Now I know a lot of you either don't want or don't care if there is going to be a London NFL Franchise. As a Brit I really hope so. I'm told that the Jaguars UK Fan club (UnionJax) now has 40,000 members and the pre-season games are going to be at Fulham FC.
I'm English and a Jets fan and if the NFL set a franchise up in London I'd still remain a Jets fan. London is over 100 miles from where I live so a team there would have no draw for me.
I just don't see how a London team (or really any overseas team) is feasible. At the very least, that's 8 road games on another continent. What happens if they get a night game? Will Londoners stay up at 1am to watch it? We know soccer fields aren't really the best for football. What division would they play in, east, north? I can understand having a team in Canada or Mexico. London (or Europe in general) just seems like a little too much right now.
London is a huge city but I can't really see interest in the sport in the UK until football is played on different levels esp in the schools. Then it might take off. It's not just filling a stadium 8 times a year. It's TV ratings, etc. As for the Jags it's a possibility. They have been rumored for LA too. I think they're an up and coming organization with a good young GM and coach.
Not feeling the idea... too much confusion... plus that 9:30 AM (eastern time) game with ATL and Detroit was a bit too early... i don't see how we can run our normal 1,4:15.and 830 game schedule with a team thats 5 hours ahead of us when home.. Then the jet lag will probably have player complaining... just complicated. Our monday night game wouldn't even come on at night.. 4 PM (eastern time) monday games so it's mutual for everybody? i dont think so..
people are crazy. the nfl will NEVER have a England team.....lets get real. too many barriers to make this work.....travel time, taxes, players refusal, politics, etc. Will never happen no matter what the bozo commissioner might try saying about it, who himself will be out of the job in a few years. only way England gets American football is if they start fielding teams with English citizens, and I don't see that happening anytime soon. at least comparatively competitive to nfl standards.
I don't blame him. There's a lot of potential money to be made there. They tried NFL Europe and it didn't work. Now they have American NFL teams flying over and the stadiums at least look full (don't know about the ratings over there). So it's a very tantalizing idea.
Even as a UK fan I'm not ecstatic about the idea of having a UK franchise. Aside from the logistical issues I don't think it would be successful commercially. The number of UK Jags fan club members has little relation to the number of UK Jags fans. Most have joined to get discounts and special offers. The Jags are a bit more popular over here now, but still the numbers are fairly small. A lot of fans would be neutral or just general fans of the game, rather than fans of the London team. I remember the London team in the Mickey Mouse World League - hugely popular (and successful) at first but interest quickly waned and it folded with barely a whimper long before the rest of NFL Europe. As LeicesterJet hints, the UK is also quite regionally entrenched. Many outside the London area feel little or no association with London as a place and so would have little incentive to follow that team. And most NFL fans are already strongly attached to a team - I'm a fan of the NEW YORK Jets and nothing is going to change that. Anyway I got in before this thread was condemned to the NFL forum, which is a first!
I understand the NFL is a business and in business you are always looking to expand and bring in more revenue, but the notion of having a franchise on the other side of the pond just seems ridiculous to me. The NFL is a multi billion dollar a year industry and still growing here in the US. If the NFL wants to grow their product I think it should concentrate on expanding that new FXFL "farm" league. If that league is affiliated with the NFL it will prosper and grow a fanbase, imo.
I believe they are using Craven Cottage ( home of Fulham FC ) as its owned by the guy that owns the Jaguars. But even with that its a weird idea as its a crap ancient stadium, probably one of the worst and oldest in London. As a London Jets fan I will never switch to any other Franchise. Even if I ended up with on on my doorstep. I suppose I might be inclined to go to 1 or 2 games just to see professional football but I always prefer to see the Jets. I just dont see a franchise working here either. I can see interest dropping off if it was too regular. At the moment we have people going who would not normally go as its a novelty. Make it something that happens every other week for 4 months and im not sure it would sell out. Personally I would prefer they keep it with the current format. But set it up so there are maybe 4 games. So 8 teams. And those 4 games cycle so you get every team over here once every 4 years. I think that is more sustainable. There is a lot of support for the NFL in the UK, but also across europe in Holland and Germany. So its best served by giving them what they want. And that is the teams they already support.
I will always be a Jets fan (have been for 30 years) however I would buy a London Jags season ticket and encourage my son and daughter to support them.
I disagree. The NFL isn't interested in grass roots football in the UK and it doesn't need any Brits to fill the roster - we don't sell out every game in the hope of watching a Brit. Take a look at the EPL - there's hardly any English players left! There are 60 million Brits and 100's of millions of Europeans - that's too big a market to turn down and lets be fair when you have to start building swimming pools in Jacksonville stadium you're in trouble.
