NFL IS DEAD, only 82,500 fans turned up! What a poor crowd for the biggest game of the year , how many unsold tickets? Next year heavy discounts I am told.

Oh, and not even shown of FTA TV channel Dave. I'd sack the lot who run the game, especially that Fat bloke, he is not up to running a global mega sport.

Is this the same NFL the run a licensing/franchising set up ?

Cold climate Super Bowl in an open stadium, I heard the ticket prices had been halved in the weeks running up to the Super Bowl.

The 3 games in wembley this year have all sold out, not bad I've got my 3 tickets, if the NFL do get a franchise in London RL could be in trouble I fear, my personal feeling.

Licensing? What do you mean? Please explain as I can only understand short term P&R that has graced all European sports since the Romans invaded around the time John Cleese roamed the earth with his teachings.

Are you saying that the NFL does not have more than one league and one going up and the other coming down bust? What is this you speak of? I thought the NFL had 2 conferences and several divisions. Surely they must go up and down? Dam those Yanks and their young unfettered country being fee to link outside of the P&R box. Oh, and get more than 24 hours to think through a TV deal for 8 years.

Oh my head hurts.

You mean the final was at Odsal?

Fnar Fnar fnar

Only the 2nd time in 20 years that the 1st ranked team from both the AFC and NFC going into the the playoffs have both reached the SuperBowl........

.......joke of a sport
.......rest of the sporting world laughing at them
.......playoffs are a farce
.......not enough of an advantage given to those who finish higher
.......rewarding mediocrity

......blah, blah, blah.

Went to the Vikings/Steelers game last year as I'm a Vikings fan. The whole atmosphere pre-match and during was better than any rugby final (I've been to 3 CC's/SL final with Hull and the WC final last year) I've ever been too. Was unbelievable.
Tickets this year for Dolphins/Raiders.

By far the best nfl game I have seen out of the games that have come over here (and I have been to watch them all), when the New Orleans saints came over they put on a mardi gra show during the half time, just shows what an organisation with bucket loads of money can do.

Something special about it all.

They've only achieved that thanks to their thriving International game including World Cups where the best nations take part

Apparently there were over 18,000 unsold tickets with just days to go so who knows what the actual attendance was, certainly loads of hangers on whom get freebies..
I tried buying tickets in the mid/late 80s as I was/am a 'phins fan (for my sins), never ot a sniff.
Average ticket prices were over $3000 with base prices well over $1000
Fox sold their 30 second ad slots for £3M each...
Estimated revenue for the host city is somewhere around $500-600M.
With it gaining even more popularity over here it'll be interesting to see if the rumour of a London franchise comes about..not sure I think it'll happen tbh.

Within the next 5 years they would like a franchise, this coming from the NFL commissioner as to branch out as no one outside 'Murcia really care about their sports which I don't think they understand.

Understand it could be either the Jacksonville jaguars (their owner owns Fulham FC) or St. Louis rams only as the fact the lease on the stadium expires in a couple of years and they are 50/50 whether to renew, they moved from LA (2nd largest media area in USA to St. Louis (44th or so) as LA would not build them a stadium, whereas I think they could move into wembley without much issue.

Someone posted on another thread that it's the last chance saloon for professional RL with p&r coming back for the forseable, and I do think if the NFL manage to get a franchise over here In the next 5 years it could kill RL off all together.

I wonder if topics about rugby league are often created on NFL forums???

Yeah it's like a weekly thing on here isn't it

Yup, or the constant useless comparison with soccer.

Don't mention union whatever you do!!!!!!

Blimey, you were up early this morning.

What's the time difference over there? 10 hours or something?

And did he actually reply to you questioning him about whether he condones homophobic chanting or not?

It's something like that. Can never remember what the difference is and where, between 8 and 11 I think.



Nah.

New York is 2800 miles from Seattle and just 1800 miles from Denver , given the huge numbers of RL fans that cross the Pennines for away games you'd think those NFL fans would make an effort......

I wouldn't say I fear for rugby league as it's a sport played in the north by most Super League teams. Going to watch an NFL match every two weeks in London, if you live in Yorkshire/Lancashire, would be hard to finance.

NFL is popular enough to be a success in the UK. The three matches have sold out already for Wembley so the interest is strong enough. And for those that don't have tickets, Sky will show the match, as they show loads of NFL matches anyway.

I'd love an NFL team in London.

Would be nice if they had a uk team and maybe moved to 3 or so stadiums around the country, bet the season tickets will dwarf what football teams charge though.

Can't see that happening, Wembley is fairly quiet during the months of the NFL (Sept-Jan) whereas as the most suitable stadiums around the rest of the country are heavily booked with the football season. Unless they went for the RU stadiums (Millenium, Murrayfield).

The NFL may be popular enough to sell out 3 games as they are rare high profile events (like the six nations rugby matches), not sure that level of support would be sustainable over a season/years, most of the fans are use to watching it from their armchairs and these events cost.
To highlight this, there was an article BBC about the state of welsh RU where clubs like Pontypool are struggling to survive due to low crowds yet the millennium stadium is packed out for internationals.
High profile game, big event lots of one off supporters and armchair fans turn up but once it's back to a wet Friday most are tucked up at home or aren't interested.

Please feel free to burn me at the stake for this, I like being able to go to away matches and driving down the M62 corridor isn't too bad, hull and back is a not viable on a Friday night but nearly all the other games (except London and Catalans) are within time and budget for our family.

Even if London do get a franchise, there are only 8 regular season home games a year, can't see it affecting RL at all, I have tickets to all 3 games, can't wIt to see the Dolphins play.

I suspect that 2 new explanation teams will be introduced in next 3-4 years. London and LA