London to get NFL team?
The head of the NFL in the United Kingdom says London is moving closer to getting an NFL franchise.
In an interview with Reuters, NFL UK managing director Alistair Kirkwood said the success of the NFL’s International Series in London, which began in 2007, has made a franchise there a real possibility.
“I think the first chapter has been considered a success with the owners voting on a renewal going forward,” Kirkwood said. “Jacksonville returning is also a sign of maturity of the concept.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced this week that the Jacksonville Jaguars will play one home game at London’s Wembley Stadium for four years starting next year.
“What this now does is allow us to test if we can bring in more new fans and boost a single team recognition,” Kirkwood told Reuters.
“Once that period has come up we will then have learnt an awful lot about it and know what the viability for us going forward is and then be in a great position to make a call [on putting a franchise in London].”
This year’s London game is scheduled for Oct. 28 between the St. Louis Rams and New England Patriots.
Do you support the NFL moving overseas while U.S. cities such as Los Angeles remain without a franchise? And how about some ideas for a team name?
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126 comments Add your comment
ha
August 24th, 2012
9:11 am
And lets not forget Ballground there is a crowd pleaser.
ha
August 24th, 2012
9:12 am
Clayton, if we are gonne include the sprawling metropolis of savannah or agusta we must remember Clayton.
ha
August 24th, 2012
9:13 am
Oh my gosh almost forgot Tryon, Dalton, and Macon.
ha
August 24th, 2012
9:14 am
Im on to something we could have 50 or 60 professional teams in the state before its all over. Hell lets just absorb professional sports all together.
D
August 24th, 2012
9:17 am
Any interest London might have in football will be obliterated by watching the Jags play for four years. What an embarrassment to football and our country. Better than the Browns I guess.
TS
August 24th, 2012
9:18 am
@ ha….so you don’t think Georgia has no other city that can hold a professional sports team?
Look at the Thunder in OKC, Oklahoma?…Who would have thought…and have you even been to Green Bay???….I have, and let me tell you it puts the C in COUNTRY….Augusta is the 2nd largest city in Georgia and have a much bigger population than Green Bay!
This just proves my theory, Atlanta=Georgia and nothing else matters….Leadership here might as well switch it around, let Atlanta become the state and Georgia become the city because to anybody thats not from Georgia this is how they see Georgia….Imagine people saying..”yes I live in Georgia, Atlanta”….LOL
Hondo
August 24th, 2012
9:20 am
The Rippers
ha
August 24th, 2012
9:21 am
Ok lets get it going we can call them the Augusta earmites or armpits or better yet the fighting toejammers.
playing for london?
August 24th, 2012
9:22 am
if you are the falcons you’d have to fly over to london for a game a year max, but if you played for the london team – half your season would involve flying from london back to the states for away games. And the big question would be taxes, as an american citizen – the players would have to pay US income tax. As having jobs in England – they’d have to pay English taxes. This would be CRAZY
ha
August 24th, 2012
9:23 am
The second highest population because of Ft Gordon which is home to the Signal regimental. Those people are in and out for training and gone. Take away the transient population of the base and you have a trailer park 3 dogs and a chicken named ED.
ha
August 24th, 2012
9:25 am
TS I hope you do stand up because you are a funny funny person.
ha
August 24th, 2012
9:26 am
Lets get a professional armpit fart team for Savannah.
TS
August 24th, 2012
9:26 am
My point is that if small cities like Green Bay, WI can support a NFL team, there are plenty of cities to start a franchise in besides outside of the country in LONDON!
ha
August 24th, 2012
9:27 am
Oh I forgot gainesville, with all the lations a professional soccer team would be the bomb. We could call them the illegals.
ha
August 24th, 2012
9:28 am
The Villa Rica mouth breathers?
ha
August 24th, 2012
9:29 am
Athens? The Athenian Knuckledraggers, professional dodge ball team.
ha
August 24th, 2012
9:31 am
That is like saying Arlington texas can Support the Cowboys.
There is NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING else in Oklahoma and Wisconsin for anyone to do but watch those teams and breed.
ha
August 24th, 2012
9:32 am
I forgot oklahoma has a professional fan pissing team and cow chip hurling team.
TS
August 24th, 2012
9:35 am
Augusta is trailer park????….Have you ever been to Augusta? Let me tell you there’s no “Recession” in Augusta and never was!…Augusta is not riddled with foreclosures and people working dead end low paying jobs like in Atlanta.
If you go to Columbia county tell me where there is a “trailer park” cause every time I go down there all I see is big mansions and people driving Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Porsches!
ha
August 24th, 2012
9:35 am
Wisconsin has been known for it’s professional fart lighting teams.
ha
August 24th, 2012
9:39 am
Was just there and all I see is pawn shops,clubs, one big ass hospital that dominates the skyline, I saw nothing but busted up trucks and a old dirty city. I saw a model of a ferrari in the walmart.
ha
August 24th, 2012
9:41 am
you should run for Mayor there. You could throw the opening pitch for the Augusta Assmites.
DumbIdea
August 24th, 2012
9:45 am
Not a great idea. Get a league started in Europe instead. Logistics would be a nightmare if there was a sole London team competing in the NFL.
TS
August 24th, 2012
9:45 am
Lets not get in a stupid debate…lets stick to the subject at hand…my point is if small cities like Green Bay and Buffalo can support NFL teams and do so profitably then there are other cities that can too!
