London NFL Franchise
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You are currently reading a thread in /sp/ - Sports
So how do people feel about a potential NFL Franchise in London? I will freely admit that I don't know a huge amount about NFL, beyond playing MADDEN a bit and following the sport a bit when I was younger. I'm pretty excited about the prospect of it desu.
If it happens, I hope it's called the Redcoats and in the same division as the Patriots.
Here are a few articles I found about it.
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/sep/28/london-nfl-franchise-work-sean-ingle
http://en.espn.co.uk/more/sport/story/354795.html
As I understand it, these are the potential problems:
>time difference and long travel times. A west coast team flying to London or vice versa would traverse 8 time zones.
There are also potentially other logistical problems. I'm not convinced the time zone thing would be a huge difficulty. Teams from the east and west coast already have a 3 hour time difference between them.
>the NFL has tried going international before and it was a huge failure.
There's a wikipedia article about the league they set up in Germany in the 90s or some shit. I forget what it was called, but it was a failure.
However, on the plus side
>every NFL game they've held in London so far has been sold out (or at least pretty close)
The market is there, and teh NFL are keen to capitalise on it
>The owners of Wembley are desperate to get an NFL team in.
Something americans might not be aware of is that Wembley Stadium isn't very financially secure. Therefore, they and the London authorities will be super keen to get an NFL franchise in as a reliable source of income. No other sport (apart from Association Football) could fill Wembley Stadium three times in quick succession.
>The Jaguars are going to be moved to somewhere.
I read somewhere that the target date is 2022.
Inevitable but pointless. NFL should work on trying to set up an entire separate European league again IMO, we've seen ours get bloated enough as it is.
>>65193057
Here's what they had before
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Monarchs
>shit logo
What sounds better, The London Raiders or the London Jaguars?
>>65193594
Don't the Raiders have quite a big fanbase?
>>65193659
Yeah, but it's hard to go to games when you're in prison.
>fight war of independence to rid of British crown
>be contrarian to rest of the world and its British influence by using Imperial system while every other country is on Metric
>create and develop most powerful sports leagues other than soccer because soccer is "British and unAmerican"
>Now suddenly pushing to move most American sport to London
>Americucks
>>65193057
>I'm not convinced the time zone thing would be a huge difficulty
But that's a huge factor even with just a 3 hour difference
>>65193732
Not as bad as how much all of the Yuro teams are pushing to get non-Yuro fans
>>65193732
>cucking a nation like England into accepting our glorious sports
>not a good thing
Expansion MLB and NBA teams for London when?
London Lions rolls off the tongue
http://ninernoise.com/2016/01/22/report-nfl-planning-for-a-team-in-london-within-six-years/
It's confirmed
>>65193732
>>65193789
>>65193794
>2076
>300th anniversary of American Independence
>British NFL team wins the Superbowl
>Americans beaten at their own sport
Glorious
>>65193817
>yfw its the Patriots getting rekt by the Manchester Sillynannies
Twould be shameful lads.
>>65193888
nice trips
also
>Patriots getting rekt by the London Redcoats
What other British team names could we have?
>Glasgow Clansmen
>Belfast Bombers
etc.
>>65193732
>get rid of all British influence except the most important and dominant one: the language
Then everything becomes pointless.
A couple possibilities not being talked about:
London Buccaneers (owners also own MUFC, horribly bad in recent years)
London Titans (have recently replaced the Jaguars as the NFL's least relevant team)
I'm still thinking it will be the Bucs, even over the Jags or Raiders
>>65194110
Do they have to take the name with them?
>>65194153
No way. This isn't the NBA
I suspected this was nearly confirmed a few months ago when they expanded into doing more games at Spur's new toilet bowl and Twickenham.
I'm not sure where I stand on this, on the one hand, I don't really care all that much although having cash poured into Wembley can only be a good thing, Christ that stadium's a fucking mess.
However it'll just be American Athletes competing, if it was an actual British team then it'd be banter and I might actually care more.
Brits only care about divegrass and yuro handegg. They don't give a shit about murricun handegg and even apehoop.
Please give us a team in Istanbul, I need more foreign fans to stab
Why does this country keep building financially unviable stadiums?
would be good to see it at wembley but i wouldnt watch it on tv unless it was a big big game more likely just the super bowl
Also, Don't Krauts like Handegg more than UK? I know they have some semi-pro league thing going on even.
>>65198559
>>65198478
shut up arab
>>65198565
Speaking in 3rd person, are we?
