I Killed NFL Europe

Ladies and Gentlemen, the dream is dead:

FRANKFURT, Germany — The NFL folded its development league in Europe after 16 years on Friday, calling the decision a sound business move that will allow for a stronger international focus on regular-season games outside the United States.

The announcement came less than a week after the Hamburg Sea Devils beat the Frankfurt Galaxy 37-28 in the World Bowl title game in Frankfurt before a crowd of 48,125. Five of the league’s six teams are based in Germany, with the other in Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Full Story)

Let me just say that anyone doing a Google search on NFL Europa is probably going to be spending a lot of time reading Bloginger. And let me also say categorically that Bloginger did its part to keep the league afloat.

But it was not meant to be. After 15 magical seasons, the NFL Powers That Be have decided that there really wasn’t a market in Europe for American Football.

My reaction? What took them so long?

Honestly, with as much instability as there has been in the league, who didn’t see this coming. At one point, the league had franchises across Europe: Scotland, Barcelona, London, to name a few. Now, five of the league’s six — that’s right, six — teams are all in Germany. The odd man out, the Amsterdam Admirals, play in a decrepit sand pit of a stadium in front of crowds that would embarass the Florida Marlins.

While it seems that the league managed to gain a foothold in Germany, there just wasn’t enough incentive to keep the thing afloat.

I asked NFL Europe Managing Director Uwe Bergheim about the lack of geographic diversity in the league when I was at the World Bowl last weekend. Here is normally where I would give you a snazzy quote from the man, but unfortunately, my tape recorder is a piece of crap and it sounds like I recorded him speaking from the bottom of the ocean, so allow me to paraphrase:

NFL Europa is so focused on Germany because that is where all the major sponsors, like Skoda, are based. Skoda’s league-wide sponsorship is contingent on the strength of the German market; having teams outside Germany actually weakens Skoda, and as we all know, what’s bad for the league’s sponsors is bad for the league (see: National Hockey League, the). The aim of NFL Europa presently (a week before the league disbanded) is to build the strength of the league in the German markets and then reintroduce it to Europa en masse. Or something like that.

In hindsight, I’m sure Bergheim knew this was coming as he sat before a rather ambivalent press conference last Saturday in Frankfurt. With the NFL getting ready to play what promises to be the first of many regular season games in continental Europe when the Giants and Dolphins play at Wembley in October, there just isn’t room in the market for the lesser product.

The question now is what happens to the Casey Bramlets of the world who used the developmental league as a means of (potentially) making it to the pros? It seems the league serves a developmental niche. Why not move the function back to the States and have the teams play during the off-season, if for no other reason than to give fans something to watch between Feburary and August besides TV coverage of the scouting combines and Mel Kiper Jr.’s hair.

The infrastructure (stadiums, NFL Network) is there, as well as the fan support (look at how many football-hungry fans show up at the draft in New York; now give them real games and watch the frenzy begin).

Place the teams in markets that don’t have NFL franchises — hello, Las Vegas! — and watch the money roll in.