The London Chargers?

[NAS]

7 minutes ago, jfra78 said:

They already had NFL Europe

I know - and it failed.  If UK is such a hot market, they should be able to sustain their own league.   You don't see the English Premier League trying to have a team in the U.S. even though it would make sense financially.  

[jfra78]

3 minutes ago, jtm said:

As much as I hate the idea, make no mistake London will have a team in the next couple of years.  NFL is all about $ and they clearly want to expand the brand overseas.  It wouldn't surprise me if they added two new expansion teams and put one in London and the other in Canada.  

I wouldn't be opposed to Canada or Mexico.  We have seen in other leagues that this will work.  But, the logistics of having a team in London would be horrible.  The ultimate advantage for home team and ultimate disadvantage as an away game.

[jtm]

2 minutes ago, jfra78 said:

I wouldn't be opposed to Canada or Mexico.  We have seen in other leagues that this will work.  But, the logistics of having a team in London would be horrible.  The ultimate advantage for home team and ultimate disadvantage as an away game.

Agree but I still think it is going to happen.  Overseas teams would likely have practice facilities in both London and US to minimize travel time.  

I haven't thought about Mexico and that probably makes more sense than Canada.  Wherever they put a team outside the US, it will probably be a huge success locally.

 

[Davidson Deac II]

4 minutes ago, jfra78 said:

I wouldn't be opposed to Canada or Mexico.  We have seen in other leagues that this will work.  But, the logistics of having a team in London would be horrible.  The ultimate advantage for home team and ultimate disadvantage as an away game.

That and once the novelty of it wears off, the crowds will be as sparse as they are in Los Angeles.  An NFL team in London will be about the 9th most popular sport, behind Soccer, Rugby, Basketball, Cricket, Auto racing, Curling and Golf.  

[t96]

Disclaimer: I am 100% against any London games at all let alone moving a team there. The logistics just do not make sense and it has a significant impact on the on field quality, and what player other than Efe would be fine playing for a London team? This is a money grab by the league and no fans in the US want it.

 

All that being said, since it seems like the league really wants this and it’s a real possibility, the only way this move could work would be with drastic changes to the schedule. Something along the lines of less preseason games, longer season (more games and/or a second bye week), etc. Every time a team travels to London for an away game they’d have to get a bye after that or it would be a significant competitive disadvantage for their next game. So you’d have significant division realignment and a significant schedule change. NFL fans don’t want change, they want football. And then there are several issues with the Chargers that make it unlikely they’d actually move (ownership being from CA, 10 year lease on new stadium with Rams, etc.)

[Jeremy Igo]

It is like the NFL goes out of there way to make stupid decisions. 

[Mr. Scot]

I think there is one group that could absolutely put a stop to a team being placed in London.

That group is the players, and by extension The Players Association, all of whom are said to hate the idea.

[t96]

1 hour ago, Mr. Scot said:

I wish that Rodger Goodell would get this dumbass idea out of his mind.

It’s not him it’s all of the owners who see a goldmine overseas (which there definitely is). But the logistics won’t make sense until the sonic boom is solved and a more efficient jet engine is built (could be 50+ years easily).

[MechaZain]

If the Mexico City games sell out they're next after London.

[t96]

21 minutes ago, Davidson Deac II said:

That and once the novelty of it wears off, the crowds will be as sparse as they are in Los Angeles.  An NFL team in London will be about the 9th most popular sport, behind Soccer, Rugby, Basketball, Cricket, Auto racing, Curling and Golf.  

Especially when they suck because nobody will want to play/live there and they’d have to travel back and forth with the US 8 times... 

[cookinbrak]

Not dumb enough to believe anything from "anonymous sources". I think if the NFL were to go to a 17 game schedule, they would go 8 home games, 8 road games, and 1 neutral sight game. 

[Happy Panther]

A London team would need significant US facilities and be able do large chunks of games at home and away. Like 8 away games in a row and 8 home games in a row. Or 4/4/4/4. Can't have 7-12 hour flights every other week.

 

As for scheduling they would need to be in the afc east. If they did 8 & 8 they wouldn't really need to mess with scheduling. And yeah give teams travelling to London a bye after.

[Mr. Scot]

10 minutes ago, t96 said:

It’s not him it’s all of the owners who see a goldmine overseas (which there definitely is). But the logistics won’t make sense until the sonic boom is solved and a more efficient jet engine is built (could be 50+ years easily).

The owners don't live in the real world.

It's similar to a lot of big businesses where upper management makes decisions without understanding the real world conditions that affect the people who actually have to implement those decisions.

[jfra78]

14 minutes ago, t96 said:

Disclaimer: I am 100% against any London games at all let alone moving a team there. The logistics just do not make sense and it has a significant impact on the on field quality, and what player other than Efe would be fine playing for a London team? This is a money grab by the league and no fans in the US want it.

 

All that being said, since it seems like the league really wants this and it’s a real possibility, the only way this move could work would be with drastic changes to the schedule. Something along the lines of less preseason games, longer season (more games and/or a second bye week), etc. Every time a team travels to London for an away game they’d have to get a bye after that or it would be a significant competitive disadvantage for their next game. So you’d have significant division realignment and a significant schedule change. NFL fans don’t want change, they want football. And then there are several issues with the Chargers that make it unlikely they’d actually move (ownership being from CA, 10 year lease on new stadium with Rams, etc.)

What about every time the London team plays away?  They can't get a bye everytime