Kraft stumping for London team (say it ain't so, Bob)

[PatsWickedPissah]

Really against a London team. Mark Cuban was right about NFL ownership's greed and what will happen. Fans are forgetting the ever growing concern about concussions and its likely impaction football programs at all ages, not just the NFL. No sport or business goes on forever. The NFL does not have some divine right to be #1. Population dynamics is the US will see a huge growth in soccer fans.

The only way it makes sense to expand to Europe is to establish a 4 team division there. That way there's less travel for half the time for those clubs. Make it a 3+ year project where they initially only have mostly local players and only play a short schedule among themselves. To build anticipatory fan interest the publicly stated "long" term plan is that in year 5 they get an expansion draft from NFL clubs and then play half their games trans-Atlantic against say the NFL East. The NFL can see if European interest builds, or kill/delay the idea in year 5.

Better yet wait another 10-15 years until Virgin Spaceways or someone comes up with a luxury hypersonic service, say like the UK's Skylon development. With "short" trips across the pond today's travel mountain will just be a hill.

 

[SB39]

The only way it makes sense to expand to Europe is to establish a 4 team division there. That way there's less travel for half the time for those clubs. Make it a 3+ year project where they initially only have mostly local players and only play a short schedule among themselves.

They already did something very similar to this. It was called NFL Europe. Didn't work.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

They already did something very similar to this. It was called NFL Europe. Didn't work.

Who knew?

Try processing the salient differences.

 

[SB39]

Who knew?

Try processing the salient differences.

Try processing the fact that your salient differences aren't salient enough to make any significant change from something that already failed quite recently.

NFL Europe was tried and it failed. They tried making all sorts of adjustments and it was still a failure. Your lame adjustments are nothing significantly different from that which has already been tried and failed.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

A failed therefore anything however similar although with substantive differences and in a different time must also fail. OK. Moron.

 

[ausbacker]

I agree that it's highly unlikely (to the point of virtual impossibility) that soccer would ever be more popular than american football in the US, but the popularity gap is shrinking. What's more, in the most recent fifa rankings, the us soccer team is now more highly ranked (15) than england's (20). Ten years ago, that would have been unimaginable.

Not if you follow the EPL. English soccer players are by and large, average and unimaginative. It's the reason why they import good players.

 

[SB39]

A failed therefore anything however similar although with substantive differences and in a different time must also fail. OK. Moron.

The only moron is the guy who thinks that something which failed quite recently would somehow miraculously succeed now with just a few minor tweaks.

Don't blame me for pointing out the idiocy of your own suggestion. You have offered nothing substantive by way of improving the product which already failed.

 

[fnordcircle]

This flying thing didn't work before tell the Wright brothers they are idiots for trying it a decade later.

 

[Deus Irae]

A failed therefore anything however similar although with substantive differences and in a different time must also fail. OK. Moron.

That one's only here to troll. You're better off putting him on ignore.

Just my $.02

 

[Danger Zone]

My projected roster of the new team that the English owner and his (or her) GM will be putting together.

QB - 'Big Ben' Roethlisberger
QB - Matt Cassel

RB - Joe McNight
RB - Baron Batch
RB - Bobby Rainey

TE - Danny Noble

WR - Eddie Royal
WR - Tavarres King
WR- Kenny Britt

CB - Robert Steeples
CB - Phillip Steward

S - Kam Chancellor
S - Duke Williams

LB - Larry English
LB - Thad Castle
LB - London Fletcher

G - Travis Bond

DE - David King
DT - Terrance Knighton

P - Marquette King

Rookies
1st - WR - Odell Beckham Jr
2nd - OT - Justin Britt
3rd - DT - Will Sutton

Some of these are a stretch and I've probably missed several with names that would probably mean something special to someone from England. But there you go..


EDIT: Im throwing my Kindle out the window and buying anything with an Edit Box bigger than a postage stamp

 

[Ivan]

I can't believe i missed it when the NFL put a full division in Europe and it failed, how dumb am I ?????

 

[SB39]

I can't believe i missed it when the NFL put a full division in Europe and it failed, how dumb am I ?????

