NFL Possibly building Europe Division? (Expansion Update 2023)

[@christopherhoffman2515]

Not happening. Would be a logistical nightmare. A handful of hand-picked games are one thing, having a whole series of European-based teams is a whole other ball of wax.

[@kyletaylor4489]

What if the nfl opened up a European league and had all those teams in Europe compete and then merge the nfl in the us playoff with the winners of the European leagues?

[@charleswebsterjr.6350]

​@@kyletaylor4489 or just have a minor league, except has European owners. NFL Europe 2.0 .

[@jagoffski9984]

Christopher Hoffman is the smartest guy in the universe

[@pdfarrelly]

I think London and Munich are certainties if there is international expansion. Would love to think Dublin could host a team, and is a great weekend break city for people from all over Europe.

[@melo1890]

dublin do show up when college teams come over but i would have doubt about their being enough sustained interest to finance a full franchise long term, we certainly have the infrastructure and stadiums for it tho i’d say

[@midnightman5139]

I think a franchise in Mexico is the logical step. The fan base is stronger than those in Europe and it’s next door so teams don’t have to worry about long flight hours and contend to jet lag. I think Europe is still years or maybe a decade away from having a franchise, you’d have to compete not only soccer but rugby which many English say is superior to football. Right now Europe sees football the way we Americans saw soccer in the 70s: a curiosity.

[@kamelkadri2843]

Only 1 team would work in London, Germany can host 2 (maybe even 3 teams). Other locations: Austria or Amesterdam

[@donkeysaurusrex7881]

London has 20 million people. That’s roughly the size of NYC or LA, and both could support three or four NFL teams if they were available. There are other large cities in the UK that are comparable to smaller markets in the States.

[@RickyMatthews-b7h]

First off, If You’re going to expand do it right, bring back the Teams of the NFLE, England Monarchs, Amsterdam Admirals, , Berlin Thunder, Cologne Centurions, Frankfurt Galaxy, Hamburg Sea Devils, Rhein Fire, Scottish Claymores, 8 Teams in the European Division, and then place 4 Teams in America,to top it off at 44 Teams. And the four Teams I’d suggest would be: Birmingham Stallions, Lincoln (Nebraska) Thunderbolts,New Mexico Golden Aztecs, Portland Thunder. Now, the major reason why I’d do this is very simple, I wouldn’t go back to San Diego, not for not wanting to, but who knows The Chances of the Chargers returning are quite high, and California has enough Teams. The four sites that I’d recommend are without a Team, but have outstanding stadiums and major support for Their Teams. And the revenue from this would just skyrocket in sales. And people say what about Canada, not happening, because of the CFL, wouldn’t allow it, it’s Their turf up North. People say They can’t do that, after the Birmingham Stallions won the Grey Cup, it left a really bad taste in the CFL. Does Anyone remember the Akron Pros, Columbus Panhandles, Duluth Eskimos, just to name a few of the forgotten Teams. Build up with strong Teams and Players who can play, and now you’ve got the NFLGlobal, and Fans will come to see Their Teams!

[@terranatura4443]

EFC “European Football Conference”

[@MWH12085]

There already was an NFL European League....its not around anymore.

[@orangehoof]

"Munchen" aka Munich I think the NFL should move the Jaguars to London but use Jacksonville as a base for training camp, exhibition games and one or two regular season games, including the final week of the season. Creative use of Thursday nights and bye weeks will make up for jet lag. First, swap the Jaguars and Dolphins so Jax is in the AFC East and Miami joins the AFC South. This allows for direct flights to Buffalo (thru Toronto), New England (thru Boston) and New York (thru JFK) reducing flight times. Any home playoff games would have to be in Jacksonville because opponent would not be adjusted to play in London.

