Is Roger Goodell Good For the NFL?

[mlmpetert]

Originally Posted by hooskins

I think they are targeting London, from understanding, because its the only countries not in the Americas where the sport could/should grow. ALthough the travel would be a pain, if you cycle all teams it is equal. If there is a way to have the London game before bye weeks, for the teams playing that would ease some of the concerns too. I agree with developing opportunities in Canada and Mexico. Although I think there may be some loops to jump through in Canada due to the CFL?

Also, from all accounts, the large scale effort, that was NFL Europe was a financial failure and mess. I think Goodell feels focusing on the NFL in the US while slowly growing overseas (via a few overseas games) will help the sport develop in the long run. I assume it is also less of a financial burden.

You cant cycle all the teams to London equally or season ticket holders will get PISSED. A lot of people factor in the cost of preseason game tickets into the cost of regular season tickets treating it kind of like a tax. So if the ticket's face value is 100 dollars each with 8 home games many season ticket holders look at it like its really a 125 dollar ticket, because 200 bucks was spent on preseason games. If you loose a regular season home game that 200 bucks is spread out over 7 games now, not 8. So it only makes sense for franchises that have problems selling out to go to London, and why we keep seeing the Bucs going overseas. The funny thing is that by continuing to go overseas you disinsensitive your fan base to become season ticket holders. Its kind of like the paradox of thrift.

Either way Rog loves those limeys (the only derogatory term i could find for brits):

Goodell reiterates that second London game could be coming | ProFootballTalk

At a time when Goodell likes to say that fans prefer 18 regular-season games, he should ask the fans what they think about sending an extra game to London each year.