>>65198514
It isn't unviable at all, there are only 8 home games a year in the NFL and people from all over Europe who are fans of the sport will go to games and support the team. Filling the stadium won't be the issue, it'll be all the other things like getting American players to want to move here and the logistical nightmare it presents.
Filling a stadium for three novelty games at Wembley per year isn't difficult. 8 games and developing a dedicated fan base for an entirely American team is completely different.
If you watch the "international" games you'll see a rainbow of jerseys because the few NFL fans in the UK/EU just want to see a game, not a team. Making a viable season-length following would be much harder on everyone involved.
I'd love to see some international teams, but you'd need to start at the amateur level to build them.
I've been following the NFL for about 7-8 seasons now and know quite a few people from England who are really into it as well, and trust me that most of these people would continue supporting the (US based) teams they do now rather than change allegiance to a London franchise
>>65198930
You're thinking of it in terms of it being like a British sports team with a dedicated fanbase. It won't be, most people in the crowd will be causals going to one game a year and be comfortable with that, that's certainly something I'd do. It's not just the UK either, as you point out it'd be all of western Europe's team, more than enough people to fill up Wembley 8 times a year.
>>65198577
Get reeeeekt
>>65198986
>western Europe's team
I love this idea more than a London team.
>the European Colonists
>the European Unions
>the Eurostars
>>65194025
Dublin Clovers
>>65198986
It would have a dedicated fanbase though. There are shitloads of American expats and Germans within an hour/ two hour drive of London who would buy season tickets.
Also it won't be at Wembley,, it will be at Tottenham's new ground. So you only have to try and fill a 60k stadium.
>>65193537
Good lord dude, look up the NFL Europe team logos in Europe.
Every. Single. Last. Logo. is complete shit.
>before every game the London team is put in a plane simulation for 12 hours to simulate jetlag and the trip that the opponents had to take to remove any unfair advantage
London Sillinannies
>>65193817
>implying all the players won't be yanks
>>65199093
As if NFL logos are any better; most of them look childish and retarded.
Also
>typing with a period after every word
>>>/tumblr/
>>65194025
Birmingham Jihadists
Bradford Haram
Rotherham Rapists
>>65193732
>and its British influence by using Imperial system
you do realise where the Imperial system comes from?
>>65199327
>American education
>>65194110
>London Oilers
>All the arabs bandwagon the team
it rhymes
>>65198362
>yuro handegg
If you mean rugby then no one cares about it, it's a posh thing. Cricket is unironically probably more followed/played.
>>65193794
It will be discontinued after a while. The only people I've ever seen even acknowledge NFL are from London and we all know about those "people."
>>65193794
NBA is trash. Nobody cares about apehoop outside of inner-city ghettos.
>>65199657
>I've ever seen even acknowledge NFL are from London and we all know about those "people."
Not sure who you talk to but the championship games and Super Bowl are watched by loads of people at my university, very popular events
>>65199705
>university students
2bh I don't see how it could be an event. I tried watching Broncos v Patriots the other day and it was literally 90% ads. I couldn't even remember the state of play because they dived to the ground and it stopped within like 5-10 seconds and then there was 2 more mins of ads.
>>65193057
>playing MADDEN a bit and following the sport a bit when I was younger.
You were bullied as a child weren't you anon.
>>65199752
That's exactly why going to a student bar with loads of other people where you can drink and talk when there's no . It's just a good excuse to get everyone down to a pub we'd probably be going to anyway and gives an extra thing to talk about. WIth everyone drunk people get quite into it too, definitely a fun experience I enjoy every year. Not into it enough to watch more than those 3 games but is fun for that much.
>>65199773
tbf I had a 2 year old madden game once too, one of those things which is always in the bargain bucket so for a kid with limited funds it was worth trying
>>65199752
that's why you come into the eurob owl threads where you chat with other anons during ads
A European league would be great.
We could have
America:
> AFC - NFC championship games
> American Super Bowl
Europe:
> 2 Division championship games
> European Super Bowl
Then the winner of the US SB and the winner of the EU SB will play in
> The International Super Bowl
>>65193659
Yes, but I can tell you everything you need to know about the Raiders in Oakland by telling you that Oakland's most well known athlete is a Panthers fan.
>>65199022
>Europe Knights
>>65199864
make the US-EU game a bit like the Ashes and have a little trophy that goes to the winning continent
>>65199809
This. I didn't really write on the comfy thread or understand some stuff that was going on but sharing the game with anon made it good, specially with so many ads.
It's not a sport to watch alone I think everyone can agree on this.
>>65199864
I would watch this
>>65199864
That sounds absolutely dope af.
>European Football Conference
>Continental Football Conference
There are your Eurobowl Conferences.
