American Football in London

[Wolfman]

I am a Scottish NFL fan, and my impression is that there are quite a few NFL fans here in the UK and in Ireland. The game is a 90,000 sell-out (the first 40,000 tickets sold in 90 minutes, and only 10,000 fans are expected to come from the US) and people I know who were trying to get tickets had trouble getting them, despite the fact the Dolphins are so dire at the moment (they shouldn't worry about losing a home game this season anyway, might do them some good to get out of Miami). There is plentiful coverage of the NFL on Sky Sports - a choice of five games on a Sunday night (triple-header with two optional games), Monday Night Football, and this year Sky Sports have started broadcasting NFL Total Access, NFL Playbook, America's Game (history of the Superbowl winners) and another programme I can't remember. So I'm guessing with the increase in coverage this year that there is a market for the game here in the UK.

I think the trouble historically with teams such as the London Monarchs and Scottish Claymores was that they were very much B-teams with NFL cast-offs or nearly-men playing for them in many cases, and so you only got crowds of 10,000. Now give the UK an NFL franchise and you might see a big difference in crowds? I didn't manage to get a ticket and will watch on TV, looking forward to it, the Fins have got to win a game some time, right?

Excellent post, I agree with all of it - plus you could add that we've just had the Rugby World Cup, a proper contact sport:cool: