Don’t know what to tell you. I mean we all have our own preferences I guess. I grew up watching/playing soccer. It was my first love really. My dad and I have never been really close, but if there was one thing we did together, it was watch soccer.
I like the game, I like that it’s pretty fluid. Yeah players dive too, but man compared to Football (with all the commercials all up in your face) or even the NBA (players flopping there too), Soccer is just so much more fluid. Can it be boring? Yeah, depending if one team decides to park the bus and sit back. But you also see some boring Football games too. NBA you see teams just jacking up 3’s.
What makes leagues such as premier league not have to rely on advertising so much is (well in additional to local regulations) the fact that it’s a relegation system
Best teams get moved up, worst teams get moved down
Americans have lots and lots of sporting options. Many, maybe most, have grown up without the availability of professional soccer.
But it’s growing. To expect soccer to complete to other much better funded and well-established sports is silly. But that it’s still behind those sports doesn’t mean its hated.
I didn’t get turned on to soccer until the 1994 World Cup in the U.S. I was almost 30 at that time. I’m still a big fan.
But I saw three (I think) televised Dynamos games last year. I probably hadn’t missed a televised Dynamo game in a decade before that. I have Apple TV, but I won’t pay for the upgrade for MLS streaming.
Basically, it lost a regular viewer–me. I’ll still attend a game or two a year, but that could change in a few years. In its place, I’ve been watching Premier League and Champions League for free and enjoying both very much. The Apple exclusivity was a terrible move for MLS.
No, they couldn’t. The logistics of playing a transatlantic 42-game home-and-home schedule aside, their league structure quite literally does not allow it. European soccer teams are clubs, not franchises.
lol, no it’s not. Even if you could hypothetically get four European markets to support NFL teams, and wangjangle the schedule so that they get a bye every time they cross the Atlantic, there’s the fact that they’d still have to participate in the playoffs and Super Bowl. How is that supposed to work? Do TV partners just acquiesce to having some of their highest-value inventory move to 8 AM? What happens when London hosts San Francisco in the NFC Championship Game, or vice-versa?
Logistically, it’s relatively easy to play a couple of largely meaningless regular season games overseas. Expanding that to a full franchise would be a mess. Any degree of serious thought reveals this to be an immediate nonstarter.
You put a division, of 4, in
London
Germany
Spain
Paris
they play everyone in their division TWICE, similar to the AFC South.
Then they play their conference and a rotating conference in the other Conference.
They could even re-shuffle the Conferences into East and West teams to make traveling easier.
As far as travel, you have a week + between games…it’s the easiest logistics to plan a 7/8 hour flight to the United States and then to the visiting city, even if they have to play in a neutral practice facility on American soil if/ when they play an American/Canadian / Mexican city.
I’d add 8 new teams.
Add the 4 in Europe PLUS
Toronto
Mexico City
2 new US expansion cities (i.e. Portland, Salt Lake City. Austin-San Antonio, Oklahoma City, etc.)
True, Mike. And to @3rdWardCoog point, Americans mostly aren’t interested in soccer. But to me that reason is, well, the U.S. has never been a powerhouse in the sport. Never been to a WC final, or semi’s. And like you said, the WC hadn’t been hosted here in the states until '94. Again, as you say, folks didn’t grow up watching it. Boomers weren’t watching Premier League footy in the 70’s. GenX wasn’t watching it in the 80’s either.
Interesting. I would think the move to go to Aapl TV was mostly to attract younger audiences. Particular Gen Z. My parents still have satellite cable (Direct Tv). And they still have their 42inch Panasonic plasma tv lol.
With a 17 game schedule, that’s still five or six games in the US every year. If you schedule that as a block bookended by two bye weeks, that’s still a nearly two month stretch every year where European fans don’t get a home game. It still doesn’t address the playoff issue. It’s clearly not workable.
Jacksonville has played 2 games is London in previous years and it was fine.
Build a neutral Practice Facility on the East Coast to allow the team to travel mid week and get used to the time change and then fly to the destination city.
Here’s how I know the NFL in England is working.
When I travel around Europe, I f a see someone in a n MLB cap, 99% of the time it is the New York Yankees
However, when I was in London, I saw dozens of teams represented by locals. I even saw some guy wearing an Oilers cap.
I was pleasantly surprised how much NFL representation there was there. The NFL is clearly getting their brand out there.
Yes, I included that in the math above. What time are you scheduling the Wild Card playoff game between Seattle and Berlin? A Super Bowl team from Europe could potentially have three international flights in a five week playoff run; how are you managing that?
I’d, personally, reshuffle the Conferences into an East and West Conference.
You add 8 new teams so you are up to 40 (5 Divisions of 5 teams each Conference )
East Conference
London
Paris
Berlin
Madrid or Barcelona
New England Patriots
New York Jets
New York Giants
Washington Commanders
Toronto
Baltimore Ravens
Buffalo Bills
Carolina Panthers
Jacksonville Jaguars
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Miami Dolphins
Pittsburgh Steelers
Cleveland Browns
Cincinnati Bengals
Detroit Lions
Philadelphia Eagles
West Conference
Atlanta Falcons
Tennessee Titans
New Orleans Saints
Indianapolis Colts
Chicago Bears
Green Bay Packers
Minnesota Vikings
Kansas City Chiefs
Houston Texans
Dallas Cowboys
2 of San Antonio- Austin, Salt Lake City, Portland, Oklahoma City, etc.
Denver Broncos
Arizona Cardinals
Los Angeles Rams
Los Angeles Chargers
Las Vegas Raiders
San Franciso 49ers
Seattle Seahawks
Mexico City
When the NFL goes international — and you’re right that it’s a when, not an if — it’ll be Latin America, not Europe. São Paulo, Monterrey, CDMX, and even places like Santiago and Buenos Aires are far more workable than any European market.
Brazil is literally right there. Just below Canada. It’s also an order of magnitude easier to make Latin American teams work than European ones. São Paulo, Rio, and CDMX all have enormous populations with none of the time zone challenges that come from trying to make Europe work. Cheaper land and more likely to get public funding, too. And you can feasibly relocate a single team from Latin America if their market doesn’t work, unlike your model of Europe, which necessarily depends on four stable teams on the continent.
It is not eliminated it is suspended. They did it because of covid that has nearly bankrupt the league.
Tibujones or Atlante went bankrupt like many sports clubs around the world due to covid. They were not a franchise per say like we have it here.
Mind you Mexico is very different from other soccer leagues around the world. Gruppo Televiso used to own all the way to 14 clubs. It has been a major issue with FIFA. FIFA is looking at eliminating multiple soccer club ownership under the same owner/group. UEFA is not allowing clubs under the same owner to play European competitions.
You will never see a European club move from its own city. 100% illegal.