3 Games Set For London in 2014

[Johnnydollaz89]

The NFL on Thursday announced the six teams that will play in London in 2014, the first season when three regular-season games will be held in the city.
The Jacksonville Jaguars will host the Dallas Cowboys, the Atlanta Falcons will host the Detroit Lions and the Oakland Raiders will host the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium next season.
"Our fans in the U.K. continue to demonstrate their passion for more football," commissioner Roger Goodell said in London on Thursday. "Next year for the first time we will play three regular-season games in London. We have scheduled three attractive games with four teams playing in their first International Series game. The growing enthusiasm for the NFL internationally is exciting, and we look forward to continuing to respond to this interest in our game."
The Jaguars have committed to "home" games in London each of the next four seasons, with their first matchup Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers.
The Dolphins' game against the Raiders next season will be Miami's second trip for a regular-season game in London. The Dolphins hosted the New York Giants in 2007, the first season the NFL played a regular-season game in London.
The Falcons, Cowboys, Lions and Raiders will play their first regular-season games in London.
This is the first season that the NFL has played two regular-season games at Wembley Stadium. Earlier this season, the Minnesota Vikings defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 34-27 in front of 83,518 fans.

NFL says Jacksonville Jaguars-Dallas Cowboys, Atlanta Falcons-Detroit Lions, Oakland Raiders-Miami Dolphins set for London in 2014 - ESPN

 

[Cobiemonster]

I'm not a fan of it, but whatever

 

[BigAppleBadger]

I'm not a fan of it, but whatever

I am... going to the game on Sunday. Need to get cheaper tickets next year, I'm paying way too much money to watch the Jaguars and Niners.

 

[Johnnydollaz89]

I'm excited the Falcons are headed over there next year.

 

[Jakology]

"We have scheduled three attractive games with four teams playing in their first International Series game."

Sure. Those games are VERY attractive. Not. If the league is going to do this, at least let it be good teams playing each other.

 

[Midnightangel]

The question is, will the Cowboys show up or forfeit a game?

Jerry Jones said a couple years ago that if the 'Boys were scheduled to play in London he wouldn't take his team over there.

 

[TDs3nOut]

I'm excited the Falcons are headed over there next year.

Really? I don't see any upside of traveling to London to play, other than from the financial standpoint of the league.

Kind of interesting that the Jags agree to play four games in four consecutive years there. Maybe they will cultivate a fan base in London.

 

[Johnnydollaz89]

Really? I don't see any upside of traveling to London to play, other than from the financial standpoint of the league.

Kind of interesting that the Jags agree to play four games in four consecutive years there. Maybe they will cultivate a fan base in London.

I don't know, just think it's pretty cool. It's all obviously a cash grab for the NFL.
I think the Jaguars may end up moving over there, but that would be pretty dumb.

 

[Cobiemonster]

I don't know, just think it's pretty cool. It's all obviously a cash grab for the NFL.
I think the Jaguars may end up moving over there, but that would be pretty dumb.

Agreed

 

[gowazzu02]

how do they pick who gives up a home game???

As a seahawks fan, i would be heated if we had to give up one of 8 regular season home games......

 

[Midnightangel]

how do they pick who gives up a home game???

As a seahawks fan, i would be heated if we had to give up one of 8 regular season home games......

I think they pick teams that have a hard time meeting their home attendance anyway, like the Jags.

 

[BigAppleBadger]

how do they pick who gives up a home game???

As a seahawks fan, i would be heated if we had to give up one of 8 regular season home games......

Well Jacksonville can't sell out its stadium anyway, so apparently the fans aren't really missing the 8th home game. At least Wembley was full... at least until halftime, when some seats started to open up because the game was a blowout.

I just don't understand how a team can be that bad in a league that has a salary cap.

As for moving a team to London, I have mixed feelings:

Pro:
- There are a ton of Americans living here, and you can get a lot of them to go to at least one game per year.
- The potential fan base is huge, so you don't need to convert a high percentage to sustain a team. London is a huge city (8.2 million in London proper, and 13.6 million including suburbs in surrounding counties). There are 63 million people in the UK (53 million in England), which is equivalent to the populations of California and Texas combined, and most of those people are close enough to London to go to a game by high speed train (Manchester to London is only 2 hours and 10 minutes, for instance).
- London is full of people from all over the world, even more so than New York (only 45% of Londoners are even English). If you want to extend the NFL brand globally, so that someday you might get games televised worldwide (like English Premier League), then London is the place to start.

Con:
- Converting many of the Americans in the UK to actual fans of the local team who are willing to buy season tickets (especially when most are only here for a few years) could be tough.
- The games today are a rare enough event that people will travel a long way (I met a couple of German 49ers fans that had come from Saarbrücken just for the game), but can you fill the seats for 8 games?


I don't think travel is a big deal. You'd stagger bye weeks so that teams get a bye after playing in London, NFL teams only play once a week so jet lag shouldn't be an issue, and these teams all fly on private jets anyway. The New York to London flight is only an hour longer than going to San Francisco.

Division-wise, I think you put London in the AFC East with New York, Boston and Miami. Move the Bills to the AFC North and move the Ravens to the South. You have to put London with those cities (or DC), because they have the flight connections to London and hold the most interest for fan travel. London fans would go to NY, Boston or Miami for a road game, they won't go to Buffalo or Charlotte... and people NY and Boston (and DC) can more likely afford to fly to London for games too.

 

[BigAppleBadger]

Also, I wonder how big of an issue it would be to move a team's roster to the UK. Sometimes they won't give someone a visa to live and work here if they have prior felony convictions, and there's quite a few of those on an average NFL roster.

Same issue happens when European soccer clubs play exhibition matches in the US. There's always one guy that can't make the trip because he crashed his car drunk or something, and the US won't let them into the country.

 

[Black Adam]

I don't know, just think it's pretty cool. It's all obviously a cash grab for the NFL.
I think the Jaguars may end up moving over there, but that would be pretty dumb.

Lol, at least no one's saying they're moving out here to L.A. anymore...

 

[J-Rod]

Doesn't affect my team this year so I'm cool with it. As long as my team doesn't move there.

 

[NorthernLights88]

"We have scheduled three attractive games with four teams playing in their first International Series game."

Sure. Those games are VERY attractive. Not. If the league is going to do this, at least let it be good teams playing each other.

They're never going to purposely schedule a game in London with two teams that are expected to be top teams of the league in any given year. It's a complete waste of a home game for one of the teams, and when it comes to two of the best teams in the league where one win or loss could make a big difference in playoff seedings, they aren't going to risk outrage over one of those teams getting screwed out of a home game. If a good team is involved, they will generally pit them against a crappy team so the good team has no excuse to not win anyway.

 

[SonnyCID]

They're never going to purposely schedule a game in London with two teams that are expected to be top teams of the league in any given year. It's a complete waste of a home game for one of the teams, and when it comes to two of the best teams in the league where one win or loss could make a big difference in playoff seedings, they aren't going to risk outrage over one of those teams getting screwed out of a home game. If a good team is involved, they will generally pit them against a crappy team so the good team has no excuse to not win anyway.

They dont have a problem with sending good teams over there. They just dont want to take home games from good teams.