OT: Oh No! NFL Commits to Franchise in London by 2022

[Off The Grid]

I have to laugh at this, not least as you're talking utter bollocks. We don't get hammered at soccer games - at least, no more than your average Pats fan will be after tailgating.

Also, the Jags owner has stated that he has no plans to relocate the team to London - although I suspect that may be bollocks...

Ayup. Probably just playing hard to get.

 

[Off The Grid]

The Thread Title is wrong, Brother Mike: There's no Commitment.

 

[Mike the Brit]

The Thread Title is wrong, Brother Mike: There's no Commitment.

That's an amendment (or correction) to the original story. If the Mods want to change the title to reflect that, they should feel free.

 

[Off The Grid]

That's an amendment (or correction) to the original story. If the Mods want to change the title to reflect that, they should feel free.

Ah. I stand corrected.

 

[Big Bucks]

I find it funny that when NFL officials, team owners come to London they fall over themselves about putting a franchise in London when asked the question by the media, yet when faced with admitting it back home its.. errr No that's not going to happen. He was misinterpreted, You heard him wrong.. he got it wrong excuses come out.

Quite who is being played here. The fact Tottenham Hotspur are spending an extra £100m+ and changed the complete design of the £750m stadium to fit the NFL in speaks volumes.

The real clue IMO is when Tottenham get clearance to build residential rooms on its Training ground. Currently before home games they use a Hotel, gathering the night before and travel to the home stadium but with these new rooms that will then happen at the Training complex. Now if they have 60 rooms when they need probably 15-20 at most why would they be building for such large numbers. Would they do this for 2 games a year.. or maybe another sign that they wish to cater for a full 8 games.

The current training facilities were finished 3 years back
Indoor facility with 15 outside fullsize football pitches

So what Athlete would not want to come here everyday even though its across the Pond, and considering several teams have used the facility prior to there game at Wembley and have had nothing but great words to say about it then this whole why would an Athlete want to go to London excuse kind of falls flat on its face.

 

[SLGDEV]

A great system!?!?! Teams play completely different schedules and teams with worse records get into the playoffs while teams with better records stay home. And all a team has to do to make the playoffs is beat out 3 other teams of the 15 others in their conference, no matter what their record is. A great system would be one where teams play as close to the same schedule as possible and the best records get into the playoffs.

The bolding is impossible in a 16 or 18 game schedule unless (a) you eliminate out of conference games and (b) reduce it to 15 games and so you play all teams once. The way it is now is the best possible for sixteen games. Who reaches the playoffs really is another matter than who the teams play. I like rewarding a division winner, even one with a 7-8-1 record, but your "best records" system could still be implemented without changing the schedule. They are different issues. Personally, I like what they have now.

 

[Bill Lee]

I took the WLAF failure to reflect the overall European interest in American football.

I didn't. But the WLAF past failure to me isn't all that significant. It's dead and was buried 9 years ago and the world is a lot more connected now than it was in 2007. WLAF was a 2nd tier product back then and was hard to get attached to. An actual NFL team will do much better.

Think of it this way: wouldn't an actual EPL team playing in a major US city do a lot better than a junior league team or an actual 2nd league (which is in effect what MLS is?), simply because it can draw the fans of the away teams as well as whatever local following they build?

I tend to agree with those who think it's a likely failure

I tend to agree with those who think the NFL owners are so blind with greed they'll give it a go anyway. The recent Wembley games were enough to make those greedy SOBs see large piles of money.

NFL ownership is NOT happy keeping the league at the same size. They want MORE, MORE, MORE! They want league revenue to double in 10 years. The recent abandonment of St Louis despite having a viable path to a new stadium speaks volumes. The recent choice of the Kronke LA proposal over the Carson CA venue speaks volumes. The owner's own committee recommended Carson. Picking Inglewood over Carson was picking a new and big money owner's interests over two long-time less monied owners, and the ownership at large did that after their own committee picked the project backed by two old-school family owned teams. The simple reason is that the Inglewood proposal would bring in a lot more money over time. Screw Spanos and screw Davis and screw St. Louis, it's about the money, period.

