London Franchise

Is is a good idea to have a UK NFL franchise?

[*]As good as it would be for widening the interest in the sport, would college players really want to be drafted to that team?

[*]Even with the regular season scheduling to accomodate a trip to london as part of the bye week, surely its still a bit unnecessary and would produce a team thats a bit of a gimmick?

We have a similar thing being discussed at the moment with the EPL, with teams potentially having to play on another continent for one premiership game, and this in itself is seen by many as unnecessary.

NFL is broadcast to a large international audience, and as someone in the UK I can tune in on a sunday evening like you would in the US to watch and enjoy with no hassle (albeit I may have to stay up until the early hours if its a late KO at Century Link). So why does the UK need its own franchise?

Interested to hear the thoughts of US and UK seahawks fans

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

I agree, and can I praise the DP as someone whose family is from Hasland haha, I am a Spireite myself

Would be a disaster, but money talks.

I can't get my head around the logistics. As you say, you've got the college players to think about, but also the vets. Not everyone's going to see it as exciting.

Then you've got tax issues to think about. I think non resident athletes earning in the UK are taxed a whopping 50%, plus a portion of any endorsement deals. The alternative? Become a resident with 45% income tax instead.

In summation, it could become farcical, with holdouts, trade requests and unhappy football players, not to mention a crappy team travelling 6+ hours every other week.

A return of NFL Europe I could get behind, but a London-based team just doesn't make a lick of sense, IMO.

Popeyejones":1ztp5ddb said:

A return of NFL Europe I could get behind, but a London-based team just doesn't make a lick of sense, IMO.

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This. I just don't see how competitive balance can be had.

The thought that they would even be in discussion on this idea boggles my mind. I mean the logistics of putting teams in Hawaii or Alaska (no, the Seahawks really aren't in South Alaska) would be bad enough.

Sorry, but 3 time zones is well enough distance to span with sports teams. Expanding it to 6 or 7 time zones is ludicrous.

It would be a total disaster.

Seems like when this topic comes up, our UK posters always say something like, "Everybody here that's a fan already has a team they follow. We don't really need or want one."

I can see how that would be true, but over time, wouldn`t the "home team" build allegiance?

Personally, I don`t really like the idea. Canada and Mexico seem like better places to start going international. Fully colonize the home continent before crossing the seas...

There are ways to make the logistics of having a team so far away possible. I don't really believe it's a great idea though and after the glitter of being new wears off I could see it not making sense financially.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source= ... 9uKKoOAeCQ

I've never understood how anyone could even consider it as a plausible idea. We complain about the effect a 10am start has on the west coast teams, do you know what time Monday night football (not to mention the Superbowl) starts in England. Their players will have the most messed up circadian rhythms. Besides, who's going to want them in their division.

One team in London? No way.

What could possibly make sense is an entire division over there. Then you could do something like 4 home games, 6 road games (in the US), and then back to London for the rest of your schedule.

But no team would want to play that many consecutive road games.

I think it's more likely that we see two games in London per week from, say, weeks 2-9 - with every team forced to partake (like Thursday night games). Whoever is the road team for the Thursday game (which is a big disadvantage IMO) gets to be the "road" team in England (which provides the advantage of only 7 true road games). That way you still get a bye week after your London trip.

It would also be awesome for all the European fans to have a chance to see their team every season.

I'd really like the Jaguars to move to London and the Bills move to Toronto. Then put the Raiders in Mexico City.

Some fun ideas from everyone here.

I'm in the already a Seahawks fan camp so not bothered about a team. Would love a weekly game and a chance to see the Hawks live without the trip though. I also really appreciate the work the NFL are putting in for the fans (profits) here. I walked into the Nike store and bought a jersey, that wouldn't have been possible before.

Someone mentioned colonising North America first though, makes more sense to me unless the revenue opportunity in Europe dwarfs Canada and Mexico.

Lol, we already colonized North America around 1776 I believe. Didn't turn out so hot for the Britts that time either.

What a humorous and intelligent response.

London......Ontario?

We need to keep the time zones within three hours for the logistical necessities. Goodell should be trying to get CFL cities to upgrade and join the NFL. Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal would all make good sense. Especially Toronto.

This "in season" exhibitions are stupid too. I'm glad the Hawks have never had to make that trip and I hope they never do. They ought to change it to preseason only.

Why don't they first try to create some actual buzz about American Football in Europe before expanding to there? I'm really passionate about it and think it's by far the most fun sport to watch. How did I find out about it? Some random sports highlight video on youtube. There is next to no media coverage on national tv here and the only channel that does show American Football is a paid channel called 'Fox Sports' that's even more expensive than Gamepass.

There is a potential market, there just aren't enough ways to get in contact with it. Most people I know think it's exactly the same as Rugby with pads, which doesn't really sound attractive. Before London gets a NFL franchise make sure Europe has created a sustainable fanbase and even then I'd rather have a NFL Europe as a minor league over random European cities getting NFL franchises.