The NFL isn’t done with early kickoffs to accommodate fans in London. The league confirmed today that the October 1 Saints-Dolphins game will kick off at Wembley Stadium at 2:30 p.m. London time, which is 9:30 a.m. Eastern time. That runs contrary to a report last season that the league had decided to cancel the early kickoffs. The London games have been controversial, with many American fans not liking seeing their games taken overseas and not liking having to get up early. However, some fans enjoy having breakfast with the NFL on Sundays, and the earlier kickoffs can help the NFL attract more fans in Europe. For at least one game this year, the NFL has decided to keep up the early kickoffs. The kickoff times of the other three London games have not been determined.
Dang, that's 630 am here. Don't think I can get the bartender out of bed THAT early. Which means I'll have to make my own breakfast too! I hate the British!
This really is an unfair advantage. We lose one less game in the heat and the bye comes too early. I guess the price of getting a super bowl Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Gase has requested that their bye not come after London. The Colts did the same thing last year and their request was granted. Hopefully this happens for the Dolphins next season.
Then if know the NFL, we will get a Thursday night game the next week Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I like the UK, especially Wales(Cymru Am Byth) but this London thing is all about the NFL having eyes bigger than it's stomach. International NFL is never going to work, it's a logistical nightmare, for the sake of argument, lets say the London Redcoats exist, ask the players whats the worst part of being a pro athlete, most will tell you travel, which makes the London job automatically the worst job in the NFL. Now lets compound that by the fact that most players don't want to move to England regardless of the huge tax thing that the NFL is trying to get around, so players won't have to pay taxes in 2 countries, the guys just don't want to move to England. This team is playing from a hole, FAs don't want to go there and half the team is just waiting for their contract to be up so they can get out of there, perennial doormats, fan support waivers, NFL has to close up shoppe(lol) again in Europe. When Europe starts turning off soccer to watch NFL games, that's when you make the move, the failure of NFL Europe told them everything they need to know right now, interest is not close to high enough to even consider it a valid market. Imo, they are missing the boat entirely, they're trying to make $ overseas when there is more $ to be made here, an NFL minor league would work here in America, all those NFL Europe teams could easily find homes in America. How great would that be, go to Trenton to see the NJ Knights, cheap, in the off season, and get to see Dolphin prospects, so when one day one of them makes a play in the playoffs, you can say I knew that guy when... I think that there are markets here in America that are ripe for an NFL minor league team, markets that are far from actual NFL teams and of course high pop areas. Yes, I'm aware that other leagues have failed trying to do this, but all those leagues lacked the magical which means they lacked everything, no one gives a **** about the National United States American Football League, if there are any other letters between the N and the F, you can take them and pound bricks, lol, the ability to see NFL prospects of your very own team is a huge draw, and as we have seen, some of these guys will make it, recently a player that started in NFL europe was inducted to the HoF.
I'd agree with this. I think they're fine doing what they're doing when it comes to London though. My understanding is the games sell well over there, there is fan interest there to keep doing a small handful of games a year as long as the NFL clubs are still willing to take part and send their squad over, and give up a home game somewhere along the line. To put a team there full time would be a monumental mistake IMO. For the reasons you've mentioned, and probably some more. I however, don't think you can look at the failure of NFLE to say an NFL team won't work. If I remember correctly, the rules and game were modified as well weren't they? Plus, you had what equated to a league full of "minor leaguers". That's not exactly the best recipe to have a successful league that's going to generate interest in the game. I think if you tried to move an actual NFL team to London you'd probably have some initial success if you could overcome the obvious issues with distance, tax, timezones, etc, etc. because at least the team and the game represents the actual product, as opposed to what NFL-E was trying to do. Continuing on with NFL-E... and the thought of a development league based in North America, I agree it's definitely something that I think could work as well. I'd suspect though, the issue is money. You're obviously looking to smaller markets here than where the NFL teams currently call home. You'd need stadiums, I'm sure some college facilities could serve that purpose, but then you have all the other costs associated with the teams. Including the big one, players. If the NFL owners are to be involved in ownership of these "minor league" teams are they really going to be willing to be paying player salaries, for guys and a team that likely aren't generating enough ROI to make it worthwhile? Then what if a player gets hurt? I suppose you could have these guys with a "maximum" salary level, likely less than the NFL minimum contract and that could help. If you had separate ownership though from the NFL clubs, are the NFL owners going to want to send players they may have the rights to down to the "minor league" to play? Etc. Etc. I imagine money, and control of the players would be the biggest obstacle here. I'd be curious to see how MLB teams work the model. Sure, they've all got farm club associations and agreements with usually 3 minor league clubs (AAA/AA/A). I