London Super Bowl

Reports from the NFL office that a future Super Bowl may be played in London , England have been all the talk on sports radio and in the Internet.

I understand the NFL's desire to expand globally, but putting the biggest game and most watched television event of the year overseas doesn't make sense. The logistics alone would be tough. I just don't see this as a good idea. The international audience doesn't seem to be as intrigued with football as we Americans do. The NFL's initial attempt at marketing the league in Europe resulted in the league folding earlier this year. So its obvious the interest is not there. Although games that have been played outside of the state's (pre-season) have been well received.

Football is probably the most popular sports in this country, and the NFL has become a powerful marketing machine, but I don't see the interest outside of this country. I am for playing international pre-season or regular season games (there is also talk of adding a 17^th game played abroad) but not the Super Bowl. It belongs here in the states, where most of the fan's are.

Besides the logistical aspects of planning an event of this magnitude, you have a time difference to deal with, and what about marketing. As this is one of the most marketed events of the year, I wonder how the sponsors would feel about branding, etc., and most of all the TV networks which pay a prodigious amount of money to broadcast football, and considering the amount of money the networks pay for the rights, I would think that the NFL would consider the network's opinion above all others.

Internationally, baseball, hockey, and basketball seem to do well as those sports are played all over the world. Football is pretty much limited to the United States and Canada.

I think the only football folks in England are interested in is, soccer. Although it would be interesting to see how the soccer hooligans would be at a football game...especially when its the most watched event of the year.

--gfo