London Franchise

[retro74]

There is no way a London team will succeed in my opinion. Sure people like the "event" element of the Wembley games but there isn't enough there to support an actual team. Looking at UK TV figures it's clear that there is a market here but it's a small one

Top 5 Games - UK TV
1. Week 7 - Buffalo v Jacksonville - Wembley - 381,000 - BBC
2. Week 4 - NY Jets v Miami - Wembley - 290,000 - BBC
3. Week 1 - Green Bay at Chicago - 117,000 - Sky
4. Week 9 - Green Bay at Carolina - 103,000 - Sky
5. Week 14 - Pittsburgh at Cincinnati - 96,000 - Sky

The BBC figures skew things slightly as lot's of homes just leave BBC on all the time over here. Whether they were "active" watchers is debatable

I don't really know if I'm indicative of most UK fans but there is no way I would watch a London team unless they were playing Seattle. Maybe that's the intention? To fill the ground with fans of the opposition rather than those of the Jags/TBC?

Another sport I follow, rugby league, has been trying to crack the London market for over 30 years without success. There have been London sides down there but they have never been supported in large numbers - although when the England rugby league team plays they often fill Wembley. As I said London likes an event but a full season? Not likely in my opinion

 

[Greenhell]

A London franchise would be a stupid logistical nightmare that would show that the NFL is only guided by making money.

This.

 

[uk seahawk]

I would not like a team in London either

I was at the clink for the steelers game this season and the away support was great..it made the atmosphere better and more fun when we won..

can you imagine a home game with no away fans ( well not many ) because of the travel.

this I think would also be unfair on away fans having the chance to go to a game.

this I think is another money making idea to make the nfl owners richer at the expense of the fans

 

[Seahawks1983]

The only way a team in London will work is if there is a separate league/conference in Europe. But then you are talking about having 8-10 teams minimum, and I just don't see how they could generate enough marketshare to be successful.

 

[original poster]

As someone that lives just outside of London I don't like the idea.

The thought of every NFL team playing one game (be it home or away) appeals to me massively as I'd get to see the Hawks play once a year without it costing me £3000+ (over $5000!).

The reality is most UK NFL fans already have a team and wouldn't transition over. I'd have a loose interest in them but I certainly wouldn't become a season ticket holder.

Stick to X amount of games a year in London and I will stay happy, I was absolutely gutted the Hawks aren't making their way over to London next year though.

 

[Blueboy]

As someone that lives just outside of London I don't like the idea.

The thought of every NFL team playing one game (be it home or away) appeals to me massively as I'd get to see the Hawks play once a year without it costing me £3000+ (over $5000!).

The reality is most UK NFL fans already have a team and wouldn't transition over. I'd have a loose interest in them but I certainly wouldn't become a season ticket holder.

Stick to X amount of games a year in London and I will stay happy, I was absolutely gutted the Hawks aren't making their way over to London next year though.

This.....

 

[retro74]

BBC website is running a story that claims there will be a UK franchise in the next 6 years

To quote the BBC - The UK will have its own American football franchise within six years, according to NFL spokesman Mark Waller.

Interesting that it doesn't say London. I wonder if there is potential to play at different venues around the country? Scotland seems to have a fan base and there are a lot of fans where I live in the NW. St Helens where I live were national champions back in the 1990s

 

[UK_Seahawk]

BBC website is running a story that claims there will be a UK franchise in the next 6 years

To quote the BBC - The UK will have its own American football franchise within six years, according to NFL spokesman Mark Waller.

Interesting that it doesn't say London. I wonder if there is potential to play at different venues around the country? Scotland seems to have a fan base and there are a lot of fans where I live in the NW. St Helens where I live were national champions back in the 1990s

Came onto post the same news. Ridiculous idea I think.

With the best will in the world no NFL team is going to play in a stadium that holds 18k people (Langtree Park). London is the only realistic logistical place for a UK franchise.

 

[retro74]

Oh I don't think for even one second that they'd play in an RL stadium but Old Trafford would be big enough in terms of capacity. The issue they usually have with soccer grounds is that the pitches aren't long enough though

I've watched many, many RL matches in Old Trafford and the pitch is clearly not big enough for that but they play every year regardless

 

[London12]

Oh well f it, looking forward to getting the Hawks every now and again. In London hopefully.

Guess we'd be in an Eastern division..

 

[Popeyejones]

Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal would all make good sense. Especially Toronto.

I live in Toronto and the chance of it happening passed with the Bills staying in Buffalo.

The problem with Toronto is Buffalo is 90 minutes away; it'slike if Vancouver was half the distance from Seattle that it actually is and the NFL put a team in Vancouver.

Montreal is Montreal; there's a reason they don't even have an NBA team and haven't had an MLB team for a decade.

The problem with Ottawa is that there's really nothing around Ottawa, it's a smaller city (800K) with a crazily tiny greater metro area for a city of that size (1.2 million total metro area -- compare that to Seattle's 700K or so but 3.5 million plus in the metro area).

The real reason that I don't think it'll ever happen is I can't imagine any Canadian city ponying up the money for it (Canada is really into balanced budgets, and they're also not dumb enough to do it), and there just aren't enough billionaires here (and the population of billionaires isn't wealthy enough) to do it themselves.

I'd LOOOOOVE for there to be an NFL team in Toronto (I love it here and doubt I'll ever move), but it sadly just ain't gonna happen.

 

[Hasselbeck]

Goodell is the only idiot that could support this idea.