GunnerBill Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Yea the Monarchs were a failure, but a failure in an era where NFL interest in the UK was not high, and even then they pulled 40,000 crowds in their first year and were still pulling 15,000 when they were playing in Tottenham. I didn't much care for the quality of NFL Europe I have to say, although I confess I probably saw much less of it than you. The facts are the NFL are looking very seriously at London and they are not considering other European cities. I might be a little biased I suppose but I think the reasons for that are pretty clear. I just think the same difficulties with genuinely building a proper fan base exist wherever in Europe you put a team.... those fans who love the NFL already have a team and I'm not sure you would get them to give that team up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hondo in seattle Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 https://www.nfl.appl...5&CurrentPage=1 Head of Marketing job for NFL UK. Has some interesting statistics in the job description. They are pushing very very hard to get a team there. Great find with some interesting info about how important the NFL considers the London/UK market... "Outside the US, the UK is the NFL's most important market, and has experienced explosive growth over the past five years..." "The London office consists of 20 people under the leadership of the Managing Director..." "Reporting to the Managing Director, the Head of Marketing will be responsible for driving engagement with the NFL brand and delivering substantial growth of the UK fan base..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bladiebla Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Yea the Monarchs were a failure, but a failure in an era where NFL interest in the UK was not high, and even then they pulled 40,000 crowds in their first year and were still pulling 15,000 when they were playing in Tottenham. I didn't much care for the quality of NFL Europe I have to say, although I confess I probably saw much less of it than you. The facts are the NFL are looking very seriously at London and they are not considering other European cities. I might be a little biased I suppose but I think the reasons for that are pretty clear. I just think the same difficulties with genuinely building a proper fan base exist wherever in Europe you put a team.... those fans who love the NFL already have a team and I'm not sure you would get them to give that team up. The Monarchs were a pretty big success in the WLAF, even selling out Wembley. The original WLAF that is not the NFL owned 95-96 WLAF that was rebranded into NFL Europe. However the fanbase never really recovered from the 93-94 WLAF stoppage and the fanbase dwindled with the results of the Monarchs (never finished better then 4th in the restarted format) and got worse due to mismanagement of the fans and the revamping/rebuilding of Wembley. I remember crowds of 2000-3000 in the last season when they split their time over 3 different stadia and were even rebranded the England Monarchs. BTW did you know Doug Marrone played for the London Monarchs in 1991? Ironically it's the success of the initial London game that killed off NFL Europe. Goodell promised the NFL Europe fans at least one NFL game a year in each of the NFL Europe countries. Germany being the primary location for the first one after the London one, however the NFL created one angry fanbase over here in the Netherlands and Germany that my guess is that they chickened out of Germany for the second game. Offcourse the language helps immensely with London too. In the end the NFL failed to recognize that fans wanted a pro league with continuity not 6 teams with 53 new players each season. I still firmly believe that a system where each team would have their own European or better yet Worldy affiliate would have taken off and created both additional world wide interest in the NFL as well as been a successfull development product as well as US market interest in those affiliates (wouldnt you like watching EJ develop in such a league?). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mannc Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I'm not convinced a London Franchise would be a success for slightly different reason. I live in London, I can get to Wembley in 40 minutes.... but if you are asking me would I not watch the Bills every week the London Whatevers had a home game so that I could go watch them then the answer is no. I'd do what I do now.... sit a home and watch the Bills on GamePass. I suspect most UK and European fans are the same. Yes - we want to watch live NFL football. Yes - we would give up maybe 1 possibly 2 games a year of watching out team on TV to watch a live game in the stadium. But No - I am not going to stop being a Buffalo Bills fan and become a London fan. Nor are my mates who support any range of other teams. That is the issue. The fans over here love the NFL but most of them love "their" team too. They are not going to switch and that is the problem you have in establishing a fanbase for a viable franchise long term. I think that applies equally to Germany and the Netherlands and Scandanavia too. Gunner, just curious: How do fans in the UK and Europe become fans of particular NFL teams? Do they become fans of specific players and then start following the team or do they have connections with the teams' home cities? Or something else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sojourner Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Gunner, just