Goodell hints at a 4 team European Division for the NFL in the near future...and wasn't joking.

[Big Turk]

Doesn't specify where but I would assume London and a German city(Berlin/Munich) would have a team..

 

This would be pretty crazy if the NFL goes through with it, but they seem hell bent on world domination...they have invested huge amounts of time, effort, energy and most importantly money on growing the sport worldwide with all of the overseas games...

 

Goodell said it was clear London could support not only one team but likely two, citing fan support and multiple stadiums that are NFL ready.

 

But then the Commissioner took it another step. After Neil Reynolds jokingly asked for a European division, Goodell made it clear that the possibility is no joke.

 

“That’s part of what we’re doing, right?” Goodell said. “We’re trying to sort of see, could you have multiple locations in Europe where you could have an NFL franchise? Because it would be easier as a division.”

 

 

Wouldn't be surprised to see this happen by the next collective bargaining agreement.

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/roger-goodell-hints-four-team-160442596.html

 

Edited October 8, 2022 by Big Turk

[PetermansRedemption]

With the ease of travel (8 hours on a private jet where they can eat or sleep) it’s not that big of a deal anymore IMO. There will be difficulties, like getting players to actually want to sign with those teams. But if they have some inter-division games over there where they don’t have to travel to the states, I can see it working. 

[Low Positive]

Just now, Big Turk said:

Doesn't specify where but I would assume London and a German city(Berlin/Munich) would have a team..

 

This would be pretty crazy if the NFL goes through with it, but they seem hell bent on world domination...they have invested huge amounts of time, effort, energy and most importantly money on growing the sport worldwide with all of the overseas games...

 

Wouldn't be surprised to see this happen by the next collective bargaining agreement.

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/roger-goodell-hints-four-team-160442596.html

 

The NFL is jealous of the global reach of the NBA. But basketball, like association football,  is a sport played all around the world. The NFL has to realise that gridiron football is like Australian Rules Football. The AFL is the most popular sport in Australia but only has a niche following elsewhere. 

[Big Turk]

6 minutes ago, FrenchConnection said:

The NFL is jealous of the global reach of the NBA. But basketball, like association football,  is a sport played all around the world. The NFL has to realise that gridiron football is like Australian Rules Football. The AFL is the most popular sport in Australia but only has a niche following elsewhere. 

 

The NFL is starting to see a pretty good surge in popularity especially in the UK, with an ever increasing percentage of people polled saying they are "rabid" fans...I think I read it was up over 15% of the people polled...

 

It's got a long way to go but I think they are starting to pack the stadiums there based more on the product and people wanting to see the games than on it being something novel and new to go do.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/nfl/article-11046573/amp/The-NFLs-popularity-rising-Europe-MILLIONS-desperate-tickets.html

Edited October 8, 2022 by Big Turk

[Irish Dave]

I grew up in Amherst, life long Bills fan.  But now I live in Europe. (Ireland).  I gotta tell  you guys,  "American Football" as it's known here is seen as a silly little sport.  They make fun of the padding (compared to Rugby which has no padding).   Also people here see it as having WAY too many commercials.  It's actually ridicouls the amount of commercials there are, when you compare it with a Premiere League  Soccer match - and soccer is by far the biggest sport in Europe.   Games have NO commercials, except at halftime.  Imagine that.  The clock runs continuously.  So - as much as we love it, grew up with it and love the Bills, for people here it's  nothing more than a passing fancing; a silly game, with silly helmets.  Despite my trying to convince them otherwise!

Edited October 8, 2022 by Irish Dave

[JDubya76]

Can the talent pool support another four teams. We all watched that debacle on Thursday night. There has been some really bad football on display the first four weeks and that’s without having to staff an additional 212 player positions plus practice squads.

 

 

Edited October 8, 2022 by JDubya76

[Big Turk]

7 minutes ago, Irish Dave said:

I grew up in Amherst, life long Bills fan.  But now I live in Europe. (Ireland).  I gotta tell  you guys,  "American Football" as it's known here is seen as a silly little sport.  They make fun of the padding (compared to Rugby which has no padding).   Also people here see it as having WAY too many commercials.  It's actually ridicouls the amount of commercials there are, when you compare it with a Premiere League  Soccer match - and soccer is by far the biggest sport in Europe.   Games have NO commercials, except at halftime.  Imagine that.  The clock runs continuously.  So - as much as we love it, grew up with it and love the Bills, for people here it's  nothing more than a passing fancing; a silly game, with silly helmets.  Despite my trying to convince them otherwise!

