Nothing Long-Term About England
April 14th, 2011
There may be head-in-the-sand fans out there who think the 2011 Bears-Bucs game in England is another step toward Team Glazer moving the franchise to London and preparing to sell Josh Freeman jerseys to legions of crumpet munchers.
Frankly, Joe doesn’t know why anyone would think that, but Mike Florio, creator and curator of ProFootballTalk.com, explains why and offers a sound take. Feel free to read it here.
Last Joe checked, the NFL is a business. Therefore it makes no sense to move the Bucs when some other investor would pump, say, $500 million into the NFL for a London expansion team.
Plus, Team Glazer has a wildly profitible enterprise in Tampa with its fabulous stadium deal, like most NFL owners.
Signing off on the England “home game” is about money, marketing and a willingness to part with what would not exactly be a dynamic (to steal a Raheem word) home field advantage against the Bears.
The Bucs aren’t going anywhere.
April 14th, 2011 at 9:55 am
Must be looking to build upon the truly magnificent performance of the 09 London game.
Must be what accounts for that big London fan base the bucs have developed. Pity they can’t build one in Tampa.
April 14th, 2011 at 10:01 am
Eric:
There’s some guy there — Joe won’t write his name because he’s filed some very nasty e-mails to Joe and, honestly, he has slurped anyone with any connection to the Tribune for 15+ years and as a result, he gets a lot of run and Joe won’t be privy to that — started a Bucs fan club maybe 20 years ago and was very proactive in building his club and per multiple reports, the Bucs have the largest following of any NFL team in England.
Remember, the NFL in London is about as popular as lacrosse is in Tampa.
April 14th, 2011 at 10:11 am
Joe-
Having the largest NFL following in England might be like being the best snow skier in Polk County.
Been to London a bunch, never heard anyone mention the Bucs.
It is a bit sad that our home field advantage has eroded to the point that London is an improvement.
I am willing to wager there will be more bears than bucs fans in attendance.
April 14th, 2011 at 10:14 am
LOL!
April 14th, 2011 at 10:19 am
I think the London people just want the Bucs due to the skull and crossbones flag – reminds them of the Barbary Coast Pirate days when the sun never set on the British Empire.
Look in 2009 they (Englanders) filled the stadium. In 2010 the Bucs couldn’t accomplish the same task so…..
April 14th, 2011 at 10:40 am
Derf:
The vast majority of the fans at the London NFL games are Americans living in Europe and bunches of fans of the two teams who decide to include a vacation around their football game. I’d be willing to wager native Englanders (isn’t that a German term?) are in the minority at Wembley that day.
April 14th, 2011 at 3:49 pm
I would be okay with the Bucs playing two home games a year in London as long as they come at the first of the season. One o’clock games in September in Tampa are brutal for players and fans.
April 15th, 2011 at 4:19 am
Please guys, one point for all of you….there are over 10 million people living in the UK who are native to Wales, Scotaldn and Northern Ireland, and are therefore NOT “English”.