NFL 2009/10

I can't see a London based franchise working. For the first three or four games they may pull in a fullhouse, but if they begin getting thrashed like the likes of Tampa and Tennessee the crowds will fall. NFL is in the Americans blood, like soccer with us. When the initial honeymoon period is over that'll be it's lot.

I think the fact that
1) the fact the spectators would get the chance to see some of the best players who ever played the game in the flesh
2) there are only 8 home games a year would mean plenty of people would be happy to be season ticket holders so therefore, the effects of poor results would be minimal on attendances
3) It would be a seen as a great day out/ a big event

would mean that potentially it could work very well.

I thionk Seth has a point, while a one off game each year is a special occasion it will draw people from all over the country,would that happen on a regular basis after the first couple of years?

(20-10-2009 20:30 )brummie Wrote:  I thionk Seth has a point, while a one off game each year is a special occasion it will draw people from all over the country,would that happen on a regular basis after the first couple of years?

After all (and I know it may not be the same level or directly compatible) an NFL europe franchise proved unsustainable long term in the UK.

Perhaps they would be better off sticking to one off games with established NFL teams to promote interest in the game over here and at the same time work to develop the British game.After all when 'soccer' was 1st introduced to the US on a grand scale witha host of world stars it never really took off until now when there is a grass roots playing the game in colleges and the interest is there.

The reason why NFL Europe never worked is the reason why MLS has not worked it was a second rate competition full of either second rate players or unproven ones. The fact that some of the very best players in the world, would be playing in the best grid iron competition in the world, would I feel ,attract people to watch a London based team. After all it is only 8 regular season games for people to make that trip. Plenty of people make the trek from London to watch the Man utd home games so why not the reverse?

(20-10-2009 20:37 )setter1000 Wrote:  

(20-10-2009 20:30 )brummie Wrote:  I thionk Seth has a point, while a one off game each year is a special occasion it will draw people from all over the country,would that happen on a regular basis after the first couple of years?

After all (and I know it may not be the same level or directly compatible) an NFL europe franchise proved unsustainable long term in the UK.

Perhaps they would be better off sticking to one off games with established NFL teams to promote interest in the game over here and at the same time work to develop the British game.After all when 'soccer' was 1st introduced to the US on a grand scale witha host of world stars it never really took off until now when there is a grass roots playing the game in colleges and the interest is there.

The reason why NFL Europe never worked is the reason why MLS has not worked it was a second rate competition full of either second rate players or unproven ones. The fact that some of the very best players in the world, would be playing in the best grid iron competition in the world, would I feel ,attract people to watch a London based team. After all it is only 8 regular season games for people to make that trip. Plenty of people make the trek from London to watch the Man utd home games so why not the reverse?

A lot of it would depend on how well the London franchise did. For the first couple of years, if they got thrashed It could be expected and accepted. If it continued after that then a lot of the band-wagoners won't bother with it anymore and I'm not sure the diehard fans are enough for it to survive over here alone. If however, they got close to a championship and the Superbowl, then the media most likely would get into a bit of a frenzy and they would draw crowds in. But it's not a big sport here, and for it to succeed the Franchise would need to be successful, because seeing the likes of Brady and Manning throwing 5 TD's in one quarter may be fun at first, if it keeps happening people will just get tired of it. Nobody likes following a losing team, even less those who follow a sport where their hearts not really in it. The diehards will stick around but the fair-weather fans will go onto something else. It's happened before with cricket and rugby over here, but those two sports were big enough to survive, not so sure about gridiron.

in the eighty's England had a shocking rugby team on average the worst team in the then 5 nations yet Twickenham use to always get a full house. It was such a big occasion to watch an international even if England got tanked which happened plenty of times, people still came in droves to watch. There were on average only about 5 international games a year played at twickenham(2 5 nation games and 3 autumn internationals) that people still flocked to see them play especially if the mystical all blacks were in town, even though they realistically expected them to get beaten.

Like wise I feel the fact that there are only 8 games to watch will result in near packed houses for each game even 5-10 years after the London franchise are established, just to see them actually win at least one game, should they be as big a "mickey mouse" outfit as say the Detroit lions.

Another point to consider,with the NFL season running the same time as our football season,where would the games be played? The Wembley pitch has enough problems coping with ONE NFL game,can you imagine the state of the pitch after 8 regular season games plus 2 pre-season games plus possibly play-off games as well.
Can you imagine the national uproar if the England football team failed to qualify for a tournament because of the Wembley turf was cut up by an NFL game.
Just to clarify something NFL season tickets are for 10 games,you have to buy the 2 home pre-season games as well.

Steady on now that 'Mickey Mouse' outfit was good enough to beat us-they must be fantastic!

(20-10-2009 21:47 )PillowPants Wrote:  Another point to consider,with the NFL season running the same time as our football season,where would the games be played? The Wembley pitch has enough problems coping with ONE NFL game,can you imagine the state of the pitch after 8 regular season games plus 2 pre-season games plus possibly play-off games as well.
Can you imagine the national uproar if the England football team failed to qualify for a tournament because of the Wembley turf was cut up by an NFL game.
Just to clarify something NFL season tickets are for 10 games,you have to buy the 2 home pre-season games as well.

good point about the pitch, maybe do a deal with twickenham then. The pitch condition is not exactly going to affect the rugby matches as much as it does the football. If could not get twickenhams co-operation could schedule it around the qualifiers. As I mentioned before if they were to have a franchise in london they could have one month at home another month away so could schedule in conjunction with the fa allow at least a month to get the pitch fit for the beautiful, free flowing, eye catching football our countrymen are notorious for

(20-10-2009 21:56 )brummie Wrote:  Steady on now that 'Mickey Mouse' outfit was good enough to beat us-they must be fantastic!

Apparently Brummie and I am not making this up, pundits said that Detroit's performance against the Redskins was probably the most complete near perfect performance ever displayed in grid iron history! honest