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Yep - what is it , 11 hours? Long way to go for the Drew Brees Bowl.
for what ever reason, there is a huge Dolphins fan base in the UK..and of course they added a team from NY to the mix.but , you're ONLY saying these things because your an Eagle's fan, a team that no one outside of Philly gives a **** about.
You still can.
Yeah, I mean the Chargers and Saints have won so many Super Bowls that I've lost count...for what ever reason, there is a huge Dolphins fan base in the UK..and of course they added a team from NY to the mix.but , you're ONLY saying these things because your an Eagle's fan, a team that no one outside of Philly gives a **** about.
if you guys ever won a SB maybe you'd get included in these int'l games??..
do you seriously not nunderstand why there is a game in England? $$$. Imagine instead of little brits wearing beckham jerseys they are in LT jerseys.The world is a global market place. Expect more of this not less.
LT or Reggie can twist an ankle on a football field as well. How is a soccer field that much different from a football field for footing?Christopher
Really? I would have assumed it was SEA every year. NOBODY is geographically close to SEA.I still say the fans/teams that can't get attendance should be the ones getting punished by losing a home game. Seems like a no-brainer to me. If you can't fill the seats... how can you really complain?
Pretty sure its already set as a NO home game... but hey, at least its not the Giants in NJ. Anway... there's an interesting take on this from SaintsReport...
Heh.. More likely it is a ploy by the London tourism industry to get more Yanks to come over during the dreary months of the year..
Drew Brees Bowl
Traditionally (a very short tradition) it is the Super Bowl winner opening at home. I speculated a week or so ago that if New England wins the SB then it could very well be Patriots vs Steelers. Pittsburgh is New England's only home opponent that made the 2007 playoffs.
I believe that is the plan. It is interesting to me that London will get the game two years in a row. I thought for sure they would be rotating it. Makes me kind of nervous that London will get a game every season and then they'll select another city and have that an annual event as well. Before you know it we could have 8 games or more in places like Mexico City, Tokyo, Munich, Madrid, Paris, Berlin, etc.
I think London has a 4 year deal to have games
That would explain it.Thanks!
It sounds like the NFL is going to adjust the schedule so that one of the Chargers' other east coast games will be the week before the London trip and that the Chargers will go directly to London from that location to allow a full week to adjust for the time difference.
How do the Saints continue to get screwed on these "home field" games?
I'm one of the mods at SaintsReport.com, and as such, am very familiar with the disappointment and anger many expressed about losing a home game next year, especially after losing our entire home season just a couple of years ago. The post above was certainly contrary to the vast majority of posts, but I think he has some very valid points. As a long time season ticket holder, I'm not enthused about losing a home game, especially an intriguing matchup with a team that, with the current NFL schedule setup, we get to see once every 8 years in the Dome. But as bicycle_seat_sniffer said, every team will eventually lose a home game. In fact, I read somewhere that the NFL's master plan will likely include 2 international games a year, so that's 2 teams a season which will be losing home games. That amounts to one home game every 16 years that a team will lose, seems a small price to pay for the league to grow the game outside the US. Now, with that said, it again opens up the argument of whether the NFL should be playing any games elsewhere, but that discussion has been debated ad nauseum in other threads...
Good post all the way around.
Unfortunately this is a common attitude. The NFL is huge in the UK/Europe. over 500,000 ticket requests in the first 12 hours for the Giants/Fins game should show you that. To call it a novelty is ignorant to say the least. A novelty was the preseason games played in the UK which advertised Montana as plying, where he had 1 snap and it was 3rd stringers after that. As is the point about it being played on a soccer pitch (don't know where to start on that one). It is the first step to globalising the game and will eventually result in franchises being set up outside America., I dunno about other people but I hate games that are moved like this. Not like the London population is ever going to care about american football anyway, more of a novelty to them .
trueI got a few british guys at work here and they love american football. they say it's huge over there too, not just the Superbowl but they have told me most every male over there has a team they root forUnfortunately this is a common attitude. The NFL is huge in the UK/Europe. over 500,000 ticket requests in the first 12 hours for the Giants/Fins game should show you that. To call it a novelty is ignorant to say the least. A novelty was the preseason games played in the UK which advertised Montana as plying, where he had 1 snap and it was 3rd stringers after that. As is the point about it being played on a soccer pitch (don't know where to start on that one). It is the first step to globalising the game and will eventually result in franchises being set up outside America., I dunno about other people but I hate games that are moved like this. Not like the London population is ever going to care about american football anyway, more of a novelty to them .
