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

[Prison Bitch]

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

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Great point. Makes you wonder why the EPL isn't putting a team in the States if its such a great idea

Because nutjob soccer hooligans would start riots. And I doubt people in America would care to watch Wolverhampton.

[JohnnyV13]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

If not Canada, there's still LA (even though I'd rather just move Oakland back from there). But you still have Portland, Virginia, and Salt Lake City.

Originally Posted by cdcox

If it weren't for the logistics, London would be a great market.

But you can't get around the logistics. No way they should do this until the glitches in Star Trek transporter technology get ironed out.

Or they bring back the Concorde.

[Hail2TheChiefs]

Let me express my thoughts, first as a Scotsman (British born) and secondly as an NFL fan.

1- We had a second tier NFL league in Europe with franchises between 1995-2006 in Scotland, England, Spain, Holland and Germany. When the leagues life support machine was pulled, there were 5 teams in Germany and one in Holland. Hardly NFL Europe!

2- Attendences! Apart from a few 40k plus games in Germany the fans didnt support it, my team the Scottish Claymores got 15,000 at one game because the half time entertainment was Deacon Blue! People left after half time! Our average was betweeen 8-10k in Glasgow and Edinburgh and one of the reasons we lost our franchise to Hamburg.

England has a team for 3 seasons, (I say England as they couldn't make it work in London so the last season they "toured the country") in 1998 they lost their franchise to Berlin.

3- One off games vs buying season books - The reason I mention NFLE in the first 2 points is a lot of the "bums on seats" on these games are travelling from all over Europe, I know fans from Glasgow, Dublin, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Cologne and Hamburg who travel once a year to see whatever team is on offer. (Cheaper than flying to San Fran or wherever) but the question remains, would they support 8 games?

4- Currency - I mention this as this was a reason for choosing the dutch franchise over the UK one in 2004, that the NFL didn't wish to deal with currency exchanges for both UKP, Euro and USD, now this may have changed but they were very "profits driven" in 2004.

5- Apathy of the GB public, like it or not, over there it will always be a "minority sport", would the GB public support it?

6- NFL Owners, they are big babies, they will not like the idea of increased operating costs travelling to London, and if you are in the division Once a year!

[Beer Bong]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Great point. Makes you wonder why the EPL isn't putting a team in the States if its such a great idea

They are actually talking about doing just that.

[L.A. Chieffan]

Why not? Might suck for a west coast team but shouldn't be that big of a deal just give them a bye before or after. There's this new thing called first class air travel.

Plus it would be a good excuse to travel to Europe and see your favorite football team. I think it's a great idea.

[BWillie]

It can work, I just think it would need to be a totally differwnt league. You cant expect players to do that much travel on a whim. The logistics just mak we it difficult. And they need to stop calling it American football over there. Theres too much anti amercanism over there and having american in the name will give many a bad taste in their mouth. Id just call it Full contact football or something

[Arrowhead Thunder]

Originally Posted by cdcox

If it weren't for the logistics, London would be a great market.

But you can't get around the logistics. No way they should do this until the glitches in Star Trek transporter technology get ironed out.

Houston space port, check it out. I think I saw it is only going to cost a couple million in upgrades to the existing airport


houston.culturemap.com/news/travel/09-07-13-crazy-futuristic-plans-are-revealed-for-houstons-new-spaceport-and-officials-insist-its-happening

“This is not a conversation based on science fiction or futuristic projections. This is a conversation about how Houston can access and enhance an industry that is already well-established and growing exponentially.”

As opposed to many current spaceports, the Ellington facility has no plans for the vertical launches most of us associate with spaceflight. Instead, Houston's spaceport would host only orbital and sub-orbital launches primarily for long-distance earthbound travel.

During a March press conference, Diaz described a journey along the edge of space. At speeds as high as Mach 4, Houstonians could fly to Malaysia in less than three hours and to Sweden in 90 minutes.

[Hail2TheChiefs]

Originally Posted by Beer Bong

They are actually talking about doing just that.