[@Broncos_Country5]

They’re actually thinking of expanding up north too hard good old neighbors, Canada some people are even talking about that expansion could be a combination with the NFL and the CFL (Canadian football league)

[@ronallen5920]

St ;ouis iif Sr Louis dont grt a team rhey sued NFL AGABN CFL DONT WANT NFL tORONTO TEAM

[@danzigvssartre]

Sounds like a dumb idea. Europe does not produce its own players. Not sure the crowd numbers would maintain once the novelty wears off. How many US players would want to move to Europe?

[@ScottHammonds-k1u]

Yes they would have to make it at least 4 European teams for it to work

[@Grimy-ks3um]

I think have two conferences in NA and two in EU makes sense

[@NW255]

jaguar was an English car manufacturer so having the jags move there I think makes a lot of sense and it would be very symbolic for londoners

[@haseebashrafahmedraja1680]

I think he also owns Fulham

[@terranatura4443]

MFC “ Mexican Football Conference”

[@aidenrokez8629]

I want an NFL team in Deutschland 🇩🇪

[@mikeybarboza3086]

There's about 15 caliber starting QBs in a league of 32 teams and your talking about adding 4 more in Europe??? Nevermind the thinning of talent at all the other positions. All that would do is lower the quality of the product. Just think of adding 4 teams where is this talent coming from? They'd basically be the equivalent of USFL/XFL teams who would get destroyed playing the vast majority of current NFL teams. Again all this is going to do is water down the talent pool and diminish the product on the field as a whole.

[@kamelkadri2843]

Hope u didnt count dak one of them

[@Brandon-qd2lb]

Hell no lmao. Just bring back the europe league... train wreck waiting to happen. Give us premier league game then. They already have the CFL that makes no sense.

[@mikewolosz9456]

The travel alone would be killer. But your going to need ownes with deep pockets because your going to have to pay the players american dollars. Plus I am sure the players union would have a say. Plus how is the attendance going to be over a whole season. They are just going off a few games a year. Your going to have to compete with soccer for fans and tickets. They would need to do a deep dive study as how profitable it would be. Plus your not going to have a ton of fans traveling over there weekly for games because of the cost, time difference, and all that. I see them first expanding here in North America and into Canada.

[@1000rogueleader]

San Antonio is the far more likely candidate for an expansion team than Salt Lake City. I think, though, if they push for a full division in Europe, they would have to add four teams in North America, in order to make the math work and not change around the division system too much. This would give the U.S. an equal 40 team number, which is what has been bandied about when it comes to the number of teams the NFL is looking to add. In that situation, I think San Antonio and Toronto are locks to get teams. Salt Lake City is a candidate, but they've got stiff competition from other urban areas, particularly those who lost teams (San Diego, St. Louis). There is also Oklahoma City to consider.

[@lakerskid2013]

San Diego, St. Louis, San Antonio, and Portland I believe would be the 4 teams that expand. Portland a bit more iffy but if not then, then I could see Birmingham or Salt Lake City in its place. If anything, maybe the NFL should just bring back NFL Europe to resolve the European issue, could be the best of all worlds there.

[@MacMyKitty]

Portland, Orlando, Birmingham, San Diego, San Antonio, the sky is the limit.

[@donkeysaurusrex7881]

More likely to put a team in Austin to draw people from Austin, San Antonio, and Waco, or put one somewhere between San Antonio and Austin. Call it the Texas Rangers (or whatever) so all cities can claim ownership

[@MarloSoBalJr]

The purity of the game would take a hit IMHO. Keeping it minimal is the best. I don't think London (Tottenham Spurs) and Munich would mind just having NFL teams visit over residing permanently If we do go the route of expansion, four teams (two per conference) in Europe. UK; Germany and Ireland are your go-to spots

[@kevinmoynihan5118]

At this point if it’s a division I think the travel is very do-able. The bigger issue would be competitive balance. It would be very hard to attract players over there so far from home, and on top of that the taxes would be higher do to the double taxation (although there is the ability to deduct foreign taxes or take a tax credit on US taxes). There would also be the issue of the playoffs. It would likely hurt those tens if the European Division was excluded from automatically receiving a playoff spot, but if they do get one you’d have 4 expansion teams in the division, even with the shot to beat up on each other a 10 loss division winner would be likely early on. Then on top of that, you’d either have to expand to 40 teams, or have the European Division as a floating division which doesn’t belong to either conference.

