Vinny: League open to Chargers moving to London

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As much as I dislike the Chargers sharing LA with the Rams, I do not endorse an NFL team permanently being based in Europe. The travel time and lag for West Coast teams is too much. There will be 8 games a year there plus possible playoff games. That would suck for the playoffs.

On top of that the poor Chargers players will be making the trip to the U.S. 8 times a year. What player wants to deal with that. We all know that Spanos is an idiot, but this move would make him an even bigger idiot. NFL greed will never cease to amaze me.
 
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Elmgrovegnome said:
As much as I dislike the Chargers sharing LA with the Rams, I do not endorse an NFL team permanently being based in Europe. The travel time and lag for West Coast teams is too much. There will be 8 games a year there plus possible playoff games. That would suck for the playoffs.

On top of that the poor Chargers players will be making the trip to the U.S. 8 times a year. What player wants to deal with that. We all know that Spanos is an idiot, but this move would make him an even bigger idiot. NFL greed will never cease to amaze me.
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Well said.
 
Elmgrovegnome said:
As much as I dislike the Chargers sharing LA with the Rams, I do not endorse an NFL team permanently being based in Europe. The travel time and lag for West Coast teams is too much. There will be 8 games a year there plus possible playoff games. That would suck for the playoffs.

On top of that the poor Chargers players will be making the trip to the U.S. 8 times a year. What player wants to deal with that. We all know that Spanos is an idiot, but this move would make him an even bigger idiot. NFL greed will never cease to amaze me.
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I have to disagree. As much as I dislike Spanos, this would likely end in his making a windfall of bank, having the entire European market to himself will produce new fans, huge sales and full stadiums, ... not something he's going to see in L.A. for many years. If Spanos desires a legacy for himself and his family, this is how its done, and escaping the ruin he's caused San Diego, making this work in London can be face-saving. Send him overseas and find another billionaire to sell the San Diego Franchise to, but keep the Chargers name here and force Spanos to rename the London team.
If the NFL goes to a multiple BYE system per team per season, and if they work more Thursday night games properly, the effects from travel time can be reduced. jmo.
 
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For teams outside the Chargers division, a London trip would happen every three or four years. Not bad. But being in the same division with the Chargers would mean a London game every year. And if the Chargers do move to London, they would probably need to swap divisions with another team. Having the Raiders, Chiefs, and Broncos travel to London every year would be brutal.
 
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GTFO, Chargers. Instead of making two teams go to London every week, let the San Diego stepchild stay "home" in London for 8 weeks and put them in the AFC East or North (whatever). Seriously....

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Elmgrovegnome said:
As much as I dislike the Chargers sharing LA with the Rams, I do not endorse an NFL team permanently being based in Europe. The travel time and lag for West Coast teams is too much. There will be 8 games a year there plus possible playoff games. That would suck for the playoffs.

On top of that the poor Chargers players will be making the trip to the U.S. 8 times a year. What player wants to deal with that. We all know that Spanos is an idiot, but this move would make him an even bigger idiot. NFL greed will never cease to amaze me.
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Money is all the NFL and Spanos care about. I think this would be a gold mine for the Chargers being the only team in England and Europe.
 
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NFL doesn't care about the logistical issues. They want a team there IMO. It's gonna happen at some point, with the plan to follow shortly thereafter with creation of a division overseas where they can block the games.

Oh and if it's the Chargers it will also open up the LA stadium with a full set of offices and team spaces being available so the NFL will have leverage against cities playing hardball with their stadiums.

Re: the players... Black dudes do very well with the girls in London from a party perspective. I say this based off of my career and many visits there where they were always more excited for the port calls than their non-black brethren. TG has already said he was gonna retire there lol and I'll bet that's part of it. Overall they'd be at a disadvantage getting players to sign there but maybe not as much of one as logic would make us think.

All that aside what is funny is any Brit fan who knows the league would be pi$$ed off to get a Spanos team. I have to think the NFL would not want to do that to them. Maybe a "move and sell the team at a huge value increase" type deal?
 
Elmgrovegnome said:
As much as I dislike the Chargers sharing LA with the Rams, I do not endorse an NFL team permanently being based in Europe. The travel time and lag for West Coast teams is too much. There will be 8 games a year there plus possible playoff games. That would suck for the playoffs.

On top of that the poor Chargers players will be making the trip to the U.S. 8 times a year. What player wants to deal with that. We all know that Spanos is an idiot, but this move would make him an even bigger idiot. NFL greed will never cease to amaze me.
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Im not up for it either, however I doubt they’ll have to make 8 trips a year to the US.
 
Merlin said:
Maybe a "move and sell the team at a huge value increase" type deal?
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View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YqAyz1coj44


Bingo.

If— a huge if, of course— the NFL were to take the plunge and place a franchise in London, they sure as hell wouldn’t let the colossal idiot Spanos run the show.

The NFL would pressure Spanos to sell the team (at a huge profit).

Spanos would count his millions while sifting through his hate mail. NFL would get a foothold in Europe with a competent owner. Rams would get LA to themselves. Everybody wins!
 
The big challenge with schedule is not regular season - you play chunks of 4 games home/on the road - made easier if schedule expanded and a second bye added during CBA. All games would need to be 10am or 1pm ET too and Thursday/Sunday/Monday Night Football wouldn’t be possible in London and fit in with US TV schedules. The challenge more comes if the team ever made a play-off and then logistics need to be arranged on short notice and with limited recovery time.

The rest of logistics whilst needing to be thoroughly planned - East coast training base, moving 2 or 3 teams to a new division etc - aren't insurmountable. Given our forthcoming General Election in the UK, probable Brexit, and need for a trade deal with the US, this would be the best time to agree tax and visa implications with our government to overcome those associated hurdles.

But then we move on to the sporting considerations. We all have teams here we support. I'm not going to give up the Rams to support a newly relocated team. I would consider a season ticket but this would need to be significantly more competitively priced than individual games to make it realistic and they'd become a 'second' team, but as soon as the Rams (or whichever team you follow) come over - that's who I'm supporting. I’m fortunate (for Football purposes) in that I live in London so it’s easy to get to the games; before I moved here I could come once or twice a year due to the cost of the whole weekend and it’s unlikely that the people who come to a couple of NFL games a year here could afford or make the logistics work to attend 8 games a year. There’s a risk that whilst the fanbase for the game has expanded, after the novelty for the first year or two of having our own franchise has worn off it’s a much harder challenge to fill the stadium consistently. Changing the branding of the franchise to something relevant to the UK and losing the Chargers brand may help people think it’s their team rather than something just on loan.

I do think the current International Series is becoming tired – the two Wembley games this year had so many more cheap tickets being resold in the last week than I can remember before (I ended up going again on Sunday as we were able to pick up ridiculously cheap tickets) – and it’s getting to the stage where the NFL do either have to move a franchise here or look at what their overall European strategy is.

In summary business-wise and logistics-wise I could see a franchise in the UK working although it will take a new generation of fans on football to become fans of that team rather than us all switching our allegiance. The overriding thought though is the romantic in me hates the thought of teams being picked up and moved from place to place with no regard for their fanbase (no matter how large or small) and bringing a franchise to London just doesn’t sit right with me.
 
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