Just was using Augusta as an example…I’m not going to go back and forth with you about this because no matter where they put it, it won’t be making NEITHER one of us any money…and with that being said I’m on my way to WORK!!!
ha
August 24th, 2012
9:48 am
Im not debating, im just enjoying reading your post. Like watching flies go ino a bug zapper.
Mr Natural
August 24th, 2012
9:56 am
Yes, I’m for London getting a franchise over Los Angeles…………..think outsourcing.
matt
August 24th, 2012
9:56 am
The London Soccer Hooligans sounds like a great NFL team name to me.
Birdman of Falcatraz
August 24th, 2012
9:57 am
What a logistical nightmare it will be to fly to London for 8 teams every year. Will extend the season to 20 weeks.
Sanjeev
August 24th, 2012
10:03 am
So does this mean when a team wins the Superbowl they really are the “world” champions?
joey
August 24th, 2012
10:04 am
Folks, London will get a team, and then Mexico City and Toronto. Roger Greedell has been prepping all three cities and baiting the owners to get approval. It is going to happen, personally I think it is a bad idea. NFL is our national sport, now the owners want the world. They are loosing focus, this could turn out very bad for the NFL. Let’s think twice about building a new stadium for the Falcons if they pull this kind of move to London.
It will be Jacksonville that moves, they NFL has been trying to move them for years.
Logistical nightmare
August 24th, 2012
10:07 am
Imagine the travel difficulties for the Seattle vs. London game. And you know, once the door opens to London … Barcelona, Munich, etc will all be looking to join too. Imagine the new NFL … the NFC Really East consists of London, Rome, Paris and Barcelona. The AFC Really Really East will be Sydney, Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing.
333
August 24th, 2012
10:07 am
I was in London 2 years ago just before a NFL game. The game was a BIG event. you would be surprised at the enthusiasm the Brits have for football.
Rick in Macon
August 24th, 2012
10:11 am
What an idiotic idea…Goodell is out of his freakin mind to even consider this.
G
August 24th, 2012
10:15 am
Logistical nightmare trying to move ONE team overseas, whether it’s in London or anywhere else. Looks like the commissioner desires to expand the league overseas……..but just having ONE team overseas is NOT the answer. Today, it looks like Jacksonville will be the experimental team.
If the league is serious about moving overseas, there will need to be an overseas Division or Conference, that plays the majority (if not all) of it’s games overseas. However, I’m not sure if the NFL has enough influence to generate positive revenue for overseas games. They need more games in places other than London to make a global impact.
Patrick Romano WAR DAMN EAGLE
August 24th, 2012
10:15 am
I had the great fortune to play wide receiver and return kicks for The Heathrow Jets in London, Prior to the NFL developmental league it was the World League while supporting The USAF in Europe from 1987-1990 and London is ready for a team, those mad ass Brits are hungry for a team, Should be interesting Wembeely stadium can handle it!
Don’t necissarily know if LA deserves another Pro football team.
PLR
Patrick Romano WAR DAMN EAGLE
August 24th, 2012
10:17 am
Or necessarily…oops, fat thumbs
WAR DAMN EAGLE, 2 weeks, kick off classic, Go AU Tigerz…
ParanoidAndroid
August 24th, 2012
10:31 am
I hope the owners can afford supersonic jets. The long flights will take their toll.
Augustabred
August 24th, 2012
10:35 am
@TS; we don’t even have a college team here and your’re talking about a NFL team! LMAO
ds1967
August 24th, 2012
10:40 am
As an NFL fan living in Scotland i would love London to Get a NFL Team and i think Family Guy got it right!!!! Call the team the London Silly Nannies but the real name will be London Bulldogs.
E Harmony keeps matching me with fat chicks
August 24th, 2012
10:51 am
Just as long as they don’t import soccer here.
Tag
August 24th, 2012
10:52 am
Cool!
yo mama
August 24th, 2012
11:03 am
funny how folks that dont live in LA think they know more than the folks living in LA. first of all, San Diego owns the LA tv rights, and if they dont sell out, the game is blacked out here, despite the 75mile rule. whoever gets to land in LA has to buy those rights back from SD.
just a little insider. they will get a team here, as the stadium process is moving along nicely.
NoShamSam
August 24th, 2012
11:07 am
What about the London Tea Timers
NoShamSam
August 24th, 2012
11:08 am
Or the London Royals
Heisenberg
August 24th, 2012
11:10 am
If they start the home games at 1PM London time, they could be televised in eastern time zone live at 8AM. So you could literally start your day watching NFL football in bed when you wake up and end it in bed when you hit the sack for the night and all day in between. Housewives rejoice!
Guy Bailey
August 24th, 2012
11:10 am
The big problem is (as a Brit and born-again Falcon living in the ATL) is that all the fans in the UK already support teams. No British fan who supports the Steelers or Patriots is going to give up that allegience to follow the sucky Jags or whoever rolls up at Wembley twice a month.
Heisenberg
August 24th, 2012
11:15 am
“I hope the owners can afford supersonic jets. The long flights will take their toll.”
*****************************
They can get one of these:
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/x43-main.html
Jeffro Bodeen
August 24th, 2012
11:24 am
They could be called “The London Broilers”!!! Subliminal food marketing strategies will easily promote interest!!
Delbert D.
August 24th, 2012
11:40 am
Moving a team internationally can be made much simpler. Just have Canada annex Detroit.
Michael
August 24th, 2012
11:46 am
Why not Los Angeles, they flights would be brutal on the players. It does not make sense.