NFL in London: Why Bother?
Randy Snow
October 30, 2007
On Sunday (October 28), the NFL played a regular season game in London, England at Wembley Stadium. The New York Giants defeated the Miami Dolphins 13-10. Playing overseas is nothing new for the NFL. It has been playing games all around the world for many years. There have been American Bowl preseason games played in Japan, Spain, Australia, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Ireland and England since 1986.
The League first played a regular season game outside the United States on October 2, 2005 when the Arizona Cardinals defeated the San Francisco 49ers 31-14 in a game played in front of 103,467 fans in Mexico City. I remember watching that game on TV.
But this game in London, I don’t get it. I thought it was going to be the nationally televised Sunday night game. That way, everyone back home in the States would be able to see it. I mean, why else would the league go that far to play a game that is just another one o’clock game on the schedule?
But London is five hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone. It was actually 6 PM in London when the game kicked off on Sunday. That means that, for a game to be shown at 8 PM EST from London on a Sunday or Monday night, it would have to begin at 1 AM local time.
Everyone watching the 1 PM games on FOX Television got to see the National Anthems of both the United States and Great Briton before the game in London, as well as the opening kickoff. Then the network went to the regional games and, for most of us, that was that. From my home in Michigan, I watched all of the Detroit Lions-Chicago Bears game. Why go all that way overseas to play a game and then not air it in a way that it gets the maximum amount of exposure back home?
I have always enjoyed watching the American Bowl preseason games over the years. It is great to see how fans in other counties responded to the NFL game and the players get to experience a foreign country as well. There wasn’t any of the pressure on the players associated with trying to win a regular season game that could have an effect on whether the team would make the playoffs or not. There was supposed to be a preseason game in China this year, but it was cancelled due to construction at the stadium in Beijing, which is preparing for the upcoming Olympic Games being held there in 2008.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell also recently hinted that the Super Bowl could be player overseas at some point in the future. That doesn’t seem right either. Why is the NFL taking games away from NFL stadiums and NFL fans? Does the League really want to put a team overseas? The NFL had a league with teams in Europe between 1991 and 2007. The league was first known as the World League of American Football, then NFL Europe and finally NFL Europa this past season. There were teams like the London Monarchs, Scottish Claymores, Berlin Thunder, Barcelona Dragon, Amsterdam Admirals and Frankfurt Galaxy, to name a few. The NFL shut down the league for good this past summer because it had been losing money every year.
If the NFL wants to put a team in another country, Canada is the only logical choice. Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal make the most sense because all three of those cities have domed stadiums. But then again, all three of those Canadian cities also have a long history of teams in the Canadian Football League and I would hate to see any of them get overshadowed by an NFL team. The World League of American Football did have a team north of the border in 1991 and 1992 called the Montreal Machine.
Travel costs and time differences to Europe and Asia are just not conducive to having an NFL team located there on a permanent basis. But an occasional preseason game played in other countries makes more sense. American fans, for the most part, don’t like NFL preseason games anyway.
So I say, keep playing American Bowl preseason games overseas, but leave the regular season games at home with the fans who continue to support the NFL.
The League first played a regular season game outside the United States on October 2, 2005 when the Arizona Cardinals defeated the San Francisco 49ers 31-14 in a game played in front of 103,467 fans in Mexico City. I remember watching that game on TV.
But this game in London, I don’t get it. I thought it was going to be the nationally televised Sunday night game. That way, everyone back home in the States would be able to see it. I mean, why else would the league go that far to play a game that is just another one o’clock game on the schedule?
But London is five hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone. It was actually 6 PM in London when the game kicked off on Sunday. That means that, for a game to be shown at 8 PM EST from London on a Sunday or Monday night, it would have to begin at 1 AM local time.
Everyone watching the 1 PM games on FOX Television got to see the National Anthems of both the United States and Great Briton before the game in London, as well as the opening kickoff. Then the network went to the regional games and, for most of us, that was that. From my home in Michigan, I watched all of the Detroit Lions-Chicago Bears game. Why go all that way overseas to play a game and then not air it in a way that it gets the maximum amount of exposure back home?
I have always enjoyed watching the American Bowl preseason games over the years. It is great to see how fans in other counties responded to the NFL game and the players get to experience a foreign country as well. There wasn’t any of the pressure on the players associated with trying to win a regular season game that could have an effect on whether the team would make the playoffs or not. There was supposed to be a preseason game in China this year, but it was cancelled due to construction at the stadium in Beijing, which is preparing for the upcoming Olympic Games being held there in 2008.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell also recently hinted that the Super Bowl could be player overseas at some point in the future. That doesn’t seem right either. Why is the NFL taking games away from NFL stadiums and NFL fans? Does the League really want to put a team overseas? The NFL had a league with teams in Europe between 1991 and 2007. The league was first known as the World League of American Football, then NFL Europe and finally NFL Europa this past season. There were teams like the London Monarchs, Scottish Claymores, Berlin Thunder, Barcelona Dragon, Amsterdam Admirals and Frankfurt Galaxy, to name a few. The NFL shut down the league for good this past summer because it had been losing money every year.
If the NFL wants to put a team in another country, Canada is the only logical choice. Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal make the most sense because all three of those cities have domed stadiums. But then again, all three of those Canadian cities also have a long history of teams in the Canadian Football League and I would hate to see any of them get overshadowed by an NFL team. The World League of American Football did have a team north of the border in 1991 and 1992 called the Montreal Machine.
Travel costs and time differences to Europe and Asia are just not conducive to having an NFL team located there on a permanent basis. But an occasional preseason game played in other countries makes more sense. American fans, for the most part, don’t like NFL preseason games anyway.
So I say, keep playing American Bowl preseason games overseas, but leave the regular season games at home with the fans who continue to support the NFL.
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