Ninh explains: Do the British actually like the NFL?
Now, if you’ve been tuning into my channel, you’ll quickly realise that I’ve covered
the NFL in the UK, like a lot.
And a lot of haters and naysayers all seem to have misguided notion that this is just
a fad.
A novelty.
The British public don’t actually care about American Football and that the NFL wouldn’t
work in England because of various reasons.
But are they actually true, or do people just not want to open their eyes to the possibility
that not only does the NFL survive in England, but thrives in a market that’s across an
entire ocean.
Let’s recap, the NFL has been hosting games in London every year since 2007.
They keep coming back to London, not Berlin, not Paris, not Munich.
And there’s a reason for that.
Because a) the NFL is awesome b) the NFL has no problem selling tickets over here and c)
contrary to popular belief: the British actually like American Football
Whilst admittedly American Football doesn’t get the same coverage as say other sports,
over the years it has gotten significantly more.
Can you find the NBA in the newspapers, or the NHL on terrestrial TV?
How about a talk show about the MLB?
Nope, none of those.
But the NFL has all three in the UK.
Why do you think that the MLB, the NHL and the NBA are all trying to copy the NFL in
London format?
Because it’s a massive market and the British audience is huge.
But I know some of you are going to be throwing out some objections.
British fans don’t actually care about the NFL.
They only like soccer and getting drunk.
Oh really?
How about this?
Or this?
Like it or not, the demand for the NFL in London and in Britain is sky high.
Pubs stream games on their big screens, people have Superbowl parties and watch the draft,
fans pay massive subscription fees to watch regular season games on Sky.
The Jaguars have a UK based fan club with UK fan events.
This is more than most of our traditional sports!
Look around and you’ll see coverage of the NFL in one form or another.
Sometimes more than Cricket, Rugby, Netball, Tennis, Badminton and all the other sports
that you associate with England except football.
Because nothing beats that over here.
And as for the getting drunk thing … that’s probably true.
But here’s the thing – there are people who are quickly becoming disillusioned with
football.
When only a handful of the richest teams can win every season, and the sheer amount of
hatred that fans display against fans of other teams, it’s a refreshing change to mingle
with fans of other teams without animosity and without people beating each other up in
the street.
Or suffering verbal abuse for wanting to like a specific team.
American sports has superior fan interaction and it’s better – you could like different
teams and hate the team of someone else, but you’re all fans of the game and treat each
other like friends.
That’s how it should be.
But it’s in London, people aren’t going to travel that far.
Well I’m here, watching two teams I generally don’t like and I’m a Cowboys fan that
lives 206 miles away.
I’m here again, and I’m here again … literally yesterday.
A 420 mile round trip in a day just to watch the NFL and I’m not the only one.
There’s a trainload of people making the same journey.
These guys are here, they flew in from Philadelphia and these guys are from Carolina.
This is the National Football League – this is big time.
People will come to watch it, and people will travel long distances to do so.
Unlike America, where public transport generally sucks, the transport system in England is
actually pretty good, albeit expensive ... and somewhat unreliable.
This is a prestigious league, and it doesn’t matter which teams are playing – fans will
always come and watch.
By the way, I just watched Jameis Winston throw 5 interceptions when I put money down
for the Bucs to win.
Thanks Jameis.
Most of those ‘fans’ aren’t from London or England.
They’re from mainland Europe.
Where on earth did you get that notion from?
There’s been absolutely no reports suggesting this and pretty much all the people I spoke
to during the fan events ... .all British.
And this one German guy.
But mainly if they’re not travelling in from the US, they’re mostly all British.
By the way, this German guy was actually quite funny and surprsingly a Green Bay Packers
fan.
And here’s the thing about London and about American Football in general - fans of opposing
teams can happily sit together and watch a game regardless of who’s playing.
Something that generally doesn’t happen with regular football.
There’s not enough people in London to support an NFL franchise.
Are you serious?!
