What do you think of the NFL and MLB playing regular season games in other countries?
There are a number of games being played in London each year.
Do you think it a good idea to try and expand the appeal of these leagues?
What do you think of the NFL and MLB playing regular season games in other countries?
There are a number of games being played in London each year.
Do you think it a good idea to try and expand the appeal of these leagues?
Not sure about the MLB, but the rest of the world has rugby, no need to export NFL ;)
I would surmise all the #rugby leagues in the world do not add up to even a fraction of what the NFL pulls in.
Always about the benjamins.
Less business, more true sportsmanship.
LOL Even college is now paid players.
And yet the rest of the world doesn't really care :))
If the expectation is simply 2grow interest in D game, & therefore sales of merchandise, it makes sense.
If the expectation is 2place an expansion team 4 regular season play, it may not work out as hoped. Transoceanic travel is a problem.
We hear about the "expansion" idea periodically and it doesnt seem to make much sense. The distance is simply too great. It might work for football since that is only once per week. But the others, forget it.
There's 1 scenario which may work: location-based conference play. Major League Baseball operated this way for decades B4 interleague play became a feature of the season. Only for the championship would conference champions play each other.
Yes except you would need a great deal of buildout in the region. Say they set up a European "division". That could work but you would need more than 4 teams (as an example). Without a full slate of teams, makes it difficult to have the North American teams all battling it out.
Exactly. NFL-EU had 6-10 teams; even if it became part of the NFL proper, it would still have been missing too many teams.
OFF-TOPIC -- What if the NFL employed a relegation system, in which the bottom N teams moved to the spring league?
I am not sure if there is a need for the NFL to have a two tier system. They have a cap and national contracts. That is one league where parity is possible since the NY or Chicago doesnt have a huge advantage over Atlanta or Miami.
The same isnt true in MLB.
There will come a time when NFL's no longer at the top of the heap as a spectator sport, especially if economic conditions don't improve or NFL braintrust alienates its fan base. As a fan, do you really want 2C games involving putrid teams?
I dont know, I don't like it when EPL team goes to like China or Saudi to please the money. But I understand why they do it.
Just wished sports wasnt influnced by big money.
All businesses are about money. That is the nature of business.
The problem is most do not understand that sports is a business. To think otherwise is missing what is happening.
I do understand that but wished that all business wasnt just influnced by money.
I want passion for the sport and club to be the first priority.
Only the fans want that. Everyone else involved, it is a job. And people like to be paid when they show up for work.
I guess that's true. But I also think the athletes are a bit spoiled. We could have done some salary cap like you americans have done on your sport and with that maybe not forcing clubs to sell out to the Chinese and Saudis.
As long as the ad revenue flows, things can continue. If that starts to dry up, the economics of all these leagues is in trouble.
Caps dont really stop things, only slows them down. Basic in the next agreement, they simply jump the cap by a huge amount.
And I imagine you think the ad spending on sports wont die down any time soon?
Expanding to other countries would be a great idea to attract more people to learn about and be interested in this sport.
Yes, for example, my country is called a football country because most of the time they only show football as if there were no other sports, the greater the variety, the greater the possibility of people liking other things.