NFL Europa folds after 16 years

[Gene]

NFL Europa folds after 16 years

June 29, 2007
FRANKFURT, GERMANY (TICKER) -- Calling it a "business decision," the NFL on Friday announced it has decided to bring an end to its developmental league in Europe.

The announcement came less than a week after the Hamburg Sea Devils beat the Frankfurt Galaxy in the World Bowl title game in front of a crowd of just under 50,000 in Frankfurt.

"Together with the management of NFL Europa, we have decided that cancelling the NFL Europa games is the best business decision," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said. "From now on, we will concentrate on regular-season games and use new technology to make the NFL more popular worldwide."


NFL Europa, formerly called NFL Europe, had five teams based in Germany and one in Amsterdam. The league reportedly was losing about $30 million per season.

The league had been in operation since 1991, with 10 teams from the United States and Europe. After closing for two seasons in 1993 and 1994, the league returned with six European teams.

Many players had crossed the Atlantic to work on their games before becoming important players in the NFL, including Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks Kurt Warner and Brad Johnson. Games were popular in Germany, but poor attendance led to teams leaving London, Scotland and Barcelona.

"With the agreement of the NFL team owners regarding the staging of regular-season NFL games outside the USA, the time has come to change the NFL strategy for success on an international level," Goodell said.

NFL team owners have decided to play two regular-season games per season outside the United States. The first regular-season game will be staged at Wembley on October 28 between the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants.

The league says further games for Germany, Mexico and Canada are planned in the future.

"The fan base and the experiences in NFL Europa have been superb," said Alistair Kirkwood, managing director of NFL UK. "The European league did a tremendous job, but now we're looking forward to the Wembley game, and the next game in Germany."

pdated on Friday, Jun 29, 2007 2:30 pm EDT

[Gene]

This should help with adding better talent in the arena/indoor football leagues.

[Sykotyk]

In essense, yes, but with the AAFL and UFL both preparing to start in 2008, there's the possibility these second tier players may wind up playing all spring in the AAFL and UFL in the fall if both go through with their plans.

Sykotyk

[The Picks Commissioner]

I'm not surprised by this.

You're probably right syk. That maybe the case.

[scooter]

Sadly, THIS SUCKS!!!

And after my beloved Frankfurt Galaxy fall short in the World Bowl!?!?!

They had been gaining in attendance, especially with the focus of the league putting it's footprint in Germany.

It's just a shame, because the league was a great developmental system for the NFL.

I've followed it since it's inception as the WLAF.

RIP- And hopefully it will find a way to rise from the ashes.....

[expressfan01]

Though it helped players gain skills, if your losing 30 mil a season you have to shut it down.

[Sykotyk]

Only thing I can see is that the diehard American Football fans in Germany will latch onto the GFL a hell of a lot more. The GFL already was doing decent. Maybe we'll see the Frankfurt and Dusseldorf teams return to prominence, now that they're not in the shadows of the NFLEL teams.

The Hamburg Blue Devils should continue to do strong, their fan support stayed high despite the fact that the NFLEL team jumped in. In recent years, Hamburg has been one of the better teams in the league.

Throw in the fact that one of the most successful GFL teams never had to compete with an NFLEL team (The Braunschweig Lions), and we may see a huge uptick in the GFL in the former NFLEL cities. Berlin Alder won the German Bowl just a few years ago.

Throw in the fact that the GFL operates like a standard European league (with promotion and relegation), the fan support may increase more. Too bad the Rhein Fire and Frankfurt Galaxy probably won't live on, even in name.

But, maybe Frankfurt can develop a new GFL team to fill the void of the Galaxy.

But, despite this, I've rooted for a team in Dusseldorf since 1995 (and a few years when they were in Gelsenkirchen's Arena aufSchalke), I'll continue to root for the team in Dusseldorf.

www.duesseldorfpanther.de

Sykotyk

[Free Agent Fan]

NFL's overseas focus shifts
League makes play for Chinese fans, folds NFL Europa

Published: June 30. 2007 6:00AM

BEIJING -- Are you ready for some "Mei shi gan lan qiu"?

The NFL is intent on finding out if that is indeed the case in China. The league is venturing into untested territory and hoping the country's vast marketplace will respond to its product.

Clearly, there are details to sort out. For one, the language. The sport's vocabulary might resonate from Maine to Maui, but it's a poor fit in Chinese. This, after all, is a country where American football is largely unknown.