So I'm thinking it's likely London gets a team certainly within a decade even if it destabilizes the playoff structure. The owners are simply that greedy, and Goodell is their employee so even if he opposed it it would not matter.

 

[Haley]

It is hard to believe they have come up with a plan to have this working logistically. Mere annoyances aside, I can't see how you can mandate this much travel and jet lag into anyone's schedule and still have them able to not only compete but function as a healthy, normal human being. The only way I could ever see this working is to have an entire EU conference, but that would be a much larger undertaking than this.

 

[PatsFanInLondon]

I find it funny that when NFL officials, team owners come to London they fall over themselves about putting a franchise in London when asked the question by the media, yet when faced with admitting it back home its.. errr No that's not going to happen. He was misinterpreted, You heard him wrong.. he got it wrong excuses come out.

Quite who is being played here. The fact Tottenham Hotspur are spending an extra £100m+ and changed the complete design of the £750m stadium to fit the NFL in speaks volumes.

The real clue IMO is when Tottenham get clearance to build residential rooms on its Training ground. Currently before home games they use a Hotel, gathering the night before and travel to the home stadium but with these new rooms that will then happen at the Training complex. Now if they have 60 rooms when they need probably 15-20 at most why would they be building for such large numbers. Would they do this for 2 games a year.. or maybe another sign that they wish to cater for a full 8 games.

The current training facilities were finished 3 years back
Indoor facility with 15 outside fullsize football pitches

So what Athlete would not want to come here everyday even though its across the Pond, and considering several teams have used the facility prior to there game at Wembley and have had nothing but great words to say about it then this whole why would an Athlete want to go to London excuse kind of falls flat on its face.

Yeah, but look who they've got coaching...

 

[1960Pats]

The bolding is impossible in a 16 or 18 game schedule unless (a) you eliminate out of conference games and (b) reduce it to 15 games and so you play all teams once. The way it is now is the best possible for sixteen games. Who reaches the playoffs really is another matter than who the teams play. I like rewarding a division winner, even one with a 7-8-1 record, but your "best records" system could still be implemented without changing the schedule. They are different issues. Personally, I like what they have now.

To me it would be better if we reduced the out of conference games and played more games within our own conference, especially since the conference records are all that matter when determining playoff teams. I could live with seeing the Pats play NFC teams once every eight years instead of once every four, just as I could see the Pats playing the Jets, Fins and Bills once a year instead of twice.

Right now, teams who are competing for the same six playoff spots are playing completely different schedules against different AFC and NFC teams, and when you get a situation where one or two of the 4 team divisions are weaker and one division gets those games then it's clearly a completely unbalanced schedule and unfair to the teams who play the tougher schedule. And, after a few years where it didn't matter so much, we're getting situations lately where teams with worse records playing against worse teams are getting rewarded while teams with better records are staying home.

The Buffalo Bills played a schedule against opponents who were a combined +3 in wins while the Jets (a team in the same division) played against opponents who were -30. That is simply wrong and can be easily fixed.

 

[SLGDEV]

The Buffalo Bills played a schedule against opponents who were a combined +3 in wins while the Jets (a team in the same division) played against opponents who were -30. That is simply wrong and can be easily fixed.

That statistic is slightly skewed. Part of the reason is that the Jets wound up with a better record by two games, so that added two to the Bills and subtracted two from the Jets. That means that the differential from other teams is 29, not 33.

Now the Jets (4th in 2015) played the Browns (3-9) and Raiders (7-13) while the Bills (2nd in 2014) played the Bengals (12-4) and Chiefs (11-5). It is called "parity" so that bottom dwellers' fans can have some enthusiasm the next year. It makes sense for the league.

 

[1960Pats]

That statistic is slightly skewed. Part of the reason is that the Jets wound up with a better record by two games, so that added two to the Bills and subtracted two from the Jets. That means that the differential from other teams is 29, not 33.

Now the Jets (4th in 2015) played the Browns (3-9) and Raiders (7-13) while the Bills (2nd in 2014) played the Bengals (12-4) and Chiefs (11-5). It is called "parity" so that bottom dwellers' fans can have some enthusiasm the next year. It makes sense for the league.

Yes, I get why they do it. I just don't agree with it. Never have from the start.