 

I would bet the popularity is probably higher in London and maybe Manchester where they have played games and a good number of locals have gone to them over the years.

 

Germany is pretty football rabid too apparently, in comparison to Ireland...NFL Europe had 5 teams there and Ticketmaster said they could have sold over 3 million tickets to the 4 games coming up in Germany.

 

It's a slow build but it's definitely starting to gain momentum.

 

Still obviously plenty of places will not like it or will not accept it I am sure...

 

Kyle Brandt from GMFB said they were over in London and watching the Bills Dolphins game at a local bar and said the people there were loving it and super into the game...

 

 

Also...I have to say that I watched Gaelic Football once on like ESPN 2 at 2am and I was totally hooked...I freaking cannot get enough of that and will watch it every time I can find it on. Super fun and interesting sport with some crazy rules that make it almost a cross between rugby, soccer and basketball.

Edited October 8, 2022 by Big Turk

[Low Positive]

Just now, Big Turk said:

 

The NFL is starting to see a pretty good surge in popularity especially in the UK, with an ever increasing percentage of people polled saying they are "rabid" fans...I think I read it was up over 15% of the people polled...

 

It's got a long way to go but I think they are starting to pack the stadiums there based more on the product and people wanting to see the games than on it being something novel and new to go do.

Maybe it’s changing, but I had a hard time even explaining the rules to Germans as little as 10 years ago. 

[Big Turk]

20 minutes ago, PetermansRedemption said:

With the ease of travel (8 hours on a private jet where they can eat or sleep) it’s not that big of a deal anymore IMO. There will be difficulties, like getting players to actually want to sign with those teams. But if they have some inter-division games over there where they don’t have to travel to the states, I can see it working. 

 

It would be tougher for the players on those teams as the road games would be a lot longer but the inter divisional games would be not much different than what they are doing now with all the teams playing over there, except one of them would actually be the home team rather than two teams both being away teams realistically.

[BuffBillsForLife]

The distance and corresponding plane flight between NY and London is not unreasonable.  The distance between LA and Frankfurt however, hoo boy.  The jet lag alone would massively hurt whichever team needed to travel.

[RichardLee]

20 minutes ago, Irish Dave said:

I grew up in Amherst, life long Bills fan.  But now I live in Europe. (Ireland).  I gotta tell  you guys,  "American Football" as it's known here is seen as a silly little sport.  They make fun of the padding (compared to Rugby which has no padding).   Also people here see it as having WAY too many commercials.  It's actually ridicouls the amount of commercials there are, when you compare it with a Premiere League  Soccer match - and soccer is by far the biggest sport in Europe.   Games have NO commercials, except at halftime.  Imagine that.  The clock runs continuously.  So - as much as we love it, grew up with it and love the Bills, for people here it's  nothing more than a passing fancing; a silly game, with silly helmets.  Despite my trying to convince them otherwise!

I now live in Ireland too Dave.  But Ireland is not Europe, it's... Ireland!  😂   GAA (Gaelic football) and hurling, then rugby and soccer, will always be first and I agree it's unlikely "American Football" will ever catch up big time here.  And you're dead right, the overwhelming amount and length of commercials is a total turnoff here. However, Germany and England can be very very into it.  It will pick up there, and maybe some surprising countries like Spain.  That being said, I find the NFL expanding into Europe a pretty horrifying prospect.

 

PS: PM me Dave, wouldn't that be cool to watch a Bills game in Ireland!!! 

Edited October 8, 2022 by RichardLee

[nedboy7]

Europeans are not interested in football but greed can really override logic. 

[boyst]

Logistically:

The 4 teams rotate on how they come to the US and vice versa.

 

The Vienna Sausages and the Roman Candles play 4 weeks in the US. The go back to Europe to play their common opponents - 2 teams of the AFCW and 2 teams of the NFCE mind of deal

 

Then they swap around and the Cairro Pyros and Vatican Kamikazes play their games in the US at that time opport their other teams.

[RobbRiddick]

You get the feeling Goodell has an incredibly small p*nis

[Big Turk]

6 minutes ago, Boyst62 said:

Logistically:

The 4 teams rotate on how they come to the US and vice versa.