>>65193057
Couldn't care less m8. I'll check the result every week and adjust my shitposting on here accordingly, that's it.
We're pretty much indoctrinated from childhood to associate Redcoat --> bad, so it'd be pretty funny to see how made everyone got if they won an Owl on American soil
I don't think a London team would work in the long-term without an AFC/NFC International division and the market simply isn't there for that.
>>65193806
Then you have the problem of getting a team that acts the same as the current lions, then your screwed.
>>65193594
there is a zero percent chance the raiders go to London. texas .. maybe. LA.. maybe.. not London, though
Wouldn't be fair to the players. If London is the only Euro team, they would have to travel to US time zones for half the season.
I'd like to see the return of an all-European league, the winner of which will face the Super Bowl champs in a true World Championship game.
>>65193057
If they make a UK team, which division will it go into?
Either one division will have 5 teams or they create a new division for just 1 team. Just fuck my divisions up f.a.m.
>>65201439
they should probably just add four teams and go to four 9-team divisions. it would have no discernible effect on the playoff system
>>65201487
That could work. Then they could launch the other three teams in other big international markets (Germany for one). Then every division will have one international team, to even it out, and so you don't get some fans annoyed that their division has an international team while others don't.
>>65193057
i dont understand this meme. do people seriously think an nfl team is gonna relocate in london? not gonna happen... ever.
>>65193732
>be contrarian to rest of the world and its British influence by using Imperial system while every other country is on Metric
>go against british influence by using the same system britian uses
how the hell would this even work
they would never have a primetime game that would work for all fans
dont care that much 2bh
i give it a couple of seasons before the novelty wears off, attendances dwindle, and it'll eventually be scrapped
>>65201527
The NFL clearly has a desire too though. I reckon they will do something but it isn't clear what yet.
>>65201558
Hold the game at 7pm GMT - that's 2pm EST, and 11am PST. Easy.
>>65201527
They want to while no one else does
>>65193057
It will never happen
Maybe another euro league but never part of the current roster
>>65199874
>a Charlotte born and raised athlete is a fan of the panthers
Stop the fucking presses
>>65193732
There is so much dumb in this post that it's painful.
Raiders aren't even moving outside their own state in fear of losing 99% of their fanbase(i.e. The people that have kept the franchise afloat for decades)
What honestly makes you all think it'll move out of country
Can't wait to see Wembeley's hallowed turf get churned up 8 times a year by Devontaviarous and a load of other fat fuckers
It's gonna be the Jets. You'll see.
>>65193594
Though to bring the full range of British fans they'd need to rename the team to something like "The Piccadilly Paedos" (but at least the BBC would carry the games).
More seriously, I do wonder whether after the novelty wore off whether the UK+EU fans would maintain their interest.
On the plus side regular London games would end up as better matches, but there's not a lot of the grassroots support in Europe for concussionball, so if the team has a bad year, or even a bad stretch, fan support could dwindle. And there's none of the geographic rivalry that supports US teams through lean times (e.g., NFC North, where the teams are close enough that the fans can travel to the away games and the cities care about the games even when all the teams in the division are wretched.)
All in all the NFL in Europe feels like MLS here in the US - sort of an odd sport out.
>>65201439
Create an International Division
AFC:
London
Berlin
Stockholm
Paris
Moscow?
NFC:
Tokyo
Seoul
Sao Paulo
Sydney
Hong Kong
>>65202012
the new Wembley is shit and frankly resembles a Gridiron ground more than a Football ground anyway. I'm sure in the long term they would install an artificial pitch on top of the grass that can retract
>>65202224
That's exactly what spurs are planning on doing
>>65202256
Of course the American owned Jews would do that. I'm sure they'll even try to get the London franchise housed there and shift Spurs back to White Hart Lane
>>65202285
>housed there and shift spurs back to White Hart Lane
What are you on about?
>>65202363
>build new stadium with Spurs' money
>make deal to have NFL international games at new stadium
>even install special artificial turf for NFL games
>Levy strikes deal with NFL that the London Franchise will play at Spurs' new ground instead of Wembley
>Send Spurs back to play at WHL
>successfully jewed the jews out of a stadium and get that double income from two matchday sources
>>65202445
You do know they are building on the current site of WHL right? There won't be a stadium to go back to
How about the London Scallywags.
I mean it sounds retarded just like the british garbage pronunciation of everything in general
>a wicket, lol
>>65199022
European Bulls (Europa and the Bull)
European Olympians
European Continentals (although if based in London the name doesn't really work)
>>65202193
Asian countries won't have big enough people
London Atlantics
>>65193057
Because of the travel issues, I think the idea is moronic. Flying back and forth to London from the East coast creates jetlag issues, Vie done it enough to know. Doing to from the west coast would be insane.
