NFL may expand (back) into Europe, and even internationally

[mrstickball]

Bladeneo said:

mrstickball said:

welshbloke said:

Pretty sure we already tried that with NFL Europe which I think died in 2007. Anyway my local team would of been the London Monarchs.

Anyway anything that helps draw attention away from the use of the word "World" for what is a domestic league has got to help.

If we are seeing a resurgence of interest in American football in Europe then I am all for it. I followed Chicago back in the day of the Fridge and that culminated in my mates choosen team the Patriots getting some serious arse kicking. That was a period of interest for the Europe which eventually ended up with the NFL Europe but it all fizzled out.

 

To be fair, though, the NFL Europa league was essentially a second-tier farm league. There's a reason it didn't catch on...No one of worth played in it. The NFL is talking about a real team, with a real draft. I'd think that such a team would make for it catching on better than what NFL Europe did.

I think you're being a bit harsh on the people who did play in NFL Europe to be fair; sure we didn't exactly have the top tier guys playing, but a fair few people from NFL Europe are still playing and coaching in the NFL now.

An NFL team based in England would be brilliant, but I detest that London is the top choice. For obvious reasons its the only real choice, but it's just not realistic for people in the North to travel every weekend to watch it. A central location like Birmingham would be better for everyone, but for exposure and commercial reasons, that isnt worthwhile for the NFL. 

True. I guess what I was trying to state was that you didn't have any real names in the league - no star power to attract people to watch it. Its the same type of statement that could be made for the UFL or AFL in the US. Having a second-tier farm league in the US is tough enough (Arena Football folded for a year in either 08 or 09, and we've had so many fly-by-night leagues, its been sickening)...So one could only imagine how difficult it'd be to keep European farm teams viable.

Hopefully, we could add more than one team per continent, so we could have teams take tours of the foreign nations, which would cut down on travel, and help the teams become more culture. As per the article, Nate Clements has never been to Europe, and I'd imagine that most NFL players never even saw the other side of America before going pro, much less Europe.