NFL delegation arrive in Dublin tomorrow

...with a view to bringing a regular season game to Dublins famous Gaelic games stadium Croke Parke in the next 18 months.

Previously in '97 the Steelers beat the bears 30-17 at Croke park and it would be most likely the Steelers to return to the famous Dublin ground because the son of the steelers founder is American ambassador to Ireland.

Other possible venues are Munich, Frankfurt, Edinburgh and London.

Forget about them though,

COME TO DUBLIN!!!

london will be there anyway, there will be 2 international series games

I'm more likely to travel to Dublin to watch a game than Wembley (and I live less than 30 miles from Wembley), but I am a little pessamistic with these international series and wonder what the long term plan is, there is also a danger of increased US fan resentment if more and more of their games are being taken away from the States and I'm not sure I can defend any increase...

IMHO I think 2 a season is ideal...1 at Wemberlee and 1 rotating between Croke Park, Hamden, Millenium and somewhere in Germany.

Personally, i don't support the idea of a non-US team in the NFL, especially not in Europe. I guess one in Toronto would work, but don't they already get a Bills game?

Got to agree with you Grizzly, popping over to Dubbers for a weekend to catch a NFL game sounds very tempting.

Croke Park is a 80,000 seater stadium and based on the success of past college and pro football games held here I believe it would be a sell out and an amazing occasion especially given that it would be a regular season game.

Bring it on I say.

According to the Hoganstand GAA website this is just a temporary thing as Wembley might be unavailable next season due to the olympics. I'd love to see a game at Croke Park, (Croker is due to get Notre Dame V Navy at some point too) Ireland can show off its national stadium to the world promoting tourism and providing a much needed economic boost.

There are pro's and cons for the NFL there though, the best part is its a large stadium and near to Wembley so not too far for supporters. The major con is the same problem faced by soccer and rugby there, a smaller NFL Gridiron overlayed on the bigger Gaelic Football field will mean fans will be further away from the action.

I'd agree that NFL games should rotate between different locations in Europe but I wouldn't like to see more than one game outside the US per season. As Grizz said US fans could be increasingly PO'd with it. On the long-term plan hopefully it isn't a non-US franchise, due to logistical reasons a UK team would basically be a US franchise that is based on a British city due to the amount of time they'd need to spend in the US. A Canadian franchise wouldn't work either because Canada already has its own league (the CFL) plus the NHL is bigger there. IMO the long-term plan should be to increase support in Europe to a level where a decent amount of Europeans are playing in the NFL and a strengthened local scene allowing European countries to produce NFL standard players.

I agree that croke park would be best. Hampden has the most noisy and passionate fans for football but not sure about how big the interest in an NFL game would be, i think it would be a sell out as would murrayfield though but you Can't complain with an 80k stadium, especially if it can be filled.

TM Moot wrote:IMHO I think 2 a season is ideal...1 at Wemberlee and 1 rotating between Croke Park, Hamden, Millenium and somewhere in Germany.

Personally, i don't support the idea of a non-US team in the NFL, especially not in Europe. I guess one in Toronto would work, but don't they already get a Bills game?

my stance exactly.

Me too... Categorically do not want a UK franchise at this point in time, not in a very very long time.

Need the Wembley game, but perhaps think if they are going to do two then do it elsewhere (though they wont).