Five months and counting...
After the success of the Dolphins-Giants at Wembley last October, many British fans welcomed the decision for another international game in the English capital.
Since the announcement just prior to the Super Bowl that the Saints and Chargers would be going head to head at Wembley, it has been a waiting game for eager fans to get hold of a ticket for the big showdown.
If ticket sales are anything like last year then at least 45,000 tickets have already been sold (I got mine—GO SAINTS) to the 'lucky' fans who were issued with a lottery code in February to guarantee them a ticket, money pending of course!
With over 300,000 people entered into the lottery, many were due to miss out on the guarantee of a ticket (as was the case for me last time around).
There will be other sales throughout the next five months, allocating some of the few tickets that were not snapped up when originally available.
Any tickets found to have been sold on auction sites will be cancelled and re-issued into these general sales, so no fan will be ripped off having to pay above face value for their ticket. But as I found out last year, these tickets are very sought after and hard to come by.
With all this in mind, is it worth the NFL looking at staging more than one game a year on British, or European soil?
As a Brit, having spent 25 years on these shores, I'm obviously going to say yes. Especially with the interest it generates when announcements are made, or when tickets go on sale, let alone the event itself.
With tickets ranging from £45 ($90ish)-£100 ($200ish) do these prices compete with that of a ticket for a game in the United States? Has the NFL lowered/or raised the prices for this game?
Wembley isn't the only option when looking at stadium to host these big events. The Millennium stadium in Cardiff did a fantastic job hosting all the big events during the re-building of Wembley. Outside of the premier league football grounds (Old Trafford, The Emirates, St. James Park), there is also the home of England's Rugby team, Twickenham, and Hamden Park and Murrayfield in Scotland, these are various places ready to host massive games!
It's likely to be a sell out, so if there is such a big market for the game here in Britain, why shouldn't more teams take the chance?
Remember, it worked out alright for the Giants, they win in Wembley, they go on to win the Super Bowl. Should that happen again this year, imagine how many of the superstitious players and teams would fancy gracing the Wembley turf?
I'm looking forward to comments from both sides of the pond to see what all you fans think.
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4 months ago
I think it will be extremely interesting to see where the NFL goes from here. It is obvious that there is enough interest abroad to justify more than one game a year.
The U.S. NFL market is saturated. Looking at it strictly from a business perspective, the NFL is a corporation that is ready to take it's product global. It must tread lightly, however, since there will be resistance to this trend. Within its current structure, an NFL season does not allow for a great deal of overseas travel. Home games are precious to teams' fans, and there is always going to be a contingent of NFL fans who feel cheated when one of their home games is "stolen." I see this point of a view as a natural reaction to the evolution of an American institution like the NFL, but I also see it waning off as this NFL abroad experiment proves to be the future.
Bear in mind that I am both from New Orleans and a die hard Saints fan. In 25 years I'd love to see a situation where the United States has club Soccer teams that are able to compete with others around the world, and where Football has become more global.
I may very well be in the minority, at least in the U.S., regarding such a scenario. For some reason I have always been impressed by things like the World Cup and Champions League, which add an international flare to sporting events. I think it's more entertaining.
4 months ago
nfl sucks..it's a novelty sport everywhere else in the world..most of those that turned up at Wembly were expat Yankees..the Brits though were only there to watch the fly over and cheerleaders..the showoffishness and chest-thumping that dominates American sports is frown upon everywhere else in the world..
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