It's over...
one of the original NFL Europe franchises is dead because of a lack of attendance.
the league's spokesperson said it will be replaced by another city: either Hamburg, Stuttgart or Cologne (Germany) or Lyon, France, or Madrid, Spain

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=1648776

That's too bad. Looking to the future though, it would be nice if they added a Paris-based team (some of us round here might actually be able to go see a game, then). I know that NFL Europe is big in Germany, but do they really need another team?

It's really sad news for us spanish but probably i'm one of the few spanish that know something about american football. This year looked that things could improve as for firstt time we can enjoy 4 NFL matches per week (3 live) on ppv TV (where we can enjoy also NHL and MLB) and this should get more guys interested on american traditional sports. In the other hand, the NFL european league is sadly not present at any spanish TV. All is around soccer here, the only usa professional sport followed here is the NBA as we have also a good pro spanish basketball league.
For same reasons, i doubt that Madrid would get the team ( i really wish that to enjoy live football as Madrid is 40 miles from Toledo, my city, while Barcelona is around 600 miles).

Sad news. It was an old franchise.

On the other hand, if it gives us frenchies a chance to have a team...

that's right, although I think it's a long shot (french franchise)

There had been talk of putting a team in Italy.

I guess the problem with that would be the length of halftime during the afternoon games.

dola

Who cares where it is Europe? Your countries are TINY. Hell, Luxembourg is smaller than Virginia Tech. Justhop on a high speed death train and you will be at the game in a hour.

Originally posted by Fritz
dola

Who cares where it is Europe? Your countries are TINY. Hell, Luxembourg is smaller than Virginia Tech. Justhop on a high speed death train and you will be at the game in a hour.

What? Have you looked at a globe lately? Greenland is huge! Now maybe Greenland isn't really Europe and I have no clue what I am talking about, but I doubt it.

Originally posted by The Afoci
I have no clue what I am talking about...

Understatement of the year. :)

On one hand this is sad news.

On the other hand, this means that the Amsterdam Admirals will continue to exist for at least another season.
It was back page news in one of two free news papers in the Netherlands (Sp!ts) this morning.

NFL Europe's site says Köln (Cologne for the English) will be the most likely new site, unless the Dragons can move to another site in Catalunya (thus very near to Barcelona).

Originally posted by ardent enthusiast
Understatement of the year. :)

Don't you have some secret Navy things to do yet? ;)

Originally posted by Fritz
Who cares where it is Europe? Your countries are TINY. Hell, Luxembourg is smaller than Virginia Tech. Justhop on a high speed death train and you will be at the game in a hour. Try being Dutch and listening to a French or German announcer.
That would really s*ck.

Originally posted by The Afoci
Don't you have some secret Navy things to do yet? ;)

We've targeted your stadium...dang it...I wish they wouldn't tell me super secret stuff. Don't they know my idea of keeping a secret is telling one person at a time??

I think it should be in Alsace so the Germans and French can argue over which country should be able to claim the team.

Originally posted by ardent enthusiast
We've targeted your stadium...dang it...I wish they wouldn't tell me super secret stuff. Don't they know my idea of keeping a secret is telling one person at a time??

Well, it is amazing how far a shopping spree at the gap with get you with the higher ups in the Navy.

Originally posted by MIJB#19
Try being Dutch and listening to a French or German announcer.
That would really s*ck.

haven't you all moved to one language yet?

Just for clarity:

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by The Afoci
I have no clue what I am talking about...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally posted by Fritz
haven't you all moved to one language yet?

And they wonder why we hate all of them.

Originally posted by MIJB#19

NFL Europe's site says Köln (Cologne for the English) will be the most likely new site, unless the Dragons can move to another site in Catalunya (thus very near to Barcelona).

Well, 4 teams out of 6 in Germany.
although, as far as economics are concerned, this might the right (the only ?) think to do ; As far as sports go, it makes worthless watching.
Let's call it the GFL (German Football League) right away then. would save us some spare time...

Although I understand why they would do that, I would just hate to see it happen effectively.

Darkiller:

Where do you think the hot sports venues in Europe are right now that can support American Football?

At one point I saw Prague as a possibility. Any other eastern cities make sense?

Just like some NCAA conferences force teams to take really long road trips (WAC teams to Hawaii, Sun Belt teams to Idaho, etc.), I think that NFL Europe ought to put a team in Azerbaijan.

Baku Bobcats, anyone?

Well, as I said, Germany makes sens because it's probably the only region in Europe where American Football can "earn" money and have a real fan base to develop.

why that ? because Germans don't play Rugby.

it's as simple as that.
In any other European countries, the "big tough guys" go play Rugby. In Germany you don't have that so they play American Football instead (a reminiscence of 1945-1965) when American Soldiers were at camp in Germany following WWII and Germans watched them play football.

So this makes sense.
As far as potential other places for a team ? Paris would be the sexy choice (and I would get involved in this most certainly) but unlikely to draw fan interest, at least, not as much as a capital city like Paris should.

Spain has a pretty good fan base, despite what happened to Barcelona so maybe Madrid could be good.
Prague makes sense as well although it's not been mentionned among the "candidates".

England has a strong fan base as well and I would suggest to explore this market once again: which they don't since the London Monarchs disapeared. I believe this is a mistake. Englishmen follow NFL Football, have Sky Sports NFL specials and even have a weekly football newspaper (First Down) which has been released every week for the past 15 years. So there IS a base there. Maybe the "marketing" surrounding the franchise has not been done properly.

Last but not least, as crazy as it may look, why shouldn't they try to explore towards Russia...

Go Stuttgart! If they got a team I would have a favorite NFLE team. And hopefully they would name them the Stallions... :)