NFL Plays in London
Well they will on Sunday anyway.
I'm English, and a Bears fan, I've been watching football pretty much since it was first aired on British TV (channel 4) in the early 80's. I was at the Chicago, Dallas preseason game played in London, I was at World Bowl 1, I lined up at running back for one of the 100+ British teams that existed in the late 80's (didn't play much and we were crap) and I used to tune into American Armed Forces radio on Mondays to listen to the games, since at the time it was the only way to get them.
I've lived in the States now for 15+years, and I'm still a Bears fan.
There are a lot of people like me in the UK and I think the NFL can be successful there to a point. There are probably enough hardcore fans that a local team could fill Wembly for the regular season. However I think breaking out being a niche form of entertainment is going to be extremely difficult. Some of that is just anti American sentiment, clearly English sports are going to be percieved to be superior to "American Football" in England.
Local talent development is probably neessary, but it's going to be hard. As a child in England I played Soccer every break time at school as well as during gym class. And I always hated soccer, it was just what you did. English schools just don't have the focus on organised sports that US schools do, making school organised American football unlikely and American Football just isn't a game you can play without organisation.
I actually don't think the entirely foreign roster is much of an issue in initial adoption, especially if the NFL can start to get some talent development going, British Soccer is dominated by other Europeans at this point and it doesn't seem to have hurt it much. But longer term it's going to have to feel like something local people can own and that means local talent.
Anyway for the first time British people get to see a regular season game on British soil. Wembly stadium is a sell out, It's a good first step, but the real question for the NFL is can it be successful when it's not a novelty?
