Wembley is suddenly all the rage. For one regular season game; possibly two in 2010 and then the Super Bowl in 2014 (or maybe 2015, or....).

If you read some of the reports being generated over here recently (and which, by all accounts, have also echoed mightily in Her Majesty's Press, too), you'd think there was a little-known NFC East of East division centred on North-West London; one that out-sells every existing NFL franchise and which has more fans than New York and Dallas put together.

Super Bowl trophy: Not in London

The appetite for gridiron in Great Britain is off the charts. And that's just according to the US media. Even usually sane and sober journalists have been moved to concede that "London does a heck of a job in promoting the NFL."

Well, yes, it can stage the occasional game at the country's showpiece stadium without falling flat on its face and embarrassing the three million or so people who live in the general area.

And, yes, there is a distinct appetite for the game that the NFL has tried hard to export since the first American Bowl showed up at the original Wembley Stadium back in 1986.

Extravaganza

But hold on, folks, before anyone gets carried away with the idea that the Jubilee Line could be the route to a Super Bowl extravaganza the likes of which is usually only seen in Florida, California and, occasionally, more esoteric locations like Detroit, let's consider the facts.

The latest pronouncement of commissioner Roger Goodell makes it seem almost like a foregone conclusion.

"The fan reaction we've had in London has been extraordinary. We would like to feed that passion," he insisted this week. "We have a great fan base in the UK. There have been discussions of taking the second game and playing it in another market in the UK. That's something that we'll evaluate."

Really? TWO games a season in the UK? And then they HAVE to give London a Super Bowl, don't they?

First of all, this would be seriously bad news to Germany, Canada and Mexico, all of whom have been led to believe they are next in line once the NFL does decide to take a second regular season home game away from its normal venue.

Secondly, where else in the UK can hold 80,000 fans and the kind of infrastructure to deal with two football teams that demand the highest level of practice and support facilities? Manchester and Cardiff spring to mind (both could take 70,000 for gridiron) in stadium terms, but how would the Welsh city provide the kind of training back-up for two 53-player teams?

Hair dryer

And can you imagine Alex Ferguson allowing the pads-and-helmet brigade to trundle up and down his sacred turf? In the middle of the season? You just can't see it, can you (actually, you'd love to be in the room when the idea was even raised within Fergie's earshot. Hair-dryer? More like a bloomin' flame-thrower!).

Perhaps mindful of this limitation, the Commish went on to suggest a second game could also be played in London, making it a more solid outpost of the league's globalisation bid. Why not, when the capital already does a good job with one fixture? Logical move, you would think (and another significant stepping stone towards Wembley having its own full-time franchise, perhaps?).

Except that, despite the headline success of the two games in London so far (2007 and 208), there is a groundswell of opposition that doesn't get much attention - at the moment. Dig through the quotes, back-stories and 'unofficial' comments of the teams last year, and you quickly find a measure of displeasure with the whole idea, players and coaches slamming the travel arrangements, the Wembley turf and the whole idea of losing a precious home game.

With one game a year, it is easy to keep the negatives to a minimum and gloss over the murmurs of discontent. Give them two games to grouse about it, and you will definitely hear the chorus of disapproval at a whole new level.

The other factor to bear in mind is that the Commish is NOT the final arbiter of these things. He can propose all the ideas and schemes that he wants but they all, ultimately, have to go to a vote of the owners, and it is that fairly conservative bunch who will decide if these initiatives have any legs at all.

Then of course, there is the suggestion (not, in this instance, from Goodell himself) that London could even stage the Super Bowl, perhaps as early as 2014, but certainly by 2020.

Astonishing

The genuinely astonishing thing is how many pundits over here have pronounced it a "bloody good idea" (a direct quote from the San Diego Union Tribune).

No it isn't. It's a bloody STUPID idea. London, in early February? When it's barely 6°C? When a single snowflake can bring the whole rail system to a halt and freeze sports field for hundreds of miles? Where there are no major indoor training venues? And where it would cost fans an arm and several other limbs for a hotel for a few nights (always assuming the football followers of, say, Pittsburgh and Chicago could afford the flight over)?

And, in the absence of the 70,000 or so that Wembley would need to provide the necessary partisan atmosphere (as opposed to 70,000 fans just keen to enjoy a real NFL game), how will it play when thousands turn up in Miami Dolphins jerseys?

Add in the fact that a Super Bowl is actually as much about the week-long hype and hoopla prior as the game itself, then try to imagine a congested, February-time London staging the kind of smoothly-organised fan-friendly activities that attract thousands of fans irrespective of whether they have a ticket or not. It isn't a pleasant picture to run through your mind's eye.

That's not to say London isn't worthy of its annual NFL 'prize' or that it doesn't do a great job of that one-off event. But the teams are there for only a few days; there is no week-long media frenzy; and the participants can grudgingly see the benefit of taking one game a year abroad. Take the game's Crown Jewel out of America and it's a whole new ball game, quite literally.

But then none of these US sources currently insisting it is somehow in the NFL's best interests have ever been to London in the winter, when public transport can be reduced to Stone Age efficiency, the average shower lasts 6 days and the sun doesn't shine for a month. Let them spend a week in Wembley in February and we might hear a VERY different tune from these ill-guided sports-writing minstrels!

back to top