[@donkeysaurusrex7881]

You can only be in the US for 30 days out of a 365 day tax year to take advantage of splitting your income for tax purposes between the two countries, and the amount you can split off is relatively small even for a league minimum salary. Very unlikely most if any U.S. players would do that.

[@NoName-rq6bg]

The NFL is an American League, not a world league. They should never have a Team whose not located in the USA

[@bruh4573]

L

[@zomgoat5333]

I think Canada and Mexico are fine but besides that I agree

[@mikewolosz9456]

Thing here in North America you can drive at times but you can't drive to games over there so your going to depend on fans over there to support the games. Plus fans here are not going to happy getting up early to watch an away game. Good idea but you really would need a whole league over there outside of the nfl.

[@kamelkadri2843]

Theres already a pro league ther just expanded to 17 teams

[@AJArreguin]

Lol salt lake. It San Antonio. Not the 7th largest city in the states, and Texas with 2 teams compared to NY, California and Florida lol. Wow. Silly.

[@sampicano]

Dublin is honestly one of the worst options I've ever heard. Alabama has as many people as the entire country if Ireland. Who likes football more? Ireland 🇮🇪 or Alabama? Imagine proposing a team in Ireland instead of Alabama. Sometimes I really hate the internet.

[@jibbjabb43]

You can do 3 teams in Europe. Would still need 4 additional teams, but you could make that package work.

[@dreamcage1801]

San Diego needs an NFL team again unless they get the Chargers back.

[@patton303]

Didn’t they sort of try this already with NFL Europe? Plus the jet lag would straight up wreck these guys. Let’s just keep the fun novelty of a few games and leave well enough alone.

[@donkeysaurusrex7881]

NFL Europe was purely a developmental league that had no overlap with the NFL proper in terms of competition.

[@Broncos_Country5]

I want it in the NFL team in Portland and Anchorage

[@txmagyar32]

The population of the greater Austin area is 2.4 million. San antonio 2.6 million. The other NFL owners need to tell Jerry and the McNairs to suck it up, and put a team in either. probably Austin. If the NFL goes to Austin, it's the only Pro team in an area of 2.4 million. A third team in Texas makes way way more sense than anything else, only barrier is Jerry and the McNairs And no offense to Toronto, but the NFL in Texas is a bigger draw than the NFL in Toronto or SLC. My top expansion targets: 1. Austin/San Antonio 2. Toronto 3. SLC 4.. San Diego (If some hyper billionaire owner will finance a new stadium with no taxpayer money, then yes)

[@1000rogueleader]

San Antonio is a much more logical choice. Its the bigger city, further away from Dallas, and it already has a stadium capable of handling an NFL team.

[@dreamcage1801]

Try Portland for #5

[@TheBuckeyeHistoryGuy1776]

Bring on the London Rippers

[@Broncos_Country5]

I want to see a world league

[@Jefff72]

How about Europe being it's own league like how European football (or soccer) is? Europe could be a league semi separate from ours like how there is the Bundesliga, Premier League, la Liga and so on. IDK if they compete for the Super Bowl or there is a Super Super Bowl (jk).

[@tomster95]

Already done that, failed miserably, loss 30 million a year in the 90's

[@Jefff72]

@@tomster95 that's true but it might be different today. I've lived in Germany for over 19 years. I have seen a huge growth of NFL fans here. I think, streaming has helped a lot. Now, it's easy so sign up to a plan and watch games. The only issue is time difference. I can easily watch the Noon games (CST) but later games can come on in the middle of the night. But there easily highlights on KZbin. It has made it easy for me to also follow the CFL as well.

[@scotttild]

You could make it work with a team in UK and Germany, not sure others could support a team. They would need to add another bye week just to make the travel work.

