We have seen the NFL
play regular season games in London over the last 5 years, but exactly how
popular is the sport in the UK?
Sources familiar with the NFL reason that because the NFL is very
committed to these regular season games, that they are seriously contemplating
putting a franchise in London at some point. NFL Vice President of International Business, Chris Parsons,
says the NFL is looking to get into the “top 5” spectator sports in the
UK. In front of the NFL is soccer,
cricket, rugby, tennis, golf, and motorsports. That puts the NFL at 7. Do you think that the NFL can pass motorsports and golf at
sometime in the near future and even think about getting in this top 5?
Ben Lev
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000084365/article/nfl-team-in-london-league-entering-new-phase-of-uk-project
I don't really think the NFL will ever really take off in Europe. I feel that Europeans have a pretty negative view of the NFL and that is pretty impossible to change. It is also tough for the NFL to put 2 very good well known teams in Europe for a big game. Fan bases of these higher market teams do not want to lose a home game and therefore only teams such as Jacksonville, Buffalo, etc (smaller market teams) are only willing to play a home game in Europe. It will be interesting to see if this trend ever changes and they could get something like a Dallas Cowboys vs New York Giants game out in Europe to see what type of response it would get.
ReplyDelete-Harris Fanaroff
Ya I agree with both opinions that a bigger game would help increase popularity overseas. It will be interesting what will happen over the next few years. Maybe they may have to wait for teams such as the Giants or Cowboys to not be as good but who knows when that may happen.
DeleteOn another note I saw on Sportscenter the other day that one of the top prospects in the upcoming NFL Draft is a defensive end/linebacker out of Florida State. The interesting note is that he is from Berlin, Germany. I noted in another post that when NFL Europe disbanded in 2007 there were 6 teams, 5 in germany and 1 in Amersterdam. So it seems that Germany has a solid fan base, maybe they should consider holding a game in Berlin or Munich.
Ben Lev
I agree that having a big time game in Europe like the Giants vs. Cowboys could do great things for the globalization of the NFL but this could be hard to make happen because they want their own fans to experience such a big rivalry game. In the past the annual football games in Europe haven't been that competitive and this is a problem for the NFL.
ReplyDelete