think those minor league teams operate on their own, but player acquisition and salaries are the responsibility of the major league clubs. The baseball system though, however it's set up does work well. The thing is though, the nature of the game allows it to. Player development can typically take longer, players have longer careers that allow for that too, and of course, the injury exposure is likely significantly lower. It works well in baseball though because these kids get drafted out of college programs and such, and then spend a few more years in the minor leagues developing and becoming better players for a couple years. You don't have that luxury in football though. When that kid leaves college, you want him playing, and you need to get him up to speed and NFL worthy in a short period of time. However, I guess that's where the logic shift has to come in... it's not just to develop those undrafted college guys, but can also be a home for some older guys to rebound from prior injury, late bloomers, etc. etc. However, I think you can you also eliminate the potential need for it by expanding NFL rosters, especially on game days. Ultimately, I think a development league would be a great idea though. I also think you're right in the sense it needs to have the NFL brand attached in order to be successful. Minor league sports from my understanding are booming across the US. Junior hockey has been huge here in Canada for a long time through out the 3 leagues of the CHL (Canadian Hockey League, including the OHL - Ontario Hockey League, WHL - Western Hockey League, QMJHL - Quebec Major Junior Hockey League). The kids in that league are 16-19 years old, and teams regularly pack 4k-6k seat arenas, at $20 a ticket, with no player costs. The AHL draws good numbers for what it is as well. MLB Triple A level teams seem to draw good crowds too. The question is why are minor league sports doing well right now? I think the easy answer there is money. If you're a fan that's been priced out of being in regular attendance at NFL, MLB, NHL, or NBA games, the developmental leagues are your next option. Tickets are cheaper, it's easier to take your family out for a night of sports entertainment, and yes, you're potentially seeing "the next great thing" before they make it big. The quality of the product, while lacking the super star element doesn't lack that much, because these players are typically giving it extra effort as they're fighting they're way up the ranks working towards getting a big pay day hopefully. Sorry for rambling here guys, but I think the time is definitely right for an NFL developmental league or minor league. I kind of wish the NFL and CFL would team up a bit more. Sure, the game is a bit different, but lets face it, we're seeing it more and more now guys going to the CFL a couple of years to develop further, prove they can still play and make the way back to the NFL. It's working, and it's a relationship right now that the CFL enjoys when the players come to the league out of the NCAA, but of course they're also crying for more protection to losing players to the NFL. Which is why I said earlier, I think if you create a developmental league, you'd have a hard time if the ownership was separate from the NFL. Why would a minor league team owner, want to willingly give up talent to the NFL club, especially if that player is helping put fans in those seats? That's the big obstacle IMO... the money aspect of this. No surprise there though.
I think that $ wouldn't be a problem, the costs would be much lower, playing in rinky dink stadiums with a team payroll cost thats less than what we pay Suh, if you can sell out the stadiums, you'll make money, and overall it's good for the NFL, as it is a catch net for the talent that slips through. I think the $ is there though, I think they will fill stadiums and sell gear, how good would it be to still have Wake's St Louis Shock jersey with the Dolphins designation on it(because if there was an NFL minor league, that's where he would have came from), and I think this is the real beauty part for the NFL, there would be a league wide interest, because there would be your teams prospects all over the league. I watched NFL Europe, but if there was a my state NFL minor league team, I wouldn't miss a game, I think many fans feel similar, so there is also ad $ to be had, on a much smaller scale, but still there, so imo I think the $ is there.
I agree. Like I said, there's a whole market of fans who have been priced out of the NFL experience live, and in person. I think you could easily attract them to the minor league product. At the same time, there's likely several businesses who have been priced out of the NFL experience as well from a marketing standpoint that would gladly jump on board for advertising exposure at these games. That's just making the assumption that the minor league operations are in the same radius as the NFL club. If they aren't, then you're opening up a whole new world of advertising clients and revenue in whichever community they pick to locate the clubs. As for Wake, if there was a developmental league it's likely he never made the trip to the CFL to play for the BC Lions as the Giants likely would have shipped him off to the D-league rather than cutting him loose. Maybe they wouldn't have given up on him so soon. I'm surprised really that there isn't more push from the NFL team owners to do this though. He's a good example of a player you gave up on too soon because you had nowhere to stash him to let him develop.
Not really. The NFL is HUGE in a lot of European countries and cities. There are bigger reasons as to why NFL Europe didn't last.
Wrong. As it stands it would only require eight London games a season, and splitting it into two groups of four could be a good work around. Besides, traveling a lot over a 16-game season is nothing compared to other pro sports. And if the NFL created a four-team European division with two teams in the UK, and two teams in Germany, that would make the logistics even easier.