[@erickurtz2750]

Yeah but then you’d have more it would ruin the whole thing and experience from the US specially you got fans in Jacksonville and that was before you got Trevor Lawrence but do I think a team like the aged mood to The team like Oakland moved to Las Vegas they would have to have a dome how hot it is but I could see a basketball team being in Kansas City

[@johnbrennan4449]

NFL should expand to 50 teams, including a 5-team European division + 6 Canadian franchises. Unites States expansion sites: 1. San Diego 2. Saint Louis 3. Sacramento 4. Portland 5. Salt Lake City 6. Austin 7. Tulsa Canadian expansion sites: 1. Toronto 2. Montreal 3. Vancouver 4. Ottawa 5. Calgary 6. Edmonton then realign into 10 divisions x 5 teams, yet eliminate conferences, thus no more AFC or NFC. European: Amsterdam/Berlin/Frankfurt/London/Manchester Atlantic: Baltimore/New England/New York Giants/Jets/Washington Northeast: Buffalo/Detroit/Montreal/Ottawa/Toronto Southeast: Atlanta/Carolina/Jacksonville/Miami/Tampa Bay Southwest: Arizona/Austin/Dallas/Houston/New Orleans Pacific: Los Angeles Chargers/Rams/Sacramento/San Diego/San Francisco Northwest: Calgary/Edmonton/Portland/Seattle/Vancouver Mountain: Denver/Kansas City/Las Vegas/Oklahoma/Utah Central: Chicago/Green Bay/Minnesota/Saint Louis/Tennessee Metro: Cincinnati/Cleveland/Indianapolis/Philadelphia/Pittsburgh each team would play 8 games (home + road) per season vs. the 4 other teams within their own division, + 9 games vs. 1 team per season from each of the other 9 divisions. all regular season games between North American teams & European teams would be played in Europe. each European team would make 1 trip to North America every 5 years during the preseason to play 3 games. 16-team playoff field would include 10 division winners + 6 wild cards.

[@kamelkadri2843]

And then we get power 5 and group 5 confrences and before you know it two launches ahead leaving everyone in the dust

[@Brandon-qd2lb]

Hahahahah yeah the talent isn't there to support 50 teams

[@johnbrennan4449]

@@Brandon-qd2lb oh really, then how do you explain 130 college football FBS programs?

[@jibbjabb43]

​@John Brennan I think there's more NFLish talent than given credit for, but they manage to have 130 FBS teams by having teams that will virtually never beat mid tier teams that will virtually never beat top tier teams.

[@MacMyKitty]

I rather keep every single team in the USA. Add new 8 teams. In cities that need a team. Move the Chargers to SD.

[@Bingusandtheallstars]

Gotta Bring football back to stl and San Diego

[@thataboytrevor8486]

Canadian like outside stadium not indoor stadium 75% like buffalo

[@martincruz8319]

I'm assuming you're meaning Munich (München).

[@NoName-rq6bg]

It would fail so hard, after the hype cools down they wouldn't even sell half of the stadium. Most of these Stadiums are also privately owned and would make it way too expensive thats it not worth it to plah there but i doubt that they wouldn't kick them out soon because of fan soccer protests. And 2 London teams is just suicide for these franchises because one of them would definelty never sell the stadium and you already have 6 Premiere league clubs whom they woukd rather watch because soccer is so dominant in europe that its like combining the popularity of football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey and soccer into one. Thats how dominant soccer is in europe and i dont see any of these europe based franchises fold after max 10 years or even sooner. The only way european based football franchises could succeed in europec is if they had their own league with atleast some NFL players in it to boost the attendance and make the winner play against the Superbowl winner or make a bracket like tournament with the 4 championship participants playing (they already have a league btw but the attendance is basically like highschool or minor league soccer)

[@uzomahchiagoroh3179]

I think just having an European League with 12 teams then have championship like a Super Bowl

[@scotttild]

They tried 12 teams with NFL Europe it didn’t work. I doubt a full division is going to work. I can see a team in Germany and UK but that’s it.