I imagine that they sent the Saints because there is a great deal of international empathy for the city.
I don't know why they've been telling you that, but it simply isn't true. There is a small group of very dedicated, hardcore NFL fans in the UK and interest is growing at a steady rate, but the large majority of sports fans in this country couldn't even name an NFL team let alone root for one.Edit: That's not to say that I don't think these games are a bad idea. As I said, interest is growing here and the game at Wembley was a shot in the arm for the viewing figures which increased by about 30% this year (still only about 400,000-500,000 people, but an increase nonetheless). Also if the NFL is willing to the groundwork in Europe now, then the increased interest in the sport in the future will not only increase revenues, but also vastly increase the playing standard of the game. Just think, if (big if of course) the NFL can reach the popularity it has in the US in Europe then you've more than doubled the talent pool for scouts, that can't be a bad thing imho.trueI got a few british guys at work here and they love american football. they say it's huge over there too, not just the Superbowl but they have told me most every male over there has a team they root forUnfortunately this is a common attitude. The NFL is huge in the UK/Europe. over 500,000 ticket requests in the first 12 hours for the Giants/Fins game should show you that. To call it a novelty is ignorant to say the least. A novelty was the preseason games played in the UK which advertised Montana as plying, where he had 1 snap and it was 3rd stringers after that. As is the point about it being played on a soccer pitch (don't know where to start on that one). It is the first step to globalising the game and will eventually result in franchises being set up outside America.
Even if that's true... why send a game like this over seas? If there truly is a big EURO following of American Football and only one game a year is played over there... they'll buy tickets no matter what the matchup is. The SD/NO matchup would have sold tickets for the Saints but they're robbed of that game while DET and OAK will have trouble selling tickets to some meaningless games. I don't think there would be nearly the # of complaints if the NFL would have sent a game like the DET@OAK game last year(assuming it wasn't the opening game of the season)."2007 NFL Attendance FigurestrueI got a few british guys at work here and they love american football. they say it's huge over there too, not just the Superbowl but they have told me most every male over there has a team they root forUnfortunately this is a common attitude. The NFL is huge in the UK/Europe. over 500,000 ticket requests in the first 12 hours for the Giants/Fins game should show you that. To call it a novelty is ignorant to say the least. A novelty was the preseason games played in the UK which advertised Montana as plying, where he had 1 snap and it was 3rd stringers after that. As is the point about it being played on a soccer pitch (don't know where to start on that one). It is the first step to globalising the game and will eventually result in franchises being set up outside America., I dunno about other people but I hate games that are moved like this. Not like the London population is ever going to care about american football anyway, more of a novelty to them .
This is 100% exact. I'm european.Pskov1420 said:
I was in Wembley last october and it was great. When you're the only man in your school/work/town who know something about NFL it's great to meet thousands of people like you for one weekend. I'm sure all this will promote NFL, but that's not too much, when something is really down it's difficult to go lower. There's a better way to promote NFL and nobody has speak about: The NFL can make the european TV networks air one free game per week, now all NFL games are aired on paid sports chanels. I think this will work, perhaps better than the every year match, the first years the NFL will lose some money in their deals, but they can get it in the next years if they became popular.Pskov1420 said:
You're European... would that go over well?I'm only asking because if one of the big three free TV networks was forced by a league from any foreign nation to air Rugby even once a week I don't think it would go over well here in the states. Not well at all. Even if it was in the best interest of the foreign league.
ugh. more typical, baseless America-hate. one of usual Euro complaints is that the NFL players wear pads, somehow making them less tough. but apparently they fail to realize that without pads, these guys would literally kill each other.anyway, I'm not too psyched about the Saints having a home game in a place where most people don't give a crap, but whatever. they put tuna and corn on their pizza, so what do they know? GEAUX SAINTS!!!
