No Sellout In England
October 9th, 2011
Joe sincerely hopes the lack of a sellout for the Bucs-Bears game in England later this month ends the stupidity of the NFL making teams head over to soccerland to play a real game.
What does it say that a once-a-year event can’t sell out? It says the market there sucks for football.
The dude in England that runs BucPower.com and the small Bucs fan club there — the Bucs slobber over this guy ridiculously — penned a story about the non-sellout recently. Joe figures if the guy knows anything, it’s about that game.
(Q. Why so hostile towards the England fan, Joe? A. Well, this guy wrote Joe a nasty hate note two years ago out of the blue, telling Joe he heard him on a radio interview spitting out an incorrect statistic about Luke McCown and Joe should be ashamed of himself and that Joe would never be a “serious commentator” if he continued to spread BS. Little did the guy know that the stat was accurate. Mr. Buc Power had assumed Joe was talking about regular season versus preseason. Joe wrote back and got no response.)
It should be clear that England has no business getting an NFL franchise, and all the NFL is doing is messing with the league schedule and making an insignificant amount of bucks out there.
Here’s an idea: If the NFL wants to market in Europe, perhaps they could just run a big contest and fly in 1,000 fans a week from England to fill seats in Tampa, Jacksonville, or Miami, or whereever else. Surely that would get massive attention, and the tourist bureaus and other companies wouldn’t mind kicking in for such an effort.
October 9th, 2011 at 9:34 am
Thomas says: If Bill Cower were the head coach, the London game would have sold out within a week of ticket sales opening.
October 9th, 2011 at 9:42 am
This is GREAT NEWS!! Finally perhaps Goodell will get his head outta his ass and stop this “globalization of the NFL” nonsense!
October 9th, 2011 at 9:42 am
must be the ticket prices….
😉
October 9th, 2011 at 9:51 am
Some of us over here are just as big Bucs fans as you guys over there. Some of us may never have had the money nor the opportunity to ever see an NFL game, let alone a Bucs game.
I’m not saying the arguments against the London game aren’t valid – I understand and appreciate them fully – I’m just saying you shouldn’t take the relative ease with which you guys can see Bucs games live in flesh for granted – for us over here it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
October 9th, 2011 at 9:56 am
If Europe is ripe for the NFL why didn’t World League last? Selling the NFL there is like selling cricket here. The rules are complex and unless you grew up watching it the learning curve is too steep for the average person to become a fan.
October 9th, 2011 at 9:58 am
Weren’t they talking recently about having 2 games per year there starting next season???
October 9th, 2011 at 10:11 am
In previous years the game sold out nearly instantly. This year there were several problems: the matchup wasn’t known until spring, and sales didn’t open until last month.
There’s no market for a franchise in Europe. But there is a market for this annual game.
October 9th, 2011 at 10:13 am
It will definitely sell out. Even if the NFL has to give the tickets away, they would never let themselves look that foolish.
October 9th, 2011 at 10:24 am
Forget talk of there being no market and try looking at some facts like….
Ticket prices are through the roof, they are well over double the price of a home playoff game in the states and we’resck of being ripped off.
The game wasn’t even confirmed until a few months ago thanks to the lock out.
People ar sick of hving to go to the dumpknown as London, like it’s the only place in England or Europe. How about a game elsewhere? I’d rather travel over to Gemany, Spain, Ireland than down to London and travel wouldn’t cost much more.
October 9th, 2011 at 10:29 am
All previous NFL games in London sold out within days of tickets being available. This has more to do with current economic conditions there (which are as bad as, if not worse, than Florida). Joe is overreacting and the fact is the NFL knows better than any other sports league how to market and expand their brand.
October 9th, 2011 at 10:45 am
The UK better be blacked out for a 150 mile radius from London!!!
October 9th, 2011 at 11:10 am
Joe, maybe if you had actually ever stepped outside your own country you would realise the impact the UK game has had on the game over here and across Europe. I personally have watched the game grow massively over the last couple of years here as well as television coverage greatly improving.
Besides the capacity of Wembley is 86000 and will likely be only slightly short of selling out, still putting more fans in seats than the majority of NFL stadiums week in week out
October 9th, 2011 at 11:21 am
@Greig (and others)
exactly, move the game to germany or austria, more central in europe and the market in those two countries are huge. Germany even have a player in NFL – Sebastian Vollmer.
and germany have a stadium with about 80.000 capacity – Signal Iduna park in Dortmund
i can see alot more advantage in Germany, even moving a franchise there if that is their plan
October 9th, 2011 at 11:34 am
To me, Canada is a much more logical expansion target for the NFL then England.
The NFL brought in the old AFC Teams, why can’t we do that with the CFL ?
October 9th, 2011 at 11:50 am
Germany seems like a good idea to me. I’ve been there and if the Bavarians get into the sport, the NFL will explode there.
I’ve been all over Europe…and that location makes the most sense to me.
That said…
…I think they should play the prowbowl over there 2 weeks after the superbowl.
That would put the big names of the league there…which would encourage a more likely sellout.
October 9th, 2011 at 11:51 am
Wonder if it will be blacked out there if it doesn’t sell out? Do I see a double standard coming???
October 9th, 2011 at 12:17 pm
The Pro Bowl? I’m willing to go pay for a competitive game of football, but the Pro Bowl can go suck it.
October 9th, 2011 at 12:17 pm
Somehow this will be blamed on the Tampa Bay area.
@Pete- I’m pretty certain part of the justification to take a home game was that the game won’t be blacked out in the region. The Bucs could have sold it out, but the stadium would have been 50% Chicago fans anyway.
October 9th, 2011 at 12:24 pm
Average ticket price for the Wembley stadium is over $200. Put that in comparison to the average ticket price for the New England stadium of $260.
October 9th, 2011 at 2:09 pm
Now Fuhrer Goodell is saying he would like two games a year in Europe. This guy just doesn’t get it. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt until this week. With him saying he wants 2 games coupled with the fine of Haloti Ngata for hitting Sanchez (it was a textbook hit, but an unbelievably ridiculous ruling finds him guilty), I’m over it. Get this guy out ASAP