Comments on: NFL in London: Does anyone care?

By: search

search — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:33:02 +0000

By: Jim Allen

Jim Allen — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 05:39:31 +0000

AK’s post brings up good points, but the key is “highlights show”. As I’ve read over and over, when they started to show the actual games –you know, 13-15 minutes of “action” and 45 minutes of genetic freaks standing around with their hands on their hips when they aren’t the sidelines sucking down oxygen because they *gasp* ran 30 yards– interest plummeted.

Manchester United sold 70,000+ tickets to the games on their last US tour, but the real football will always be a niche sport here. The British love hype and bandwagons –look at their music scene– but once the novelty wears off, the NFL will be a small niche sport there too.

Go Everton in the UEFA Cup tomorrow!

By: blueraider

blueraider — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:54:05 +0000

Any game in which the Dolphins lose will always carry my interest

The NFL does have somewhat of an audience over there. I just spent a few days with a diehard Bills fan who came over to see them for the first time since he became a fan nearly a quarter century ago.

One anecdote, while he was in line at the main merchandise store @ the Ralph prior to the game the person behind him in the cashier line was visiting from Scotland (for the second time).

By: Joe Guckin

Joe Guckin — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 18:17:07 +0000

If the game’s televised in the US (and it will be, at least in the New York and Miami areas) people will watch it. It doesn’t seem to be a very enticing game since the Dolphins are winless, though.

By: A.K.

A.K. — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 17:33:36 +0000

The UK has cared in the past about football. At the sport’s previous peak in about 1991, the weekly highlights show was watched by audiences of over 5 million (any of today’s broadcasters would jump at a show that guaranteed 5m+ viewers every week for four months), the sport was played by over 300 amateur teams (today there are about 100), some of whom played in major stadiums, built fanbases, and attracted regular four and five-figure crowds, and Wembley was sold out for the 1991 World Bowl. The situation then was mis-managed, but everything’s right for a second boom period to take off now and be properly managed. And despite all the wasted potential, the concept of a regular-season game is still so popular that 500,000 people applied for tickets, enough to fill Wembley six times over.

Why did the sport go through the first boom? Because the NFL brought regular pre-season games to Wembley. The effect that (ahem) a regular regular-season game could have cannot be overestimated.