A Permanent NFL Franchise In London Within Six Years?

NFL Franchise in London - BBC


NFL Spokesman Mark Waller says this is a possibility. How many TFS'ers would agree with this..? What do you guys think of Gridiron Football franchises expanding beyond the USA..?

It is true that regular one-off matches have been played in London for a number of years now, and these have attracted high attendances. Television audiences for these games have been encouraging when they haven't clashed with major Association Football matches.

But might not the attendances for these one-off matches have more to do with curiosity than devotion to the game..? And how many British fans of Gridiron Football, who are happy to travel from all parts of the country once a season would want to make the trip every other week...?

London is probably the only city in the country with the diversity of sporting interest to accommodate another new sport. But it should be pointed out that the NFL season clashes with the English (Association) Football League and in England, football is God. London has thirteen full time professional football clubs and four Premier League rugby clubs. They all have devoted fan bases.

Also, Twickenham hosts the England rugby Autumn internationals and Six Nations matches during the NFL season. These would inevitably clash with NFL matches and it is likely that this would adversely affect interest for the incoming game not only in stadia but on the TV too.

Arsenal vs Spurs in football or England vs Wales at rugby is likely to trump Jacksonville Jaguars on any day of the year.

I'm not against an NFL franchise based in London, but I'm not too optimistic that it could be financially viable in the long term. Others have tried to spread unfamiliar sports in the past and come a cropper.

An American businessman once attempted to bring Baseball to England. It flopped dismally and he sold the stadium he'd built at great expense at a loss to Derby County FC. For many years, Derby's home games were played at The Baseball Ground.

In the 1980s, Yorkshire businessmen attempted to bring Rugby League to London from it's northern England heartland. Fulham RLFC became an expensive millstone around a lot of people's necks, morphing first into London Broncos and then Harlequins RL before finally being declared a dead duck and wound up.

Gridiron Football does have a fan base in England but it is spread around the country and I think any franchise would do well to be not based in one place, but might do better to go "on the road" and travel around the country.

If it goes ahead it will be an interesting experiment. Would I go to an NFL game at Twickenham..? Yes, I would. But only if I was in London at the time and there was no rugby or football on that weekend.

And between September and January in England, that's unlikely.

Good idea, but like you say, it's kinda astro-turfing a sport, when it should come from the grass roots. I don't think many people would be interested.

Not sure how they would pull this off, to be honest, if the sport flops there. A permanent franchise there would require expansion, as none of the current 32 teams would be willing to move there. And if the thing flops, the NFL would be stuck with that extra franchise, and all the players already signed to it, etc. It would be a mess, really. I suppose the thing to do at that point would be to sell it to an owner willing to relocate it to a U.S. city or different foreign locale. To be honest, I'm not so sure why the UK is the #1 place the NFL considers at this point when going international. Perhaps Canada, or even Mexico, would be a safer bet if we want to go that route. Heck Canada already has a fairly successful gridiron league.

At any rate, right now the Chargers and Raiders need a new home, so the NFL should focus on that.

Many of the current NFL teams play on artificial turf.

yeah, but that was not my point.

It'd be really tough to have an NFL franchise in the UK, mainly because of the travelling times on both sides of the Atlantic. Also, having to build a dedicated field in a city that's already as developed as London would be very difficult without having to tear down pre-existing structures.

Jen's idea of them touring around different parts of the UK to generate interest would probably be the best way for them to spread awareness for the sport in small areas. I think having some of the prospects from draft teams playing exhibition games around the UK would not only boost their experience on the field, but also would give the up-and-coming players some more exposure which would be vital to their chances of getting drafted later on. Although to be honest, the NFL having a dedicated franchise in London probably won't happen.

It'd be a lot easier if the UK came up with their own 'gridiron football' league that would be most likely be co-owned/sponsored by the NFL and then have teams travel back and forth for exhibition games, and then play their regular seasons in their respective countries. Maybe even have a championship match between the top NFL team and the top 'GIFL' (Grid Iron Football League) team playing against one another. That could be pretty exciting, actually.

during american football season, send some our football teams to played london.

instead our national football teams. we should our college football teams over there.

college students goes over education and start their american football teams over in london.

national football scouts goes to london scout for future football players. nfl can draft in london, beside america.

win-win situation both nfl and london.