NFL Week 10 thread

[Michael_ Gee]

Every summer, top European soccer teams come over here and play exhibition games which draw very well as one-off novelties for U.S. soccer fans. But nobody's moving Arsenal to the Meadowlands. It's strange to see the league that basically invented sports marketing forget some of its basics out of greed. British fans are OK for seeing bad teams if it's once a year. A 3-13 London Jaguars team would be a different matter.

 

[poindexter]

I get wanting to expand the NFL brand, but I've never really gotten the sense that anyone in London or Europe gives half a shirt about the NFL.

I'll begrudgingly say this: The crowd atmosphere for the Falcon-Lions game a couple of weeks ago at Wembley looked pretty spectacular on tv.

 

[bigpern23]

Why does the NFL keep pushing London so hard, when in the end, it will be a non-starter? Just another of the so many examples of the Goodell era of pushing product nobody wants (being at the leading edge of domestic violence issues, 18 game season, etc).

http://www.espn.co.uk/more/sport/story/365249.html

I read somewhere that in order to be in the running for a future SB, you have to give up a home date to London.

Wait, since when is the NFL "at the leading edge of domestic violence issues?"

Okay, "attempting to be".. see below - here are two.
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/10/nfl-owners-domestic-violence

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/23/nfl-players-no-more-domestic-violence-ad_n_6034896.html

Totally reactionary PR ploys to the shirtshow caused by their own indifference to domestic violence. The only thing the NFL is leading when it comes to domestic violence is the scoreboard for number of arrests.

 

[bigpern23]

Every summer, top European soccer teams come over here and play exhibition games which draw very well as one-off novelties for U.S. soccer fans. But nobody's moving Arsenal to the Meadowlands. It's strange to see the league that basically invented sports marketing forget some of its basics out of greed. British fans are OK for seeing bad teams if it's once a year. A 3-13 London Jaguars team would be a different matter.

All three wins would be against West Coast teams.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Imagine the presumptive London Monarchs trying to sign free agents.
What a laugh that would be.

 

[LongTimeListener]

Stanford guys and Ivy Leaguers would be interested.

Also, the brainiacs from Florida State.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

Stanford guys and Ivy Leaguers would be interested.

Also, the brainiac from Florida State.

Fixed.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

Imagine the presumptive London Monarchs trying to sign free agents.
What a laugh that would be.

Yeah, and people think it's hard to lure free agents to the small markets.

 

[da man]

Guys, does anyone really believe the NFL wants a franchise there? I think they're doing exactly what those soccer teams you're talking about are doing -- trying to expand the global brand, to make them a household name in the UK so they can sell merchandise and videos and sponsorships and tickets to maybe five or six games a year over there. I don't think the league has any intention of actually putting a team in London.

 

[Armchair_QB]

Why does the NFL keep pushing London so hard, when in the end, it will be a non-starter? Just another of the so many examples of the Goodell era of pushing product nobody wants (being at the leading edge of domestic violence issues, 18 game season, etc).

http://www.espn.co.uk/more/sport/story/365249.html

I read somewhere that in order to be in the running for a future SB, you have to give up a home date to London.

Wait, since when is the NFL "at the leading edge of domestic violence issues?"

Well, they're pretty good at creating them.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

Guys, does anyone really believe the NFL wants a franchise there? I think they're doing exactly what those soccer teams you're talking about are doing -- trying to expand the global brand, to make them a household name in the UK so they can sell merchandise and videos and sponsorships and tickets to maybe five or six games a year over there. I don't think the league has any intention of actually putting a team in London.

They want to reap the popularity soccer has sown in the U.S.
When has the NFL been in the habit of showing any sort of restraint?
They're planting more of these games every season and there should be a team there in 10 years.

 

[RecoveringJournalist]

Guys, does anyone really believe the NFL wants a franchise there? I think they're doing exactly what those soccer teams you're talking about are doing -- trying to expand the global brand, to make them a household name in the UK so they can sell merchandise and videos and sponsorships and tickets to maybe five or six games a year over there. I don't think the league has any intention of actually putting a team in London.

I don't think too many people believe it, but Goodell keeps saying it.

You can expand the brand without putting a franchise there. They should take 6-10 games a year and play them in different cities where they think there is interest. I'm guessing there would be considerable backlash from teams if they wanted to play regular-season games in in Asia. They've gotten away from the preseason games in China and Australia.