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England definitely wants a permanent team in the NFL


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Britain seeks NFL franchise in London within 5 years

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LONDON (AP) — Britain's treasury chief pushed his case Friday for placing a permanent NFL franchise in London, saying he hoped the league would move a team to the capital within the next five years.

"The real prize, the touchdown for London, would be to get a team based here," Chancellor George Osborne said after a meeting with league executives, team owners and former star players. "I want London to be the global sporting capital."

The meeting came on the same day that the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets arrived in London ahead of their AFC East divisional game at Wembley Stadium on Sunday. It's the first of three NFL games in London this season.

"I am supporting the NFL to bring one of their 32 teams to London permanently and will work with them to make this happen," Osborne said. "Hopefully it is something we could achieve in the next few years, maybe four or five years' time."

Osborne said Britain's Treasury department and tax office were looking at "any barriers" the NFL might face in setting up a London team.

Osborne met at his Downing Street office with Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, Jets owner Woody Johnson and NFL executive Mark Waller to discuss the steps needed to locate a franchise here.

"We have always said our goal here is to build a fan base that would be able to support a franchise," Waller said, adding that a timeframe of five or six years from now "feels sort of right."

The NFL has played 11 regular-season games at Wembley since 2007. This week's Jets-Dolphins game is the first divisional matchup in London. The Jacksonville Jaguars will play the Buffalo Bills on Oct. 25, followed the next week by the Kansas City Chiefs against the Detroit Lions on Nov. 1.

The NFL recently announced a 10-year deal to play at least two games each season at Premier League club Tottenham's new stadium, which is scheduled to open in 2018.

The Jaguars have a four-season deal, which expires in 2016, to play at least one home game per season at Wembley.

Osborne said having an NFL franchise would provide a huge boost to the London economy. His office cited a business study carried out last year that found that the two NFL games played here in 2013 contributed 32 million pounds ($48 million) to the London economy.

A London-based franchise playing eight regular-season home games a year could bring in 102 million pounds ($155 million), according to the study.

Osborne also met with two Hall of Famers, former Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino and Jets running back Curtis Martin. The former players presented Osborne with tem jerseys and an NFL ball, while he gave them a ball from the ongoing Rugby World Cup.

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"I am supporting the NFL to bring one of their 32 teams to London permanently and will work with them to make this happen," Osborne said. "Hopefully it is something we could achieve in the next few years, maybe four or five years' time."

 

 

So now it's moved from "We want to set up a new London franchise" to "We'll happily steal a team from its home in the US and f**k their fans."

EDIT: If Labour win the next election, Corbyn would probably scrap the whole idea as being an bourgeois American capitalistic and imperialistic evil plan.

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This is just not feasible. No one would wanna play there knowing they would be taking a round trip flight every other wk. imgine them having to play Oakland. That's probably a 12 hour flight. Not to forget, what if the game is on a Thursday night? Barely get 3 days in between, minus a whole day traveling, and minus a whole day for jetlag. 

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So now it's moved from "We want to set up a new London franchise" to "We'll happily steal a team from its home in the US and f**k their fans."

EDIT: If Labour win the next election, Corbyn would probably scrap the whole idea as being an bourgeois American capitalistic and imperialistic evil plan.

Then he will take away there freedoms, hey if it happened here it can happen anywhere

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This is just not feasible. No one would wanna play there knowing they would be taking a round trip flight every other wk. imgine them having to play Oakland. That's probably a 12 hour flight. Not to forget, what if the game is on a Thursday night? Barely get 3 days in between, minus a whole day traveling, and minus a whole day for jetlag. 

Taxes over seas.

Would be VERY hard to get FA to go there.  It's one thing to move from Texas to Chicago, or something like that, quite another to move your whole family to another country for a year or 2.  Or to leave your family behind and go by yourself.

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If they get to steal a team, send them the Rams. After all, Kroenke already has a majority shareholding in Arsenal, and having his other team play in White Hart Lane would be another two fingers up to Spurs fans.

And force them to endure the whole NFC West travel crap until the NFL braintrust finally realises the idea is truly retarded, even by their normal standards.

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If they get to steal a team, send them the Rams. After all, Kroenke already has a majority shareholding in Arsenal, and having his other team play in White Hart Lane would be another two fingers up to Spurs fans.

And force them to endure the whole NFC West travel crap until the NFL braintrust finally realises the idea is truly retarded, even by their normal standards.

Sounds like Kroenke is LA bound with that racetrack project

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Miami has volunteered to play there every year because of the difficulty filling the stadium with fans, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was the one to go. Plus the English weather is more amenable to football than Miamia's 

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This is just not feasible. No one would wanna play there knowing they would be taking a round trip flight every other wk. imgine them having to play Oakland. That's probably a 12 hour flight. Not to forget, what if the game is on a Thursday night? Barely get 3 days in between, minus a whole day traveling, and minus a whole day for jetlag. 

the thinking is they would have their home facilities in Hartford I think, and only fly to London for games, and NFL would set up schedule to make sure travel is not an issue.

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Just bring back NFL Europe, the league needs a way to develop players, it was short sighted to close it down in the first place, Germany and Britain had some great fan support 

This 

The NFL got a nice handful of QB's that actually got a chance to develop properly over there, it might do wonders for the most important position in the sport.  I'd love for Petty to be able to play 2 to 3 years over in NFL Europe instead of holding a clip board.

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If Woody Johnson moved the Jets would you still be a fan? 

I'm sure Woody is going to walk away from his half of Met Life at a cost of $800 million and move his team away from the largest and best metropolitan area in the NFL.  

For God's sake, just try to think before posting!  It's really not all that tough.

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Bringing back NFL Europe honestly would be a much better idea....with the CBA restrictions it would be a better way to develop players...

 

That's where Brandon Moore a Jet UDFA signing and former DT honed his skills as a O-line man playing for Scottish Claymores and Carolina Cobra's in the arena league . 

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Taxes over seas.

Would be VERY hard to get FA to go there.  It's one thing to move from Texas to Chicago, or something like that, quite another to move your whole family to another country for a year or 2.  Or to leave your family behind and go by yourself.

many problems including   road trips and training camp. The London team would probably play 1 2 and  2 3 game road trips in season, plus probably train in Florida in the summer. Nobody is really gonna live in London, but it's still a huge disruption to a player's life. And even if you're a superstar nobody in London is gonna care. Joe Klecko and any number of other retirees can make some decent coin postcard doing in the market they played. There will be nothing like that in London.

And perhaps bigger than all of that, sports franchises never quite produce any where near the revenue they claim to expect. These expectations will never be met. 

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I agree with resurrecting NFLE but I also really like the whole promotion/Relegation rules in European soccer.  It keeps franchises on their toes.

If you finish last you are relegated to the minor leagues and the top team from that division comes up next season.

It punishes teams for being bad

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