LA and Vegas are still very marketable destinations for a team to relocate to no matter what the NFL says about Vegas
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Re: OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#6 » by Ron Swanson » Fri Oct 2, 2015 7:18 pm

I still don't understand why the NFL has been pushing for this when there is almost zero fan interest in it. British people simply don't care about American football, yet Goodell seems intent on trying to cram it down their throats and try to create a market where one doesn't exist.

And that's not even getting into the logistical nightmare it would create for their road games...
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Re: OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#7 » by BUCKnation » Fri Oct 2, 2015 7:44 pm

They are building a stadium for it, but yeah logistically it is a mess. There actually are a decent amount of fans in GB.
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Re: OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#8 » by trwi7 » Fri Oct 2, 2015 10:02 pm

Only when the LA Galaxy can join the Premier League.
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Re: OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#9 » by jakecronus8 » Fri Oct 2, 2015 10:27 pm

If this were to happen they would just be a perennial doormat team. Nobody would want to play there. Nobody.

When I went to Hawaii for a week it honestly took about a month for my body to adjust to the time zone change when I got back. Can't imagine being an NFL player and having to deal with all the lingering pain on top of it.
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Re: OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#10 » by MickeyDavis » Fri Oct 2, 2015 10:55 pm

Have 2 or 3 games there a year. Good enough.
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Re: OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#11 » by Bernman » Sat Oct 3, 2015 1:24 am

MickeyDavis wrote:Have 2 or 3 games there a year. Good enough.


Yeah, if there is any upgrade to their current strategy they could make, it's just providing the UK with a better quality game for their one offs. There's the issue of the Packers nor any big drawing franchise wanting to give up their home game. But I don't see why they couldn't do like Packers-Cardinals as a Cardinals' home game or Patriots-Chargers' as the Chargers'. Seldom bad teams these days, but not the most devoted fan bases. It's like every game they send to the UK is a mismatch or between two bad teams. Not exactly a good advert for the excitement of the sport.
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Re: OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#12 » by emunney » Sat Oct 3, 2015 2:03 am

I mean, stating the obvious, but being separated from all other teams by at least an ocean is too much to overcome in this sad pre-teleportation age.
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Re: RE: Re: OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#13 » by HKPackFan » Sat Oct 3, 2015 2:14 am

Bernman wrote:
emunney wrote:Does anybody in GB play football?


The game was invented there. It houses the most popular league in the world. Most people play it.

Oh, you're referring to handball/pigskin. I've heard of "underground" leagues, but that's the extent of it. I'd be surprised if they would have even one Brit on the team there. That's why it won't work. On the whole they aren't interested in revering Americans. It's one thing in one offs with niche fan interest and the novelty aspect, it's a whole other being prideful on a game in game out basis by a local team. They really think they could get the appeal of the Packers, Steelers, or even the Cardinals there? Fat chance. Not to mention the travel nightmare.



Agreed it is a logistical nightmare and I don't know how they can pull it off but completely disagree with not specifically your post but the general attitude that brits don't care about football.

The brits I know are crazy about American football. One of my brit buddies here is a die hard packers fan and packers have a ton of fans in the UK. When there was some talk 6 months ago about jags vs pack in london in 2016 we had a group of 30 people ready to fly to London within a few minutes without hardly asking. We didn't even begin to plan or anything coz it was shot down by jags owner, but based on the momentum our small network of people could have swelled to 50 to 100 people.

The brits I know say the stadium sells out in minutes whenever there is an NFL game there. He said the first game sold out in minutes, the next year they added another game and that sold out in minutes, so they added another nfl game and that sold out in minutes. The appetite for watching football is there. The dolphins have a HUGE following as they were the first team ever to play there. I think dolphins are #1 I can't recall #2 but Patriots are somewhere in the top 3.

There are thousands of guys playing in leagues across the UK. There are tons of geared football and flag football leagues all over the UK.

It is true there is no infrastructure for youth to grow into the sport and move up to the next level into college and beyond but there IS a fan base, Absolutely it exists. It is bigger than people realize. I hate Goodell, but I don't think he's forcing brits to like football, the real life brits I know have an interest in it and it's only growing. But to the main point, I have No idea logistically how the heck to pull it off.
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Re: OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#14 » by Mags FTW » Sat Oct 3, 2015 2:23 am

emunney wrote:Does anybody in GB play football?