Since you asked: Very dumb.

 

[SB39]

That one's only here to troll. You're better off putting him on ignore.

Just my $.02

Anyone that doesn't like what I say is perfectly welcome to do precisely that. Still, it's pretty funny how all those who "ignore" me can't stop talking about me and/or responding to points I make.

 

[SB39]

This flying thing didn't work before tell the Wright brothers they are idiots for trying it a decade later.

Pretty stupid analogy. You're talking about a technological advancement which, obviously, will improve as time goes by. The rest of us are talking about a business model which failed quite recently. For some reason, some people think a business model that was tried and failed and tweaked and failed and tweaked again and failed and tweaked one more time and failed just needed one more tweak before it would be an unqualified success.

I guess you guys think Vince McMahon should give the ole' XFL another try, huh? After all, you know, Wright Brothers and all......

 

[Tunescribe]

Tunescribe, i have always considerd you one of the better poster's on this site, in this instance however I feel like you have some unknown need to try and insult soccer fans by consistently deriding the sport and that's a shame because it is really lame imo.

I'm just funnin' with you.

 

[Joker]

J, I'm with you most of the time, but London is maybe the most secure capital city in the world after DC. If anyone wanted to make a statement with a terrorist attack, they'd have tried with the Olympics, or one of the two recent Champions League finals. Or at one of the many Premier League games.

Having that as a reason for not putting a Franchise there is daft mate. Truly.

Look, I may sound like a paranoid security freak but it would be easy for an Al Qaeda cell to hijack a European jet and crash it into an English football stadium filled with fans. It's a far easier strike against the "American imperialists!!!!' than making an operation against the US here in the states. You actually think the group that carried out orchestrated jet hijackings and the murder of thousands simultaneously at different targets IN the US couldn't hit a target right in their backyard so to speak?

I would not give them that chance. ...but that is only one of a number of reasons an NFL team in London is a horrible idea. Who is going to want to PLAY THERE when a US based location gives you and your career a hefty number of serious advantages, not the least of which is M-O-N-E-Y and the British taxation system. London is what, the third most expensive city to live in worldwide? What you'll end up getting is the bottom of the barrel talent that's been cut in the states trying to latch onto their last hope, a London team. That would be BAD football.

BTW, I in no way mean to imply that you or ANY other Pats fan from anywhere in the world is a lesser fan...quite the contrary, sometimes I think we Yanks could use a refresher course given by you guys on how to be a real Patriot fan. For real.

I'm just cynical in my old age. Perhaps the younger generation will latch onto the idea of NFL World. THIS old dog fails to see how.

 

[mgteich]

There are many ways to expand. The number of weeks of regular games is but one.

So what happens when they run out of weeks? Do they go to 2 a week or die?

 

[mgteich]

That is a phenomenally ignorant statement.

To quote you, what percentage of an NFL team do you own that makes you think you know so much about how to keep the league alive?

I don't know how to keep a league profitable. I think that Kraft and those who have literally billions of dollars in NFL assets DO INDEED understand the business. Personally, I think thinking that they are senile because they don't agree with internet posters is simply silly.

So, yes, I think that if the required percentage of owner believe that say thrusady night football, or 18 regular season games or a team in London makes economic sense, I would tend to believe that they are likely correct.

 

[mgteich]

The middle ground between growing and not growing is stable revenue, which means ever decreasing profits in a competitive world with any inflation at all.

You don't need to believe me. Look at the decisions of the owners since Kraft has become an owner. The effort is always to grow the business. You may not like having money as the driving force of business. There are few alternatives.

Speaking as someone who took Economics 101, no one would ever make a statement so black and white such as "you have to always be growing or you will die." There is always middle ground.The dangers of playing football are legit concerns. Putting a team in London does nothing to solve or address those concerns.

 

[mgteich]

You are free to make any comments you want. Just be prepared to be ridiculed when you suggest that the owners know nothing about the business of the NFL.

According to this idiotic logic, none of us can or should ever give an opinion on anything since none of us are owners, coaches, players, etc.