curious: How do fans in the UK and Europe become fans of particular NFL teams? Do they become fans of specific players and then start following the team or do they have connections with the teams' home cities? Or something else? I cannot speak for Gunner himself but it can be a number of different things. When I played over there growing up there were some who became fans due to the history of a team, success at the time they started following/taking an interest, they've been in the city a team plays in, certain players they enjoy seeing play, the first team they saw play, a friend's team, shoot - there was even one guy I knew who became a Vikes fan because of their uniform color. In essence, it could be anything or a plethora of reasons, all dependent on the person. Goes for any sport and it's professional league/s that is foreign. Similar to soccer fans in the USA who follow a team in England, Spain, Germany, Netherlands or France... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jayg Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 Football for breakfast is awesome, in Hawaii! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunnerBill Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 I think Smooth has probably answered the question and summed it up pretty nicely. It is a range of reasons. By an etirely non-scientific estimate I would say the three best supported teams over here are: 1. New England Patriots - because they have England in their name 2. San Francisco 49ers - because when NFL first started being televised fans loved Joe Montana 3. Miami Dolphins - as above substituting "Joe Montana" for "Dan Marino" My personal story is a bit more involved. My grandad died before I was born but was Polish and settled in the UK after WWII. My grandmother who is English had gone back on holiday to Poland with a friend in the early 90s to visit his family and was struggling to reach something down from a top shelf in shop when an American man and his sister offered to help. They got chatting and went for dinner and exchanged details and began writing to each other when they returned home and became friends. The Americans were from Buffalo however, the guy had moved out to California to live and work and we came as a family on holiday and stayed with him in August 2002. During which time I watched a Bills pre-season game with him and was basically hooked. It has been quite a lot of suffering since... but it will all be worth it in the end....... I hope :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
26CornerBlitz Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 @AroundTheNFL What to watch for in Lions-Falcons "Wake up to Wembley" game http://www.nfl.com/n...er_atn … Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoloinOhio Posted October 25, 2014 Share Posted October 25, 2014 @RapSheet: Wow. Sent home #fail RT @ttwentyman: The #Lions have suspended DT C.J. Mosley for 2 weeks for conduct detrimental & violation of team rules Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
26CornerBlitz Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 Who's hungry? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
26CornerBlitz Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 Ankle injury sidelines Megatron for Lions vs. Falcons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Jim Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 I'm an early riser so I was up at 5:30am and watching football with a cup of coffee while it's still dark out is pretty cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike in Horseheads Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 If the NFL is going to keep up this London charade and it appears they are then they put all the games so they are morning games on the east coast. I'll bet they killed all the other programs in the ratings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
26CornerBlitz Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 The Lions were down 21-0 at halftime. They came back to win 22-21 at the gun on a Matt Prater 48 yard FG. The Lions lucked out with a delay of game penalty just before the 1st FG try that was pushed wide right. @SportsCenter Matthew Stafford leads his 3rd career 21-pt comeback win. He's one of 3 QBs since 1966 with 3 such wins (Brady, Bledsoe). (via @EliasSports) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsherman12 Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 I'd be interested in seeing how many watched this morning's game. I caught the second half, but it wasn't like I was up at 9am getting ready to watch the whole thing. I'd imagine many others probably did other things like go to church, have a big breakfast, or sleep in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDH Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 If the NFL is going to keep up this London charade and it appears they are then they put all the games so they are morning games on the east coast. I'll bet they killed all the other programs in the ratings. What if it's a west coast team playing in London? Are fans supposed to get up at 5:30am to watch their team? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voodoo poonani Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 I watched it was a good way to kill time before our game. Mike Smith has to be kicking himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
May Day 10 Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 I liked it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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