One of the biggest cities in all of the free world couldn’t support an NFL team?
An NFL team may serve an average population of 1.2 million
London has 8 million residents.
And it’s the only place that has the NFL in a country of 62 million.
62 million fans, and you don’t think we’d sell out a stadium of just 80,000 people?
Those London games are actually losing money.
If the NFL was really losing money, would they really keep coming back here every year?
You wouldn’t think they’d pull the plug like some OTHER failed European experiment.
Or some other failed experiment in a certain Canadian city.
Regardless of some articles that suggests that the NFL is actually losing money over
these games, you have to put common sense hat on.
The NFL is the biggest profit making machine in all of sports – the moment where London
doesn’t make money is when the NFL says goodbye.
But trust me, at the prices they’re charging for everything – these guys are seriously
rolling in cash.
It’s a license to print money over here.
What about Canada?
What about Mexico?
No to Canada thanks to the Bills in Toronto disaster, although they are hosting games
in Mexico now.
But they don’t have anywhere near the same amount of impact on a population like London
does.
Why don’t you come up with a pro league just for the UK?
We have one.
It’s called the BAFL – but it’s not exactly pro.
So you think that London is getting an NFL franchise soon then, do you?
Well, I’m still on the fence.
The Jags were the favourite to move to England’s capital, but owner Shahid Khan has backed
out of buying Wembley.
It’s a tremendous blow to his chances of moving a team there, but I strongly suspect
that this story doesn’t end here.
I’m pretty sure he has some other plan up his sleeve.
And the New White Hart Lane Stadium has a permanent retractable NFL field built in so
there’s already a ready place to play.
And the stadium was awesome by the way, but such a pain in the ass to get to.
I wouldn’t put it past Dean Spanos to pull a stunt like moving the Chargers to London.
As unlikely as this sounds, this is Dean Spanos.
Him and Stan Kronke are possibly the worst owners in the NFL ... and Dan Snyder, him
too.
… Fuck you Spanos.
Why don’t you expand by four teams and have a whole division in Europe?
Having one team in Europe is hard enough.
Having 4 teams is logistically more difficult.
London has proven to work for the last 100 years there’s no denying that.
But the same can’t be said for Berlin, Paris, Madrid or any other major European city.
Whilst some of these cities have had teams and played games in the past – I don’t
think any of them would have the same impact as London.
As for expansion, I don’t think that’s on the cards for the NFL or their owners right
now.
Let’s say you’re right and London does get a team.
They won’t have any fans because everyone else already supports a team.
Here’s the dirty little secret – allegiances can be changed … and allegiances can be
bought!
People can change the teams that they like.
Is it any co-incidence that the Jaguars had almost no British fans before they came here?
But once they started playing regularly, and marketed heavily to the public, they’re
now the best supported NFL franchise in the country?
If London has its own team with its own identity – people will make the switch.
If there’s one thing you can say about being British, is that we like our British sporting
heroes.
Keep that American shite outta my city.
Millwall, Millwall!
Sorry football fans, but the NFL is here to stay.
Maybe not a permanent team, but the NFL is making too much money to ever stop playing
in London any time soon.
In short: I believe that the NFL have got a pretty sweet deal.
They’re making money playing games in an English speaking market to an untapped audience
that’s highly receptive of them.
In theory, they don’t actually need to move a team over here to benefit from British fan
dollars.
They could just keep doing this every year with different teams and the demand would
be exactly the same.
And the proof is in the pudding.
This year’s four games were sold out in just 40 minutes and there’s no signs of
it slowing down.
Although there have been various suggestions that the Jaguars may or may not move – one
things for certain, the British like the NFL, and the NFL isn’t showing any signs of not
playing there anytime soon.
So if you like this sort of thing, be sure to like, share and subscribe.
Check out my other channel to see what it’s actually like seeing an NFL game in London
and subscribe to that channel too.
Comment on the comments section below and let me know what you think … oh, and we
do stand for the national anthems.
Just saying.