National Football League game in London

[Phone]

Is anyone going to the game and watch my Kansas City Chiefs kick arce?

 

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[Chris Plumb]

I find this somewhat strange - at least from the fans perspective - as a season ticket holder at my local football club I'd feel pretty pished off if they started switching some home games to another continent!

 

C.

[Newt]

Chris - professional US football isn't really a home town thing any longer. The vast majority of us watch the top level professional teams on TV rather than attending games in person and that's especially true since most of us live hundreds or thousands of miles from the place our favourate team(s) call home.

 

Certainly there are some season ticket holders for each of the teams and some/all of them may be upset but they are such a tiny minority that I doubt the schedule organisers ever give them a thought.

 

The only team for which this might be an issue is the Green Bay Packers since the city of Green Bay has owned the team since it was formed by a meat packing company located in Green Bay in 1919 and season tickets are usually passed along in the will of the current owner. As far as I know, this team has not ever played what should have been a home game anywhere other than on their home field but then theirs is a unique situation. More on the Packer's History .

[Chris Plumb]

Thanks for the Packers link, Newt. I already knew quite a bit about Vince Lombardi as I reference him quite a bit in coaching programmes that I run - that fills in a bit more!

 

C.

[Newt]

With three NFL games in London this year there must be some interest but it seems that AN regulars are not part of that fan base.

[Chris Plumb]

I used to watch it quite a bit when it was first on terrestrial telly over here (C4 I think?) - even stayed up to watch a few superbowls...

 

C.

[Sportsman]

I think the problem might be that many In the UK don't really understand the objectives or nuances of the game. It just sort of looks like a load of heavily armoured big blokes having a free for all.

Back in 1980 I sailed on a pipelaying barge with an American company (J Ray McDermott of Louisiana) the only entertainment on-board was a video recorder and a very large box of tapes of American football. Watching that night after night with a bunch of Americans to explain what was happening and why, led to me really enjoying it and taking a keen interest at the time. If I lived closer to London now I would certainly go to the match. I much prefer it to soccer anyway.

[Phone]

All,

 

A quick Google brought up this site.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/nov/10/wembley-nfl-london-franchise

 

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