And for the London team, that would be half of their games. (You could of course, pack several away games into one trip, but then you run into practice facility issues, etc.)
I understand the NFL wants more of that sweet, sweet European monies, and maybe a few folks over there really want local football.
But the idea is not workable.
It would make infinitely more sense to expand into Canadia or Mexico City even, though altitude issues there would be a problem.
>>65193537
The Claymores were better.
NFL = gay and boring. I hope it never gains any real traction here.
Before anyone says it already has, no it hasn't. Nobody ever talks about it except to make fun of how shit it is. A small number of tryhard faggots are into it and that's it.
>>65193746
And the time difference with the west coast is....
Can't wait to root for the London Brownskins desu.
>>65198586
His point was that the stadium is unviable as is, they need something like the NFL to come rescue them.
>>65198930
10 games the pre-season needs butts in seats.
>start at he amateur level
This, the league desperately needs more talent now, inspiring youth of the world (instead of just USA nd Samoa) to play football would be a good thing --look at how many international players there are in MLB.
Jesus Christ imagin the shitposting if the London team makes it to the playoffs.
>>65203226
The london team will win the bowl thanks to massive refball. You know that will happen because the nfl needs to show that giving us a team is a success and what better way is there to show it's a success than them becoming champs?
>>65199057
A smaller stadium means the upside is not as great, though.
No need to go to London to find an undersized stadium to play in, they could do that in Birmingham, Alabama or somewhere...
Milton Keynes Economists.
>>65194025
>Dublin Leprechauns
Not UK, I realize.
>Manchester Hooligans
>>65194025
Brighton Queers
NFL should just admit the defeat: Europe it's not your market m8s. carry on, Canada and Mexico are hungry for some Football.
>>65203372
The CFL is already a secondary farm for the NFL, although they should outright merge.
I mean we play our national fucking sport in a combined league with the US; I don't see why football hasn't gone that way already.
Europe is definitely different though. Leaving aside market size (though this point is definitely related), how would the NFL draft talent for UK let alone continental teams? They're not going to luck into a taxpayer-funded minor league there. But shipping it all from the US seems to miss the point.
>>65203551
>draft system
Something literally no one here will understand
>>65203551
>how would the NFL draft talent for UK
regional combines? The best in each region of the UK get put in a practice squad?
I feel like a prospective London team should be heavily focussed on meme plays and gimmicks as well to keep the crowds happy
>>65202193
>AFC
>all within three hours of each other
Okay.
>NFC
>all within two hours of each-
>Sao Paulo
>not even in the same hemisphere
Nope. Would make more sense to add a Melbourne franchise.
p90x isnt a complete meme and will make Lacy elite again
literally cant prove me wrong nerds
>>65204338
oh shit wrong thread
anyways canada deserves one (bills) before london
better for logistic reasons imo too
>>65194110
The bucs aren't going anywhere. They've been in tampa for 40 years, have a superbowl and just drafted a franchise QB for the first time in an eternity. They also post consistently better TV ratings and attendence numbers than the jags.
The jags are fucked. Jacksonville is the nickelback of american cities and the fact that it ever got an NFL franchise is a joke.
>>65201361
oh no, a few hours flight once every 2 weeks how awful
i've flown to florida before it's not that big of a deal
>>65202285
>american owned
that's not true though
The premier league won't have any lion handegg team in London, lion is already on the branding.
>>65207367
What about trans-polar flights to get to Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle? That's a day lost to travel for any of those.
Although I suppose you could ameliorate the problem by scheduling London to play back-to-back road games.
>>65193057
you're forgetting another huge hurdle about a London team OP, and it's that the time zone difference makes it too far for it to be reasonable to host any primetime games. those are always supposed to be a huge draw with money in play, but primetime games would end up starting at around 1:30 am GMT, that's just fucking impossible. no owner would agree to move their franchise there under those conditions, nor would they accept having to have NO primetime games at all because it's not feasible in london time.
>>65203372
>>65203551
the NFL would really want to expand into canada and would have done so with Toronto decades ago, but the canadian parliament passed a law that said if the NFL tried to expand into any canadian cities, then the NFL would be outright banned in the whole country. they did that to protect the CFL which they feel is a more worthwhile priority, since that would probably die fast if the NFL came to canada.
No way it would ever work. Euros wont be willing to sit through 2 hours of commercials per game.
