NFL Regular Season Games Overseas: Good or Bad Idea?

[That Guy]

Originally Posted by SouperMeister

Am I missing something here? Why does everyone (including so-called experts) assume that this plan implies a home game is lost on the schedule? Let's assume that the NFL has one game overseas per season. I would think that the two participating teams would have a schedule of 8 home games, 7 road games, and the overseas game at an obviously neutral site. Is this such a horrible thing? I would gladly trade one of my road games for a neutral site game, particularly against a tough opponent.

because if 1+1 doesn't equal 2, then the world is truely hosed.

[Daseal]

Am I missing something here? Why does everyone (including so-called experts) assume that this plan implies a home game is lost on the schedule? Let's assume that the NFL has one game overseas per season. I would think that the two participating teams would have a schedule of 8 home games, 7 road games, and the overseas game at an obviously neutral site. Is this such a horrible thing? I would gladly trade one of my road games for a neutral site game, particularly against a tough opponent.

You just made my study prep a bit happier. That was a good laugh!

[SantanaMan]

I didn't think I'd be reading such closeminded comments as have been posted - I believe that a lot of the posters here don't a have a clue how popular the NFL is outside of the USA!!!!!!

The NFL is, and has been a global sporting phenomenon for decades - the viewing figures are sky-high (something like a billion people viewing in over 225 countries worldwide!).
Sure, it involves losing ONE home game every 16 years - but in NFL business terms it opens the games to a much bigger viewing audience, which in turn will increase revenue when more fans become interested which in turn benefits the league and indvidual teams.
I believe the talk has been about having it coincide with bye weeks etc, and each team I'm sure will know well in advance (maybe even a few seasons in advance) that they will be taking part.

I am very shocked at the "its ours, go away" attitude, but unfortunately I find that a lot - many US based sports fans feel, that as europeans/foriegners that we cannot possibly be as fervent or diehard supporters as them and that they must know more as its "their" sport.

I played college soccer (and won a national champioship) in the states, some of the most knowledgable soccer fans i met were amercians (but, how, surely its not THEIR sport? :-p ).
Heck, don't let USA host the World Cup, what do they know about soccer (again sarcasm for those that may misread it).
The WC opened soccer up more to USA, as will this venture by the NFL, don't be a hater, embrace it.

Again, I as a european, bleed burgundy and gold, I live for football each and every day - I stay up to stupid hours to watch the games live (MNF kicks off at 1.30am here, so can be up till 5 or later on a Tuesday morning!), I haven't missed a Skins game in years due to paying to watch each and every game,I watch all 3 games sunday, MNF and then replays of others when available, ESPN, NFL Network are contants on in my house - I hate basically every european sport (I played soccer, but not a fan per se).
Does someone, just because they live in VA, or MI or whereever make them a better fan due to where they live, HELL NO!

Yes, it may be the "National" football league, but you play for the "World" championship ;-)

[Daseal]

SantanaMan -- While the prospect of losing a home game isn't something I want. I'm worried about traveling and traveling time. I want football to become more of a universal sport, but I don't think one game a year in Europe would do that. I feel you must start by bringing youth football into select European countries. Germany seems to really embrace it.

I know a lot of people, including myself came off as it being a "we don't want to share" type of attitude. But I feel that's a bit off. It's more a we don't want to dillute the quality of the game by having teams travel a ton, giving them less time to prepare, and home games are nice for not only us fans, but for the players.

[SantanaMan]

Now after getting that off my chest I will give my personal thoughts on this venture.

NFL, if it comes to Ireland/UK - count me there with bells on, I'm saving already as soon as I heard the news of the possability.
If its the Skins even better, but the chance to see an NFL regular season game without having the travel/hotel costs seems very appealing to me, regardless of if its the Cowboys vs Browns I'll still be going and I'm sure almost each and every NFL fan in the UK would feel the same way (meaning there will be FAR more demand for tickets than could be available).
Even casual fans or people without much knowledge of the sport may be interested as it'll be a once in a decade event possibly and so it will also draw people that way, the interest drawn via media and people talking about it long after will also go a long way to boosting the sport.

