Per ESPN NFL will play first game in Germany next year

[BigRy56]

Yuck

[UntouchableCrew]

57 minutes ago, Maxman said:

The NFL disagrees:

A new survey by AFG Videoforschung found that American football has become the second-most popular television sport in Germany, with one in three people having watched in the past year.

That's a pretty impressive stat if true.

[munchmemory]

I mean, what could possibly go wrong in Germany?

[Spoot-Face]

2 hours ago, Maxman said:

The NFL disagrees:

A new survey by AFG Videoforschung found that American football has become the second-most popular television sport in Germany, with one in three people having watched in the past year.

The German people do enjoy a good blitz, after all.

[Warfish]

2 hours ago, Peace Frog said:

I was joking.  Albanians are the only peoples we're allowed to poke fun of anymore without being called racist. 

You can always make fun of your own people if you need to make fun of a people.

[Barry McCockinner]

When is the first game in the metaverse?

[Peace Frog]

26 minutes ago, munchmemory said:

I mean, what could possibly go wrong in Germany?

Better than Las Vegas. 
 

[Peace Frog]

Going to Scotland in August. Will have a whole new bunch of people to make fun of. 

Having said that, my fiancé is Scottish so probably need to keep it real subtle. 

NFL in Edinburg. Or the Loch Nessie’s. 

[New York Mick]

Germany is probably the second biggest international market so it makes sense. 

[JetPotato]

5 hours ago, Warfish said:

Why is that?  

It's disruptive to the entire schedule and isn't fan-friendly at all because of the time differences. West coast trips are about as big a problem as a team can reasonably handle. If the league wants to make money over there, don't do it at the expense of the fans here that made you what you are. Like I said, do NFL Europe again. If they buy it over there, great. Count me as someone who could not care less about teams in London and Frankfurt. We already have diluted the talent across the league. It's not like Europe is going to suddenly provide an influx of players. You need developmental programs, high school and college to support it. MLB over expanded and thee product is garbage now.

[Warfish]

10 hours ago, JetPotato said:

It's disruptive to the entire schedule and isn't fan-friendly at all because of the time differences.

I'd agree it's disruptive to the teams playing there, primarily due to the longer flights (akin to an East Coast to West Coast flight also being disruptive).  

I'd agree it isn't fan-friendly to hometown ticket holding fans who lose a homegame.  The vast bulk of fans could give a sh*t that the game is played elsewhere as long as the time works.  

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West coast trips are about as big a problem as a team can reasonably handle.

Flight time NY to LA - 6 hours 30 minutes (give or take).

Flight time NY to London - 6 hours 45 minutes (give or take).

Sorry if I'm not seeing the big difference here.

Now, to Germany is something else, being an extra hour or so than to London.

Still, a 7.5 hour flight vs. a 6.5 hour flight, made days before the game itself, hardly seems a dealbreaker to me.

Where it would be a legit issue is West Coast to Germany, THAT is a hella long set of flights.  Probably why we've not really seen West Coast teams in Europe.

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If the league wants to make money over there, don't do it at the expense of the fans here that made you what you are.

Sorry, unless you're a season ticket holder, I'm not seeing how you or I are hurt or somehow suffering loss because of these games.

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Like I said, do NFL Europe again.

It would fail.  The point of these games is to lay that groundwork, so a future NFL Europe (or a relocated US team IN Europe) could survive.   

Lets be clear, there are several current franchises who would be materially better off being relocated to London, financially.  And th league would benefit as well.

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Count me as someone who could not care less about teams in London and Frankfurt. We already have diluted the talent across the league.

It's going to be a very long time (probably not in my lifetime) before we see a true European expansion of the NFL.  So no worries on further diluting talent for now.  By the time it comes, Europe itself will (I am sure it is hoped) provide some of it's own talent.

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It's not like Europe is going to suddenly provide an influx of players.

People used to say that about Basketball too.  No, it isn't "sudden", it's built over time by exporting the sport.  I think we'd all agree that Europe now has a pretty decent home talent pool for basketball (with several leagues), some of whom come to the US to be stars.

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You need developmental programs, high school and college to support it. MLB over expanded and thee product is garbage now.

I wouldn't agree at all that MLB is garbage.  Well, the current work stoppage certainly is, Owners and the Players Union are both stupid IMO.  But the game itself is just fine.

I do agree, developmental system at low levels would need to be in place to grow a domestic European talent pool of potential players.  But be assured, places like Poland could produce some spectacular O-linemen once those things are build, lol.  But to build it, you have to sell the idea of the sport itself.  That starts with selling out stadiums in London and Frankfurt, which they seem to be doing pretty regularly.   

[Dunnie]

Octoberfest could unbelievable.

[Doggin94it]

19 hours ago, JTJet said:

Pretty sure half the NFL Europe teams were German teams.

By the end, yes

[BeaconJet]

As inconvenient it is for American fans.... Germany makes a lot of sense as the next frontier.

And I like getting the pain of Jets games over by noon, and get on with the rest of the Sunday, so its not so bad.