Yeah, but they suck. In high school players from my conference hosted some UK kids for a week before playing an international game. The USA team won like 59-0.
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Re: RE: Re: OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#15 » by Bernman » Sat Oct 3, 2015 4:09 am

HKPackFan wrote:Agreed it is a logistical nightmare and I don't know how they can pull it off but completely disagree with not specifically your post but the general attitude that brits don't care about football.

The brits I know are crazy about American football. One of my brit buddies here is a die hard packers fan and packers have a ton of fans in the UK. When there was some talk 6 months ago about jags vs pack in london in 2016 we had a group of 30 people ready to fly to London within a few minutes without hardly asking. We didn't even begin to plan or anything coz it was shot down by jags owner, but based on the momentum our small network of people could have swelled to 50 to 100 people.

The brits I know say the stadium sells out in minutes whenever there is an NFL game there. He said the first game sold out in minutes, the next year they added another game and that sold out in minutes, so they added another nfl game and that sold out in minutes. The appetite for watching football is there. The dolphins have a HUGE following as they were the first team ever to play there. I think dolphins are #1 I can't recall #2 but Patriots are somewhere in the top 3.

There are thousands of guys playing in leagues across the UK. There are tons of geared football and flag football leagues all over the UK.

It is true there is no infrastructure for youth to grow into the sport and move up to the next level into college and beyond but there IS a fan base, Absolutely it exists. It is bigger than people realize. I hate Goodell, but I don't think he's forcing brits to like football, the real life brits I know have an interest in it and it's only growing. But to the main point, I have No idea logistically how the heck to pull it off.


I know of the Brit contingent, but we're talking about one-offs here, and people flying or traveling in from long distance. Look what happened with the World Cup in the U.S. It's the most attended World Cup ever, and there were quite a few less games then to boot. Plus, fans fill huge stadiums when the sexy teams from Europe come to play exhibitions. Yet what were the turnouts early in MLS? It was 13-15k after the inaugural season. 20 years later they've crawled up to 20k. And this is in a country where in the sport there was somewhat of infrastructure, and half the league was American. There's a HUGE difference between supporting a team week in and week out for 16 games and for years, and supporting them for a couple with a novelty effect. FWIW, London's/England's NFL Europe team went under, years before the league did as well. It's a gamble, and one I would bet on not working out.
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Re: OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#16 » by WeekapaugGroove » Sat Oct 3, 2015 7:52 am

Having a team full time there doesn't seem like a good idea. If they really want to expand globally and solve the preseason/expanded season thing that keeps coming up do this: cut preseason to 2 games and play 17 regular season games where every team plays 1 neutral site game a year. That would be 16 games a year u can put all over the globe. U could have a couple core places like London that gets 4 or so games a year then mix it up with the remaining games. Heck play some games at the iconic college stadiums too. Seems like a win all around less preseason games and 1 less game overall but 1 extra week of profit with regular season games and they could sell the hell out of the nutral site games and make a event out of them.


Since you cut 2 preseason games they could add a second bye and have that matched up the that teams nutral site game.
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Re: RE: Re: OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#17 » by HKPackFan » Sat Oct 3, 2015 1:48 pm

WeekapaugGroove wrote:Having a team full time there doesn't seem like a good idea. If they really want to expand globally and solve the preseason/expanded season thing that keeps coming up do this: cut preseason to 2 games and play 17 regular season games where every team plays 1 neutral site game a year. That would be 16 games a year u can put all over the globe. U could have a couple core places like London that gets 4 or so games a year then mix it up with the remaining games. Heck play some games at the iconic college stadiums too. Seems like a win all around less preseason games and 1 less game overall but 1 extra week of profit with regular season games and they could sell the hell out of the nutral site games and make a event out of them.


Since you cut 2 preseason games they could add a second bye and have that matched up the that teams nutral site game.



I like this idea. No one would be missing a home game.
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Re: RE: Re: RE: Re: OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#18 » by HKPackFan » Sat Oct 3, 2015 1:50 pm

Bernman wrote:
HKPackFan wrote:Agreed it is a logistical nightmare and I don't know how they can pull it off but completely disagree with not specifically your post but the general attitude that brits don't care about football.