FIFA would have a fit!

[Easy 6]

Cant this man die in a car crash or something, maybe an aneurysm out of the blue?

[Hail2TheChiefs]

If it does happen, maybe we may see a team Go waaaay East and a team Go West,

Jacksonville to London
Rams to LA

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by Arrowhead Thunderin10038318

Houston space port, check it out. I think I saw it is only going to cost a couple million in upgrades to the existing airport


houston.culturemap.com/news/travel/09-07-13-crazy-futuristic-plans-are-revealed-for-houstons-new-spaceport-and-officials-insist-its-happening

“This is not a conversation based on science fiction or futuristic projections. This is a conversation about how Houston can access and enhance an industry that is already well-established and growing exponentially.”

As opposed to many current spaceports, the Ellington facility has no plans for the vertical launches most of us associate with spaceflight. Instead, Houston's spaceport would host only orbital and sub-orbital launches primarily for long-distance earthbound travel.

During a March press conference, Diaz described a journey along the edge of space. At speeds as high as Mach 4, Houstonians could fly to Malaysia in less than three hours and to Sweden in 90 minutes.

Holy hell....TERRORISTS IN SPACE

[UK_Chief]

There is a market for it over here, but only if the team is NFL calibre and part of the NFL. NFL Europe didn't work because it was a really poor standard - people want to see the best players in the world, not second rate players.

Comparisons with MLS are interesting. English Premier league soccer teams are talking about having American teams in the MLS, but they aren't talking about actually putting an American team in the premier league. There would be huge appetite for people to watch Man United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal etc playing real competitive league games in the States. Much more so than 'New York Arsenal' or something playing in the MLS. It wouldn't happen but there would still be that market.

P.S. I don't think you would be competing with soccer - there are plenty of people who dislike soccer. It would be more catering to the rugby fans who like full contact sports (like me!)

[Stalker]

The draft system is so superior to any system we have in the UK, I really think when true sports fans, and there are millions in the UK, begin to understand how the draft works and see how the players act and how many local charities they get involved in and participate in on a weekly basis, they can be turned. The draft system adds a whole new dimension to the sport, something we don't have. NFL is just the perfect sport in every way for me.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Arrowhead Thunder

Houston space port, check it out. I think I saw it is only going to cost a couple million in upgrades to the existing airport


houston.culturemap.com/news/travel/09-07-13-crazy-futuristic-plans-are-revealed-for-houstons-new-spaceport-and-officials-insist-its-happening

“This is not a conversation based on science fiction or futuristic projections. This is a conversation about how Houston can access and enhance an industry that is already well-established and growing exponentially.”

As opposed to many current spaceports, the Ellington facility has no plans for the vertical launches most of us associate with spaceflight. Instead, Houston's spaceport would host only orbital and sub-orbital launches primarily for long-distance earthbound travel.

During a March press conference, Diaz described a journey along the edge of space. At speeds as high as Mach 4, Houstonians could fly to Malaysia in less than three hours and to Sweden in 90 minutes.

Oh hell no...

[|Zach|]

Originally Posted by UK_Chief

There is a market for it over here, but only if the team is NFL calibre and part of the NFL. NFL Europe didn't work because it was a really poor standard - people want to see the best players in the world, not second rate players.

Comparisons with MLS are interesting. English Premier league soccer teams are talking about having American teams in the MLS, but they aren't talking about actually putting an American team in the premier league. There would be huge appetite for people to watch Man United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal etc playing real competitive league games in the States. Much more so than 'New York Arsenal' or something playing in the MLS. It wouldn't happen but there would still be that market.

P.S. I don't think you would be competing with soccer - there are plenty of people who dislike soccer. It would be more catering to the rugby fans who like full contact sports (like me!)

Yea, Manchester City is throwing a team in NY and there are some rumors about Manchester United doing the same with an MLS Expansion team.

For what it is worth most people...players, media, and fans who I have talked to personally that have had experience in both leagues compare MLS to the Championship League in England talent wise.