London Team Rumor

de5p0i1er

While in London for the Pats @ Bucks I was in the same hotel as the CBS production team and a few of them told me they had heard a rumor about the St Louis Rams looking to move to London, this was all been discussed behind the scenes but the team and the group trying to buy the franchise seem to think that they could make more money moving across the pond.

eagle eye

They were telling you porkies. The Rams seem all set for a move back to L.A. as soon as the new stadium is built there. The Jaguars would be favourites to move there at the present time but its a long way off. They are considering it as Roger Goodell wants to see more games there in the future and the target is four games in 2012 I believe. If the crowds keep coming then it will be considered but its very unlikely there will be a team in London before 2015 at the very earliest.

KrustyUCC

be very hard for any team to get set up in Europe and compete in NFL. You have at least 8 away trips per year. Jet lag would be a big big issue esp if you got a lot of California/West Coast teams on your schedule. Also you would need a full roster of american players moving over to London. Prob wouldn't appeal to players with families

ivers57

NYC to California is not that much diff from NYC to London.
The fact most teams are in the EST means they could schedule it so only only 1 or 2 road games outside of the EST zone.

Karlusss

A lot of owners said that they would much prefer expansion into London to moving an existing team there.

I genuinely would feel sorry for a rookie who got drafted to play for a London team for the first decade or so. Because football is everything in America. It's a curiosity in England, for the most part.

Royal Seahawk

KrustyUCC wrote: »

be very hard for any team to get set up in Europe and compete in NFL. You have at least 8 away trips per year. Jet lag would be a big big issue esp if you got a lot of California/West Coast teams on your schedule.families

Could they not just play 8 games at home in a row and then 8 games away? Or maybe two home then two away.
That would make more sense.

jdivision

Seahawk is right, that's the way I'd do it too, it'd have to be blocks of games.

themont85

Won't happen for several years at the earliest...London needs to show they can sell at least 4 games out imo for it to be an active consideration.

The NFL is definately getting more popular though so you never know in 4/5 years.

I think the major problem scheduling wise is that the NFL would be accross several timezones and traveling wise it would be difficult but not insurmountable. If London was placed into a Eastern Division that would be fine for those games, just the inter division/conference games with the Westen divisions.

Chucky the tree

They lose out hugely on having a home support/advantage. YOungs fans might take to it but I still doubt older ones would switch teams. If an nfl moved to Dublin I know I'd never switch from supporting the Raiders for example. And as people said attracting top quality players would be very difficult as well.

Leslie91

Nobody will ever convince me that a franchise in London will work. Too many issues with it including but not limited to logistics and local fanbase.

I reckon most NFL fans who go to the London game this yr and last already support 'their' team and won't be up for changing. Yes, lads might go to games involving the team they support but 60 or 70k sellouts for 8 home games, nah, I doubt it.

They have a decent thing going in the annual regular season game over this way don't mess it up. Maybe rotate the venues though. Edinburgh, Dublin, Cardiff and London should share it once every 4 years.

jdivision

The biggest NFL market in Europe is Germany so it'll get some games, just they're less likely than us to pay big money for tix.

Max Power1

IIRC the commissioner has stated that if there is to be a franchise outside the US it would be an expansion and not relocated. But we're getting way ahead of ourselves here lads. To have a team in th UK they need to first buil up to 2-3 games per year and go from there. Remember a franchise has 8 home games per season. The question is once the novelty has worn off, will the interest be there.

tallaghtoutlaws

To be honest the crew of a TV station are just like you and me and are in no better position with the rumours they hear than what we hear to be honest unless they are the actual pundits and even then its still pure specualtion. The fact Goddell was interviewed during the game talking about the future of the NFL and games abroad kind of kills that rumour. He clearly said as max power has pointed out "IF" it happens it will most likely be an expansion team but nothing has been discussed and they will play it by year. But he did talk about playing more games abroad next year.

If it were true it would be the worst move in NFL history moving the Rams to London. Ask yourself who would go support them? Whatever about building a new fan base with a new team trying to convince other fans to drop their teams for the Rams would be suicide.

The Sparrow

So let me get this straight. You guys are saying that fans wouldn't support the Rams or whoever if they moved to London?? I dunno about that.

Certainly if the Rams moved to Dublin I would try and go to as many games as possible. I doubt I would switch allegiance from Pittsburgh but the Rams would be a close second and the chance to go see live NFL every other week would be great. And even when they played Pittsburgh, I would go to see the Steelers. So win win.

I doubt an expansion will happen to London anytime soon though.

tallaghtoutlaws

The Sparrow wrote: »

So let me get this straight. You guys are saying that fans wouldn't support the Rams or whoever if they moved to London?? I dunno about that.

Certainly if the Rams moved to Dublin I would try and go to as many games as possible. I doubt I would switch allegiance from Pittsburgh but the Rams would be a close second and the chance to go see live NFL every other week would be great. And even when they played Pittsburgh, I would go to see the Steelers. So win win.

I doubt an expansion will happen to London anytime soon though.

Sure fans would go no one said they wouldnt. But they would need a solid fan base and to sell a solid amount of season tickets for it to be worthwhile and sadly yes the issue would be could they get a good fan base. Im sure whatever franchise comes here would want a fan base to call their own and fill every seat with them as would the NFL. The simple fact they wont sell enough seats for it to be worthwhile moving a current franchise. Maybe in the first year but in the second year the fad would wear off. Now creating a whole new franchise may convince band wagoners and newbies or young fans to support and making because a new Franchise would belong to that city if you know what I mean rather than one jumping on a ship and coming over.

Karlusss

If there were NFL games in Dublin, I would be at all of them, and if there were 8 a year in London I'd be at one or two, but I get what people are saying about allegiance at the same time. Also, seeing as you've already sold the Rams down the river, it wouldn't even be a switch for me.

The problem with a London franchise is that it is by definition chancing its arm, hoping to catch both people who care (i.e. us at this point) and people who are just curious and will learn along with the first season of the team. It probably doesn't matter to the NFL whether the London team wins or loses so long as people are watching and get hooked on Peyton or Brady or whoever.

But in reality, what kind of lasting support can there be for a team in a country/catchment (UK/Ireland/Europe even?) that doesn't have grassroots football in its blood?

eagle eye

I can see it working in London, the population is huge and every game would be sold out imo.
As said the novelty would fill the stadium for the first couple of years and by then the game would have taken off.

tallaghtoutlaws

eagle eye wrote: »

I can see it working in London, the population is huge and every game would be sold out imo.
As said the novelty would fill the stadium for the first couple of years and by then the game would have taken off.

Thats true but I think the NFL will consider it over long term rather than short term. Take Jacksonville. There is between 3-4m people in the northern half of Florida within 3-5 hours of Jacksonville and they fail to even fill a 76,000 seater stadium in a football mad state. Sure College football is bigger than the NFL but im sure this will be taken into account before they build a new franchise anywhere. Even the years the Jags made the playoffs they averaged 50,000 per home game 20k short of capacity.

I do hope it works in London be great to be so close to an NFL game jump on a plane for an hour and go see Pro football. But I hope they do it right this time. I went to alot of the Scottish Claymore games when they were around and it sucked they pulled them.