[@jagoffski9984]

I’m done!!! I can’t read anymore of all you brainiacs!!! ANCHORAGE!!!???

[@terranatura4443]

CFC “Canadian Football Conference”

[@danielalvaradoa.7691]

Instead of Mexico City, it could be Monterrey. The 2nd or 3rd biggest city of Mexico, which is the richest city in Latin America and is so close to the US border. One more thing there is a plan to build a New Soccer / Multipurpose stadium in Monterrey with 65,000 seats capacity and will be ready in 2026. It is already oficial...

[@ZeusimusLukey99]

To be honest, I would love for the NFL to move to Europe as part of an extension. First though, NA expansion. I feel as though it's not necessary unless a new stadium is backed by the taxpayer or there is a stadium already set. In terms of EU expansion though, here's a rough idea for a proposed division. - 1 team in the UK (London @ Wembley Stadium) - 1 team in Ireland (Dublin @ Croke Park) - 1 team in France (Paris @ Stade de France) - 1 team in Turkey (Istanbul @ Atatürk Olympic Stadium) If EU gets an entire conference, here's some more ideas. - 1 team in Russia (Moscow @ Luzhniki Stadium) < once the war ends. - 1 team in Greece (Athens @ Central Olympic Stadium) - 1 team in Hungary (Budapest @ Puskás Aréna) - 1 team in Poland (Warsaw @ PGE Narodowy) - 1 team in Spain (Seville @ Estadio de La Cartuja) - 1 team in Romania (Bucharest @ Arena Națională) - 1 team in Belgium (Brussels @ King Baudouin Stadium) - 1 team in Switzerland (Vienna @ Ernst Happel Stadion) - 1 team in Bulgaria (Sofia @ Vasil Levski National Stadium) - 1 team in Sweden (Gothenburg @ Ullevi) - 1 team in Portugal (Oeiras @ Estádio Nacional) - 1 team in Finland (Helsinki @ Helsinki Olympic Stadium) These stadiums have been chosen specifically to avoid conflictions with regular-season football (or soccer as you call it) and rugby. For the expansion to work, I feel as though the NFL should do more when it comes to University-level American Football. There is a league for it (BUCS American Football League) but it doesn't get much attention. University of Nottingham's team does work with the Philadelphia Eagles but no team is recognised by the NFL itself. So if an EU expansion was to happen, it would be nice if the NFL would put money into developing up the BUCS American Football League and implementing a UK Combine of some type, though not strictly for those who have done University-level American Football.

[@talldude5841]

Great show. Will this happen? Not for awhile. Would love to see it some day. London loves American football tho.

[@kylerose3174]

As mayor of the Munchkin city I welcome the NFL most regally.

[@Mr.Ed_Wayner]

IMO if the NFL expand it should be a European pod. First relocate Jacksonville to London, the Jags owner almost bought Wembley stadium. Then expand by adding another team in London and two teams in Germany (Frankfurt & Munich) Then add a team in Toronto. Toronto could be in the AFC East and move the Dolphins to the AFC South. Expansion by 4 teams would make sense once the NFL expands it schedule to 18 games and extending the calendar and ending the Sunday before Presidents Day. Then they could divide the season into 2 - 9 game seasons where the winners of each session would make the playoffs. There would be 3 byes during the season.

[@scotttild]

NFL can’t expand to Canada. NFL agreed with the CFL not to expand There has been an understanding that NFL would not compete with the CFL directly in Canada

[@johnsprague5889]

I think Munich, paris, London, and Barcelona are locks. For now, that's enough. I could see San Antonio getting one eventually with toronto and a Mexican city closer to the border. That's would leave 1 more team to get to 40 where they will stop

[@jonathanlocy3374]

DG > Super Bowl

[@JesusisLord756]

The usfl and xfl should combine to create a 16 team spring league in Europe