Roger Goodell's latest acid trip: a team in London
 

He is trying hard to replace Bud Selig as the craziest man in pro sports. And Clark weighs in at the end:


Hype Machine in Overdrive, N.F.L. Pops Back to London

The Jacksonville Jaguars have committed to play a game here each of the next four seasons, giving rise to talk that they or another team will one day move to London and become the N.F.L.’s first franchise overseas.

“We are going to be aggressive because we see the fans’ reactions to football and we want to be there on a more regular basis,” N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell said in May.

“Roger has a vision for a permanent team in London, but he’s one of the very few that does,” said Marc Ganis, the president of SportsCorp, a sports advisory company that works with N.F.L. teams. “Commissioners get pie-eyed about international. What he got was an agreement to put on two games, maybe three, but he didn’t get a timeline” to establish a team in London.


Goodell has said that he hopes to turn the N.F.L. into a $25 billion business by 2027, from $10 billion now. To do that, the league would need fresh sources of income, including from overseas.

“Certainly, the league has grown substantially here in the United States and continues to do so,” said Clark Hunt, the chairman of the Kansas City Chiefs and the head of the league’s international committee. “But at some point, to keep that growth rate up, the international opportunity for the league is very important.”

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/09/29...to-london.html

There is no way this will ever happen

They have saturated the whole market. At some point there are only so many jerseys you can sell...so much TV money...etc.

They want to move there bad. It will be weird.

But they want that overseas crowd to be NFL fans so badly.

http://www.nfl-360.com/

The NFL can't compete with soccer in London or anywhere in Europe for that matter and why they're trying I'll never know.

A team being forced down people's throats when they don't really want it is not a model for success.

Those Limeys are going to expect football players to take flops when the ref isn't looking, and to writhe in fake agony on the ground clutching their ankles.

London Jaguars?

Those road trips from London to the west coast would be killers.

The NFL is over-saturated here in the states. Too many national games. NFL network etc.

I think they'll do everything they can to make it happen. NFL owners will do pretty much anything at this point to make more money.

Already happens in the NFL so it wouldn't be a stretch lol.

Yeah, but it all kills in the ratings. All of it. The rain delay during the Seahawks game a couple weeks ago was still one of the highest rated hours of TV during that week. They pretty much have an endless cash cow at this point... they are going to keep pushing it as far as it will go.

You don't need to "compete" with soccer in London to be a huge success.

Hell. The EPL is doing the same exact thing here. They are in a similar position.

Every major sport is trying to expand to a world market.


Even if it never happens the "Hype" of a team possibly going to Europe increases the NFL's global profile, even if some people are too stubborn to realize it.

There already is a British American Football League. Why wouldn't they become fans of a London NFL team? The logistics are a problem for sure, but I disagree with the notion that there wouldn't be any demand for NFL teams in Europe.

I'm sure exactly zero teams will be willing to play in their division. I suppose they could move the Jags overseas and place them in the new "NFC butthole" division with Carolina, Buffalo and Tampa.

There's no doubt in my mind there's a market for expanding the league overseas. However, who the hell wants to be the visiting team and fly to London to play? Even worse, they have to travel to the States 8 times per year.