 

The Vienna Sausages and the Roman Candles play 4 weeks in the US. The go back to Europe to play their common opponents - 2 teams of the AFCW and 2 teams of the NFCE mind of deal

 

Then they swap around and the Cairro Pyros and Vatican Kamikazes play their games in the US at that time opport their other teams.

 

That would probably make the most sense

[bobobonators]

7 minutes ago, BuffBillsForLife said:

The distance and corresponding plane flight between NY and London is not unreasonable.  The distance between LA and Frankfurt however, hoo boy.  The jet lag alone would massively hurt whichever team needed to travel.

Thats what i thought. The jet lag more than the plane flight is what would be horrible. 
 

8hr time difference from London to West Coast. Thats no joke 

[Captain Caveman]

32 minutes ago, JDubya76 said:

Can the talent pool support another four teams. We all watched that debacle on Thursday night. There has been some really bad football on display the first four weeks and that’s without having to staff an additional 212 player positions plus practice squads.

 

 

Is 4 even going to work?  If they add 1 new division (4 teams) then one conference has 16 teams and the other has 20?  How is that going to work, how are playoffs going to be adjusted, etc...

It almost seems like they'd need to add 8 for it to work?

[bobobonators]

41 minutes ago, Irish Dave said:

I grew up in Amherst, life long Bills fan.  But now I live in Europe. (Ireland).  I gotta tell  you guys,  "American Football" as it's known here is seen as a silly little sport.  They make fun of the padding (compared to Rugby which has no padding).   Also people here see it as having WAY too many commercials.  It's actually ridicouls the amount of commercials there are, when you compare it with a Premiere League  Soccer match - and soccer is by far the biggest sport in Europe.   Games have NO commercials, except at halftime.  Imagine that.  The clock runs continuously.  So - as much as we love it, grew up with it and love the Bills, for people here it's  nothing more than a passing fancing; a silly game, with silly helmets.  Despite my trying to convince them otherwise!

My family is from Spain and i grew up watching the other kind of football as well. 
 

the commercials are the one thing in the NFL that drives me bonkers. If they can play a 90 minute match in soccer without commercials other than the halftime break, we can play 60 minutes and do the same. A soccer match takes roughly 2 hrs for 90 minutes of play + halftime and aggregate time. NFL game takes 3-3.5 hrs for 60 minutes of play. It’s asinine. Granted, I get the clock stoppage in NFL vs no clock stoppage in soccer, but its the commercials that are a time suck. That’s why I hate watching games in person as opposed to on tv - seeing players just standing around waiting for the commercial break to end while im freezing my butt off is painful. 
 

I wish the nfl would introduce more of the split screen advertisements inbetween plays or flash Budweiser or Chevrolet at the bottom of the screen or a variation thereof. But lets keep it moving. 
 

I remember when soccer first started being televised in the US on public tv and they would cut to commercial in the middle of the game and a goal would be scored and you’d miss the goal. Lmao. That didn’t last very long. Eventually they got it right. 

Edited October 8, 2022 by bobobonators

[bobobonators]

55 minutes ago, Big Turk said:

Doesn't specify where but I would assume London and a German city(Berlin/Munich) would have a team..

 

This would be pretty crazy if the NFL goes through with it, but they seem hell bent on world domination...they have invested huge amounts of time, effort, energy and most importantly money on growing the sport worldwide with all of the overseas games...

 

Goodell said it was clear London could support not only one team but likely two, citing fan support and multiple stadiums that are NFL ready.

 

But then the Commissioner took it another step. After Neil Reynolds jokingly asked for a European division, Goodell made it clear that the possibility is no joke.

 

“That’s part of what we’re doing, right?” Goodell said. “We’re trying to sort of see, could you have multiple locations in Europe where you could have an NFL franchise? Because it would be easier as a division.”

 

 

Wouldn't be surprised to see this happen by the next collective bargaining agreement.

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/roger-goodell-hints-four-team-160442596.html

 

In a perfect world for me the NFL wouldn’t expand to Europe. We invest the $$$ into the product we have here already. Make it better. Expand within the US if there is a market for it. Milwaukee? Portland? St Louis? Oklahoma? Hawaii? Etc. 
 

Logistically, it would make more sense to expand into Mexico and Canada than it would Europe. But I get it - money talks and there’s more $$$ in Germany/England than Mexico. 

[Success]

You know - money isn't everything.

 

This would be a profound mistake.