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Thread: What do Steelers fans think about the NFL International games in London?

  1. #31
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    I just don't understand the goal. Is it to drum up interest, for a team in England and beyond? It doesn't seem realistic. The NBA has a much better chance of that happening. Basketball has much better exposure (with Euro leagues), and much better chance of expanding globally.

  2. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by SoccerSaint View Post
    Lol!

    Actually, it is probably not the English fans who would hate Celtic joining the Prem but the Scottish clubs. The Rangers and Celtic games (when Rangers make it back up into the SPL) are worth a lot to the other clubs. The Edinburgh clubs excluded too, I guess.

    Funnily enough you have addressed one very important difference between the NFL and the English Football league system. The NFL is a closed shop - no one gets promoted into it and no one gets relegated from it. In the EPL 3 teams will always get the chop at the end of the season and 3 teams will come up. There is a genuine, if implausible, path for a club of semi-pros such as Lewes FC (which currently plays in the 8th tier of English football) to eventually make it all the way up to the Premier League. Conversely, there is a possibility (infinitesimally slim) that Manchester United could end up playing in the 8th tier. All they would have to do is finish in the bottom three of their division for 7 seasons in a row and by 2020 it could be...

    The Glazer family (who own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) own Manchester United and John Henry (owner of Red Sox and Liverpool FC) have previously floated a balloon about making the Premier League like the NFL where no one is relegated from or promoted too. It was met by universal horror, anger and fierce rejection. They were called all sorts of nasty things in the press. It is totally alien to British sport. Also, there isn't a single Man Utd or Liverpool fan who would have wanted it any the owners would have opened their new season to empty stadia.

    What is impressive about the NFL system is the draft. I love the idea of that. Am I right in thinking that it is ultimately the NFL which holds the player's contract and tells them they have to go play at the club which picked them or they don't play at all?
    Actually, the clubs hold the contract. The reason players have to honor the draft is the presence of the players union. The model you describe (where the league technically holds the contract) is how MLS but the other major sports leagues all operate on a francise method.

    Wasn't there also some proposal a few years ago to got to a Prem 1 and Prem 2 each with 18 teams and only one team relegated out of Prem 2 into the league below (not sure if it was the Championship or League 2 at that point). Also wasn't the football league a closed shop at one point? I know it's two teams now promoted from the conference but wasn't it zero not so long ago and then one for a while after that?

    EDIT: I hang out on the stoke board (The Oatcake) and there is a lot of pissing and moaning whenever the topic of the Old Firm joining the Prem comes up. They also seem to not be two happy about Swansea and Cardiff.
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  3. #33
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    I have an obtuse question. Do they resod the fields for international games like at Wembley this Sunday?

    The only reason I ask is that as a soccer dad for the better part of the last 15 years and kid playing in college I know the surfaces for soccer are very different than for football. If they keep the normal soccer pitch I could see a whole bunch of slipping and turf getting pulled up all over the place...possible injuries.
    "My team, may they always be right, but right or wrong...MY TEAM!"

  4. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by snarky View Post
    Actually, the clubs hold the contract. The reason players have to honor the draft is the presence of the players union. The model you describe (where the league technically holds the contract) is how MLS but the other major sports leagues all operate on a francise method.

    Wasn't there also some proposal a few years ago to got to a Prem 1 and Prem 2 each with 18 teams and only one team relegated out of Prem 2 into the league below (not sure if it was the Championship or League 2 at that point). Also wasn't the football league a closed shop at one point? I know it's two teams now promoted from the conference but wasn't it zero not so long ago and then one for a while after that?

    EDIT: I hang out on the stoke board (The Oatcake) and there is a lot of pissing and moaning whenever the topic of the Old Firm joining the Prem comes up. They also seem to not be two happy about Swansea and Cardiff.

    I'm impressed snarky that you know the nuances. You must be a soccer fan!
    "My team, may they always be right, but right or wrong...MY TEAM!"

  5. #35
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sugar View Post
    Why would London need to have an NFL team? Couldn't they just start a British or Euro league with no NFL affiliation? If the people there like it, it will be OK.
    The quality of games would be terrible, they tried the NFL Europe league and it was bad, they would basically be getting the players that were cut or didn't even try to make an NFL team. It would be like watching the players that crossed the picket line during the strike, it was bad football.

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  6. #36
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    Quote Originally Posted by papillon View Post
    The quality of games would be terrible, they tried the NFL Europe league and it was bad, they would basically be getting the players that were cut or didn't even try to make an NFL team. It would be like watching the players that crossed the picket line during the strike, it was bad football.

    Pappy
    a Mr. James Harrison would like to have a discussion with you about this (and possibly bludgeon you with a Rheine Fire helmet...)

  7. #37
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    Quote Originally Posted by papillon View Post
    The quality of games would be terrible, they tried the NFL Europe league and it was bad, they would basically be getting the players that were cut or didn't even try to make an NFL team. It would be like watching the players that crossed the picket line during the strike, it was bad football.

    Pappy
    But it could get good in time. The key would be getting enough interest in the sport that European countries start developing high school football programs and develop their own in country talent. Gotta start somewhere. But it would definitely take time. And the challenge would be keeping any of the homegrown talent from heading to the US to play in the NFL.

  8. #38
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    Hugh,

    That's my name, too. Join my group "Guys named Hugh on FB."

    I don't get the NFL in Europe at all. I understood when there was a league there, but not how it is done now. To me, it's just more Roger Goodell nonsense that is a distraction from the great game I grew up loving. That game is now long gone. I rarely watch anymore, really.

    I hope you enjoy a Steelers win. I miss those, too.
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  9. #39
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    Quote Originally Posted by papillon View Post
    The quality of games would be terrible, they tried the NFL Europe league and it was bad, they would basically be getting the players that were cut or didn't even try to make an NFL team. It would be like watching the players that crossed the picket line during the strike, it was bad football.

    Pappy
    Worse. It would be like watching college football.

  10. #40
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    Totally pointless, an NFl team has only 8 home games per season. Having one of them in London is a joke in my opinion.
    Why London anyway, just because it is an English speaking country? If anything such a game should be excecuted in Germany(Frankfurt), the biggest European country, where NFL Europe was a real sucess and where you have many Americans (military)

    Stil, if the NFL wanted to grow it simply should have excecuted NFL Europe better.

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