USA Today: Jerry Jones lukewarm on playing NFL games overseas
Global warming:
As much as Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has been a front-runner in creating revenue, he's solidly in the lukewarm camp when it comes to playing regular-season games overseas.
The New York Giants and Miami Dolphins will play at 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium on Oct. 28. The first 40,000 tickets sold out last month in 90 minutes.
"We can't make a regular-season game between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati or the Cowboys and Washington the same overseas, because you don't have a home crowd," Jones says. "Ali-Frazier, that would have the same appeal if they were fighting abroad as it would if they were fighting in Philadelphia or Louisville. Our game has to have the aura of one of the team's home crowds, or you're taking something away from our game."
Expanding the league's reach internationally seems to be high on Commissioner Roger Goodell's agenda. The NFL has played preseason games overseas since 1986, and it had a regular-season game in Mexico City in 2005.
Jones, like other owners leery about giving up a home game, would rather focus on exporting the game on TV. He doesn't see NFL Europa as a harbinger.
Says Jones, "Based on 20 years in Europe, we've got some work to do in our thinking."
As much as Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has been a front-runner in creating revenue, he's solidly in the lukewarm camp when it comes to playing regular-season games overseas.
The New York Giants and Miami Dolphins will play at 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium on Oct. 28. The first 40,000 tickets sold out last month in 90 minutes.
"We can't make a regular-season game between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati or the Cowboys and Washington the same overseas, because you don't have a home crowd," Jones says. "Ali-Frazier, that would have the same appeal if they were fighting abroad as it would if they were fighting in Philadelphia or Louisville. Our game has to have the aura of one of the team's home crowds, or you're taking something away from our game."
Expanding the league's reach internationally seems to be high on Commissioner Roger Goodell's agenda. The NFL has played preseason games overseas since 1986, and it had a regular-season game in Mexico City in 2005.
Jones, like other owners leery about giving up a home game, would rather focus on exporting the game on TV. He doesn't see NFL Europa as a harbinger.
Says Jones, "Based on 20 years in Europe, we've got some work to do in our thinking."
posted by The Gryphon at 6:25 PM
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