Will the "Real" football, please stand up??

[Amateur]

American football is playing a regular season game in London on Sunday. I'm not thrilled about this for a number of reasons. As a fan of american football, the matchup is more likely to run potential new fans away, rather than encourage them people to watch. New York Giants vs Miami Dolphins is a slaughter waiting to happen.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/othe...ll/7062729.stm

I can't see that London cares two cents about this brand of football anyway. By far, this is the #1 sport in US, and I'm thinking Europe has survived without it this long, they won't miss it.

However, perhaps the NY Giants will be off their game, and Miami Dolphins can somehow win their first game of the season. (NOT like though, since Miami is sooooo bad, and just traded their best wide receiver this week!!) The Dallas Cowboys (my Team!!are in the same division with the Giants, and any Giants loss is a win for us Cowboys fans.

Actually, I doubt I'll see more than a few minutes of the game, since I wouldn't bother to watch even if it were here! Tlhere are at least 5 other games on at the same time, with a much better brand of football on display, and for a fan like me, that's what's important.

[villa10]

Until I know american football is not popular outside de US.

They have enough soccer and rugby in Europe to take care of another sport.

[matted]

So, this is a "home" game for the Dolphins...

It is a pretty clear strategy... Start builidng football as an international fan base... It is hard to find fans unless you have world class teams playing "locally" There are actually rumors of the NFL planning a superbowl in London in the near future.

[vinism]

Apparently tickets for this game sold out in 90 minutes, with almost half being sold in the first 15 minutes alone (or so the legend goes). Although it's probably mostly the ex-pat community dying to see a live game, I can't really blame the NFL for drooling at the response. As for flight times and such, it's not THAT much longer than flying from Boston to say Calgary or Edmonton, which NHL teams do. Or much longer than flying from the East coast to the West coast in the U.S. As for me, I have to watch the game. I'm a Giants fan. Sigh.

[TheGooner]

There is always a minority interest in the NFL in Europe and other places. ESPN transmitts two games a week (Sunday Night / Monday night ) to the rest of the world. They're on at lunchtime down here - and I usually watch them while working.

My sports website forum has a small but active group of NFL betting fans - and only about 25% of them are actually US based or ex-pats. Top line athletes playing an extreme and well marketted sport - what's not to like?

However I don't really see this game - or playing 2-3 games a year doing anything to "break into the UK market". Recognition of the game is already there - but only at the hardcore level.

The quick response and sellout of this game (I understood there were 1 million applications for the 90,000 tickets) is as much about the novelty value of hosting a regular season game as it is for any passion or appreciation for the game of American football.

Expanding into Europe with a regular NFL team in London or Berlin (or both)? Now that MIGHT be the required step in order to create REAL fans.

I don't see how the NFL expands and takes their sports into Europe based on 1 novelty event a year - but Kudos to management for trying this and the 90,000 ticket sales mean it's a financial success anyway.