The brits I know are crazy about American football. One of my brit buddies here is a die hard packers fan and packers have a ton of fans in the UK. When there was some talk 6 months ago about jags vs pack in london in 2016 we had a group of 30 people ready to fly to London within a few minutes without hardly asking. We didn't even begin to plan or anything coz it was shot down by jags owner, but based on the momentum our small network of people could have swelled to 50 to 100 people.

The brits I know say the stadium sells out in minutes whenever there is an NFL game there. He said the first game sold out in minutes, the next year they added another game and that sold out in minutes, so they added another nfl game and that sold out in minutes. The appetite for watching football is there. The dolphins have a HUGE following as they were the first team ever to play there. I think dolphins are #1 I can't recall #2 but Patriots are somewhere in the top 3.

There are thousands of guys playing in leagues across the UK. There are tons of geared football and flag football leagues all over the UK.

It is true there is no infrastructure for youth to grow into the sport and move up to the next level into college and beyond but there IS a fan base, Absolutely it exists. It is bigger than people realize. I hate Goodell, but I don't think he's forcing brits to like football, the real life brits I know have an interest in it and it's only growing. But to the main point, I have No idea logistically how the heck to pull it off.


I know of the Brit contingent, but we're talking about one-offs here, and people flying or traveling in from long distance. Look what happened with the World Cup in the U.S. It's the most attended World Cup ever, and there were quite a few less games then to boot. Plus, fans fill huge stadiums when the sexy teams from Europe come to play exhibitions. Yet what were the turnouts early in MLS? It was 13-15k after the inaugural season. 20 years later they've crawled up to 20k. And this is in a country where in the sport there was somewhat of infrastructure, and half the league was American. There's a HUGE difference between supporting a team week in and week out for 16 games and for years, and supporting them for a couple with a novelty effect. FWIW, London's/England's NFL Europe team went under, years before the league did as well. It's a gamble, and one I would bet on not working out.



Agreed it is a gamble. Also agreed it's not the most popular sport in UK and never will be. I don't think it's as much a novelty when they host several games a year year after year always selling out. I just get annoyed when people say brits don't like American football. The contingent is bigger than I'd ever thought possible.
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Re: OT - International American football 

Post#19 » by HKPackFan » Wed Oct 7, 2015 6:55 am

This was a fun read:

http://mmqb.si.com/2015/07/08/american-football-italy-milan-rhinos-nfl

Italian guys getting paid to play american football with pizza, coach drinking before a game, smoking at halftime...Love it.


As a person who watches american football played internationally I do love seeing the oddities of the sport at the international Level.

When I first moved to Hong Kong there was 1 football team, the Hong Kong Cobras. Now there are 3+ teams in tiny HK, plus a complete mainland China league, and a full fledged flag football league in HK.

I remember the first game I ever watched in HK I saw this chinese local kid, he was short not big, but crazy fast. He gets the ball on a hand-off early in the first quarter and bursts through the line and runs 50 yards untouched for a TD. He trots over the bench and a lady begins fanning him (mother, gf, auntie? No idea and too far away to tell). Literally with one of those asian paper type hand fans on a warm summer day. He sits for the entire 1st & 2nd quarter. He comes back onto the field early in the 3rd quarter for a play. Gets 1 handoff, burst through the line like lightening and goes untouched for 40 yards for a TD. He goes directly back to the sideline where he begins to get fanned again. Now while being fanned the lady breaks out the chopsticks and he starts chomping on fish balls. (Fish balls are like meat balls, but fish meat). The fanning never stops, this lady must have the arms of a sailor because she's been fanning for over an hour. Finally the 4th quarter rolls around, he comes in for 1 play, gets the handoff, goes untouched for 60 yards scores a TD. And predictably goes back to the bench to be fanned and eat more food out of his chinese takeout box.

That was the craziest **** I've ever seen on a football field. Kid had 3 plays, 3 rushes, 150+ yards, 3 TDs. And a woman treating him like a greek God while he stuffed his face with fishballs. :lol:
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Re: OT - London trying to get NFL Franchise 

Post#20 » by HKPackFan » Wed Oct 7, 2015 7:26 am

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2015/07/24/nfl-future-europe

Good article on NFL future in Europe and London.
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