[SantanaMan]

Travelling east if I remember correctly is a lot easier than the return journey (as it would be for NFL players), east coast teams would notice a time difference of 5 hours (and hence are likely to be placed to playing in europe), the return journey is harder and more likely to have jet-lag (hence the bye week after it).
I would also think that these games would/could be best suited for MNF (or like has happened this season a MNF doubleheader), giving these teams extra time to rest, etc after the travel (they may even have the euro games played on MNF the week after say an NFL Network Thu game , thus giving even more time).
The NFL has been involved in grass roots programs in the UK for many years (not sure if you are aware of this), obviously the schooling system is set up differently and would take time to evolve towards the same kind of system in america, but it is happening, college teams have been formed, there are leagues - like my earlier analogy to USA soccer, it wil take a while for these "seeds" to grow, but with the right exposure to games/coaching it can only be a good thing wordwide.

Yes, Germany is possibly the biggest country to embrace NFL (followed VERY close 2nd to UK may I add), this is due to the US armed forces based there and many ex-pats in these countries that generated the intial interest 20-odd years ago.

Indeed in my very early days as an NFL fan there was little TV coverage here (originally a 1 hour show), so I used to have to try and get radio reception from Armed Force Radio to try and listen to coverage of games(which involves moving about my room lots with the radio to pick up the signal) - since then coverage has boomed to what we have now which is the ability to watch each and every game each and every week, ability to watch all the shows such as PTI, Around the Horn, Sportcenter, you name it, we can pretty much watch it too. Add to that the internet and NFL is sitting at everyones fingertips.

Who's to say the players won't embrace the new games? Many NFLEurope players and current NFLers have only positive things to say about their time in europe.
The NFL is leagues ahead of every other sporting league in the world in organisation/planning, I am sure they will not only think/plan this through thoroughly, but it will also be better than what we as fans think.

I don't wish to argue with anyone about this, as we are all fans of the same sport (and team) - I can only see positive things coming from this.

I guess I can just see this akin to what I heard from staunch soccer fans in the UK when they heard about the WC being played in the USA ...
all the "they will ruin it, they know nothing about it, blah, blah", I personally didnt feel this way and was pleased when USA put on what I feel has been the best WC in a long time and would willingly let them host again.

[dmek25]

santanaman, if the nfl is so popular overseas, why is it anytime you watch an nfl europe game, the stands are over half empty?

[Redskin]

Originally Posted by dmek25

santanaman, if the nfl is so popular overseas, why is it anytime you watch an nfl europe game, the stands are over half empty?

Bahahaha you watch NFLE, thats worse then college

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by SantanaMan

I didn't think I'd be reading such closeminded comments as have been posted - I believe that a lot of the posters here don't a have a clue how popular the NFL is outside of the USA!!!!!!

The NFL is, and has been a global sporting phenomenon for decades - the viewing figures are sky-high (something like a billion people viewing in over 225 countries worldwide!).
Sure, it involves losing ONE home game every 16 years - but in NFL business terms it opens the games to a much bigger viewing audience, which in turn will increase revenue when more fans become interested which in turn benefits the league and indvidual teams.
I believe the talk has been about having it coincide with bye weeks etc, and each team I'm sure will know well in advance (maybe even a few seasons in advance) that they will be taking part.

I am very shocked at the "its ours, go away" attitude, but unfortunately I find that a lot - many US based sports fans feel, that as europeans/foriegners that we cannot possibly be as fervent or diehard supporters as them and that they must know more as its "their" sport.

I played college soccer (and won a national champioship) in the states, some of the most knowledgable soccer fans i met were amercians (but, how, surely its not THEIR sport? :-p ).
Heck, don't let USA host the World Cup, what do they know about soccer (again sarcasm for those that may misread it).
The WC opened soccer up more to USA, as will this venture by the NFL, don't be a hater, embrace it.

