OT NFL discussing Super Bowl in London

[sb1]

Great idea! Then the NHL should have the Stanley Cup finals in New Delhi!

/s

 

[farn]

London is one of the greatest cities in the world and I’m sure there is merit in expanding the game to as much of the world as possible.

Having said that : I think many of the NFL’s ideas aren’t going to be good for the game overall. The superbowl will always mean much, much more to the US than other countries. I know that Europeans are increasingly into NFL football, but…

 

[Pape]

Great idea! Then the NHL should have the Stanley Cup finals in New Delhi!

/s

There are a billion indians just begging for it... AND... We can all get our Amazon refunds while there without having to get all those target giftcards

 

[Trolltolls]

I don't think that will happen. For a primetime game in London they force a lot of the US to watch it in the morning and will lose a lot of US viewership, not the mention the **** storm from not having the game here. You never know tho.

 

[farn]

I don't think that will happen. For a primetime game in London they force a lot of the US to watch it in the morning and will lose a lot of US viewership, not the mention the **** storm from not having the game here. You never know tho.

They’d not play it in THEIR prime time. It’d be set up for decent times for the US market.

 

[lancerman]

Honestly it's probably a smart move.

Let's be honest, most people who attend the Super Bowl are corporate sponsors and wealthy people going to a social event. It doesn't matter to them if it's in London or New York or LA. The fans that actually want to go are already spending the absurd money. So again a flight across the pond isn't changing all that much. For the teams, the two week break means the flight isn't going to screw them up all that much. For instance it's a 6 hour and 40 minute flight. The Pats have played two Super Bowls in Phoenix which is a 5 hour and 50 minute flight. Seattle once had their team go all the way to New York for a Super Bowl.

So really it doesn't effect who can go that much and it won't impact most teams as much.

Therefore it's about business. You want to really break into the Europe market, put the biggest game of the year with all the festivities their and flood the public mindshare with American football for a week.

 

[lancerman]

They’d not play it in THEIR prime time. It’d be set up for decent times for the US market.

They'd probably do it so it's start is like 3:30PM to 4:30PM here and like 8:30PM to 9:30PM there. Which would be a 12 to 1PM start in CA which is basically what the first Sunday game usually is for them.

Frankly I think most people in America would welcome that. It becomes an afternoon event, most people on the East Coast will get home by 8 or 9 from wherever they are and they don't feel like zombies on Monday

 

[Trolltolls]

They’d not play it in THEIR prime time. It’d be set up for decent times for the US market.

The best they could do is make it a Noon-2pm game and have it start at 8pm there. Not ideal.

 

[farn]

The best they could do is make it a Noon-2pm game and have it start at 8pm there. Not ideal.

If they start it at 10pm local time, it’d be 5pm on the US east coast.

 

[Trolltolls]

If they start it at 10pm local time, it’d be 5pm on the US east coast.

Right but whats the point of having a game there if they make it so late for the local audience?

 

[PaulThePat]

Sounds good to me.

 

[Zuma]

If they start it at 10pm local time, it’d be 5pm on the US east coast.

Yep. I think 9 pm is reasonable.

 

[farn]

Right but whats the point of having a game there if they make it so late for the local audience?

I don’t think the NFL cares about the local audience. They want to « show they care » w/o actually caring.

Also, London is a massive city with a big population. The type of city that could probably function quite well as its own country.

They can easily find 60k+ Brits and Europeans that would pay to see a SB and take the Monday off work.

 

[FCB02062]

what happened to having the SB in warm weather and/or a dome? February weather in London can be ****e, as they say

 

[sb1]

Don’t know if Sky Dome/Rogers Center would support it or any an NFL game but if it does I’d rather have Toronto as an “international” game. Same time zone and an hour drive from Buffalo without the snow problems.

 

[lancerman]

Right but whats the point of having a game there if they make it so late for the local audience?

It's an event for the people there. Time won't matter as much. If you were traveling to London for the Super Bowl, you probably aren't working the next day. You don't give a **** what time your big party starts.

 

[lancerman]

what happened to having the SB in warm weather and/or a dome? February weather in London can be ****e, as they say

They don't care as much if the location is considered high value. New York got a Super Bowl for the 2013 season because of the new stadium and because it's the New York market and people will deal with it. Minneapolis got one recently because they built a premier dome and the NFL wants to incentivize teams to to build state of the art stadiums for the league.

London would be a business move. If there's a business case to be made, the weather will be secondary. If it's a generic Super Bowl, then yeah they'll toss it in California or Florida for the sake of comfort. We'd get a Super Bowl as well if Kraft forked over billions to build a new Gillette that had a retractable roof and was an architectural marvel.

 

[lancerman]

I don’t think the NFL cares about the local audience. They want to « show they care » w/o actually caring.

Also, London is a massive city with a big population. The type of city that could probably function quite well as its own country.

They can easily find 60k+ Brits and Europeans that would pay to see a SB and take the Monday off work.

They wouldn't even need 60k Europeans. More than half the stadium would still be filled with rich corporate sponsors who are going on vacation to watch the game like every year. Hardcore fans who would watch if the game started at 2AM would be the local attendees.

 

[dustcover]

Absolutely lame idea, unless of course you're looking to infuse a UK city's economy with millions of dollars. Dollars that would normally bolster some American city's economy.

 

[Triumph]

Sounds like a jolly good time.