>>65209942
I feel that measuring whether or not the market is viable for a local NFL fandom should not be done by looking at the attendance of the few games they hold there. Instead, they should bring in league coverage on television just as prominent (or close to it, at least) as we get over here so that they can experience what watching football on TV every sunday is like. if not enough people tune in, or only for the 1pm (6pm london time) games, then that will be a far better indicator of what the market is like.
it's not even a for sure thing that they can sell out 8 games per year every year, but even if they could that doesn't mean that it's a true NFL market. I mean, some MLS teams have pretty good attendance rates over here too, but that doesn't mean it's wildly successful in terms of television ratings, right? in order to really succeed, you're going to need all three indicators: attendance, ratings, and merchandise sales. I doubt they can pull in all three, maybe not even be guaranteed that they do well in any of them long-term
biggest issue is taxation. Players on the london team are going to get shafted by being taxed differently than domestic players, meaning the london team will have a much more difficult time getting free agents
>>65201777
trips confirm
>time difference and long travel times. A west coast team flying to London or vice versa would traverse 8 time zones.
The team that has to travel to London has a bye week before hand so they get two weeks acclimation to London time.
Also do muslims like the NFL.
>>65211116
Hard to do with the schedule
And plus what about the London team coming thins way?
It would probably be worse
>>65210924
NFL players throw their money away so fast they probably wouldn't notice
>>65203280
underrated desu
>>65211215
Just make them play their first 8 games on the road in the states. Then they get their bye week and play their last 8 at home.
Realistically though, you'd need a whole European division to cut down on flights.
>>65211287
>8 straight away games
That would be impossible too
>>65210924
If you can get the players to spend less than 90 days in total in the UK then they don't have to pay tax here (assuming they're not married to someone who is a UK tax resident).
That gives the team the scope to spend one day short of 13 weeks in the UK. That's plenty of time for them to be here for home games in both the regular season and the play-offs, although home games will probably need to be grouped together to avoid onerous jet lag.
I imagine such a team would need to have a US base to effectively prepare ahead of games away from home. And I imagine your average NFL player will be extremely happy to be able to stay in the US for 275 days a year.
>>65193706
Underrated post
It won't happen, at least not in the same league. It would be hell for the players to fly from London to back to the US every other week. No athletes would want to play there. However, a secondary league, a minor league perhaps, consisting of 10 teams could happen. The league would be owned and managed by the NFL.
>>65193057
If a league failed in Germany (Where they have no outdoor contact sport) why would it work In England where they already have 2 forms of Rugby. One for Upper class fags and the other for northern chimps ?
>>65209925
So, what, they didn't want Canadian football to become beholden to an American league like Canadian hockey did?
Such a strange idea. I think NFL integration would bring greater revenues to Canadian cities than the CFL does.
London Dreadnoughts
Could you get used to that name?
>>65213354
NFL Europe was an actual minor league though
>The owners of Wembley are desperate to get an NFL team in.
>Something americans might not be aware of is that Wembley Stadium isn't very financially secure. Therefore, they and the London authorities will be super keen to get an NFL franchise in as a reliable source of income. No other sport (apart from Association Football) could fill Wembley Stadium three times in quick succession.
there it is lads
What would cause the bigger melt down? A British team winning the NFL or USA winning World Cup?
London AFF. Nicknames are unecessary.
>>65199681
>implying
>>65214156
The "Brit" team would just be Americans so obviously the US winning the World Cup
>>65214202
Don't rugby teams have nicknames?
>>65214156
>>65214302
The asshurt for the losing NFL team would be immense though. Think of the torrent of banter that would result from losing to the London Jaguars.
>>65214302
A fair few but not all. Even the ones that do are mostly referred to by their town. People would call Leicester Tigers just Leicester rather than Tigers.
Rugby League and Super Rugby (the southern hemisphere league) use NFL-style naming though, and Super Rugby is actually organised on franchises sort of like the NFL.
Move the Steelers to Sheffield. You don't even need to change the team name.
>>65214503
>>65214403
>not London Redcoats
>Thinking because people come out to see a couple games that they would support whatever perennial loser that got shoved on them
>Thinking that the players won't riot if this does ever happen
No one can be stupid enough to think that the players who comprise the majority of each team would be willing to relocate to England permanently. Hell the players hate going over there now for just the one week.
The NFL should do this and bite the bullet for the first 20 years:
>Have a new division in a conference
>In the NFC
>4 Teams
>London Lions
>Dublin Fighting Irish
>Cardiff Dragons
>Edinburgh Unicorns (sorry can't use clansmen)
Get Premier League owners to overpay 3Billion franchise fees for the clubs. Agree to subsidize them for 20 years.