Again, I as a european, bleed burgundy and gold, I live for football each and every day - I stay up to stupid hours to watch the games live (MNF kicks off at 1.30am here, so can be up till 5 or later on a Tuesday morning!), I haven't missed a Skins game in years due to paying to watch each and every game,I watch all 3 games sunday, MNF and then replays of others when available, ESPN, NFL Network are contants on in my house - I hate basically every european sport (I played soccer, but not a fan per se).
Does someone, just because they live in VA, or MI or whereever make them a better fan due to where they live, HELL NO!

Yes, it may be the "National" football league, but you play for the "World" championship ;-)

I agree with all you say. The only issue I have is that fans only get to see their teams a few number of times each year, unlike the 80+ times a baseball fan can see their team. And all I'm saying is if you're going to take that away from the core fan to grow the sport globally, which is understable, then you have to give something back to that fan. Give them a free preseason game for example.

[bedlamVR]

Why are the NFLE stadiums half empty ...at the moment it is a cast off league... If the NFLE games were held in the US the attendance would be even lower ... serriously would yu pay to watch a bunch of scrubs not even good enough to play and train with a real NFL team?

It wouldn't be so bad if the NFLE teams where primarily made up of Europeans and there may be some consistancy there and if the coaches and players stayed more than a couple of years and if the NFL didn't stop taking teams away from countries and possibly made sure that the press in the individual countries put out information like the world bowl in Scotland a few years back no one knew about.

The anoying thing is the NFLE could be an exceptional tool if it was as more of a feeder league for the NFL like the collage system is in the US if the NFL hooked up with univerisites and collages in Europe to get them to run exchange scollerships for American students on sports and cultural basis.

There is an underestimation of how popular the sport is worldwide by the American people . I am not asking for a NFL world cup but it is a smart thing to do if it makes Football a world game to play outside the US once in a while.

[illdefined]

SantananMan, your posts have been fascinating. how did you become such a Redskins fan?

i think i was the first poster here to want this to happen, i think american football has evolved into one of the relatively few genuinely american art forms (remember the U.S. is only 230yrs old!) like jazz, and it should be appreciated world-wide.

may sound hokey, but its not. i dont know any other sport that is as fiercely physical as it is cerebral (John Madden not withstanding) and i think it'd be a good american contribution to the world.

maybe it needs a name for those outside of the U.S. like 'soccer' is futbol to us? what could they call it?

[illdefined]

Originally Posted by bedlamVR

It wouldn't be so bad if the NFLE teams where primarily made up of Europeans and there may be some consistancy there and if the coaches and players stayed more than a couple of years and if the NFL didn't stop taking teams away from countries and possibly made sure that the press in the individual countries put out information like the world bowl in Scotland a few years back no one knew about.

The anoying thing is the NFLE could be an exceptional tool if it was as more of a feeder league for the NFL like the collage system is in the US if the NFL hooked up with univerisites and collages in Europe to get them to run exchange scollerships for American students on sports and cultural basis.

yes exactly Bedlam. the secret is getting europeans PLAYING, not just watching. the reason they don't fill the stadiums is because they are watching foreigners who are unknown even in their own country. thats why real NFL games would be a great showcase of football at its very best, and it'd get the ball rolling.

i remember like one actual european per team in the NFLE, forget that, give them a reason to cheer for, make it LOCAL. they should all be european, maybe with american coaches until there are enough european ones. but are there enough europeans players?

[That Guy]

Originally Posted by illdefined

but are there enough europeans players?

no. it's like american soccer in the 70s right when pele came over. none of the american players were any good, so good teams were made by hiring from outside the US.

[Big C]

terrible idea. simple as that

[illdefined]

Originally Posted by Big C

terrible idea. simple as that

great argument