"We've had to come up with an entirely new nomenclature for the sport," Gordon Smeaton, an NFL vice president, said Friday during a promotional tour with the New England Patriots. "This is a situation we don't face in any other country and it will take some time."

For the record, in Chinese the game is known as "Mei shi gan lan qiu," which can mean "American-style rugby" or "American-style olive-shaped ball," depending on the translation.

A touchdown is a "da zhen."

The quarterback is the "si fen wei" - the one-fourth position.

And then there are the byzantine rules. New England Patriots tight end Benjamin Watson has been spending a few days trying to explain strategy and tactics to Chinese fans and reporters.

"We need to teach about throwing and catching and some of the rules of the game," Watson said. "About where players line up. The game is almost like a chess match."

Basketball has been played for 100 years in China. Baseball is an oddity, but at least it has roots. The NFL may be the most popular game in the Untied States, but it arrived in China only a few years ago and it's playing catch-up in a country of 1.3 billion with a swelling middle class.

"I think the reason we might be further behind is we're not an Olympic sport," Smeaton said. "The NFL has only been active in China for the last four years. I suppose we are further behind, so we have to work twice as hard."

For now, the NFL is thinking small. It's been sponsoring a school-age flag league involving 5,000 players. An NFL game is shown weekly on China's state-run CCTV. Smeaton said the NFL is about to announce a "much broader distribution of games" in the country. It also might change viewing times and might add more live telecasts. He said the annual Super Bowl telecast drew up to 10 million viewers.

"The audience for the weekly game, we're happy with a couple of million people watching the game," Smeaton said. "That's where we are."

He hinted that the NFL might use China as a market to test new technology. He also talked up online games.

"We see a day in the not too distant future when Korean NFL fans will be on line with Chinese fans in Shanghai, or with Indonesians or with Tokyo."

The NFL's target in China is men, ages 16-30, who have traveled and are interested in foreign cultures. That's as many as 50 million people.

The NFL has sputtered selling American football in Europe, and on Friday folded its developmental league there after 16 years. NFL Europa reportedly was losing about $30 million a season.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said it was strictly business, insisting that after "significant investment" it was time to close NFL Europa and concentrate internationally on regular-season games outside the U.S.

"A foundation of American football fans in key European markets has been created and the time is right to shift our strategy," Goodell said in a statement. "The next phase of our international growth is to focus on initiatives with global impact, including taking advantage of developing technologies that make the NFL more accessible on a global scale and ensuring the success of our new international series of regular-season games."

The announcement came less than a week after the Hamburg Sea Devils beat the Frankfurt Galaxy 37-28 in the World Bowl championship in Frankfurt before a crowd of 48,125.

NFL team owners decided in October to play up to two regular-season games each season outside the United States. The first such game is Oct. 28 in London between the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants.

The league said it is looking toward other regular-season games in Germany, Mexico and Canada, with Germany a strong candidate for 2008.

Smeaton suggested China would be a moneymaker with TV eventually generating revenue.

"Once we get enough of a fan base, we expect that companies will come on board (as sponsors)," Smeaton said.

The Patriots are ahead of most NFL teams in exploring China. It has a Chinese-language Web site and a director of Chinese business development. The team's replica jersey went on sale this week in China for $90.

"Any league in China would be years and years away," Smeaton said. "The developmental work takes so much time because you have to develop athletes. But you cannot snap your fingers and make that happen."

The NFL is also trying to recover from a minor embarrassment. It planned a preseason game in Beijing in August -- between New England and the Seattle Seahawks -- but scrapped it on short notice. The NFL said it could not stage that exhibition and the regular-season game between the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants this fall in London.

Playing in Beijing in 2009 is the new target. The game may be held in the new 91,000-seat National Stadium, called the "Bird's Nest," which is going up for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"This now gives us an opportunity to build a fan base and we have another two years to get prepared," Smeaton said.

Watson said the NFL would benefit from the likes of its own Yao Ming, the Chinese center now starring in the NBA. But, for now, he sees a foundation forming.

"Strategy, teamwork, work ethic -- these are all things that are deeply rooted in Chinese tradition," Watson said. "To have a player in the NFL from China, from anywhere, this creates better international relations and obviously a big fan base."

"Everything starts somewhere," he added. "In America, football just didn't start off in the NFL. It started off as a small game that people looked at as kind of crazy. Now it's the most popular game in America."