Quote:The NFL commissioner wants it bad.

 

The only thing that is keeping my hopes alive that it will NOT happen is Jerry Jones used the word expansion when discussing it.

 

Jerry is a good man that helped us get started. We still appreciate what he and the other owners did.

 

 

Quote:London or L.A. isn't going to happen.  Do you really think the other owners are just going to be like "Sure, Khan.  You can move into a ripe new market!  Take your pick of Los Angeles or London!  We'll be happy to let you take all the revenue.  We'll also be happy to travel to London once every so many years -- or in the case of the Colts, Titans, and Texans, every year!"

Khan's agreement with Goodell for games in London is a two part plan by a man who's made more money than probably all of us combined:


1. Build a name with international recognition.


2. Getting on Goodell's good side.  Which will reap the benefits in the future.  We might even see a couple of "Roughing the passers" called when Bridgewater gets hit, as opposed to seeing Chad Henne smacked around on the ground and getting no call.

 

 

I'm not going to get into the whole "will they move debate".. other than you have to read tea leafs here and usually where there's smoke there's fire.  Being a fan who's already lost a team I'd be weary of a new owner who's trying to move games played to another continent.. name another owner who's doing that on a yearly basis right now? The Bills have flirted with Canada. but that's about it.  Just be cautious and pay attention to it is all I'm going to say.  I do hope they don't move though, because I wouldn't want my team traveling across the country every year and sure as heck wouldn't want them taking a flight across the pond every year.

 

However y'all do realize that Roger Goodell works for the owners right?  He answers to the owners.  He's basically a lawyer that is hired by the owners to speak for the league and on behalf of their interests, (and to be the sole disciplinary power over all teams/players as individual owners can't be trusted to discipline their own teams/players.)  So when you hear Goodell say things like "our goal is to have a team back in the L.A. market" or hear him talk about growing the game globally and possibly having a NFL franchise play over seas... That's not just because "Goodell wants it", it's because that's what the league owners want and are interested in.  There's is almost nothing that Goodell does that is not agreed upon by the league owners or isn't in the owner's interest.. They are the ones that cut his check.  

 

Houston shouldn't even have a team right now, the only reason why they do is because the ownership in L.A. was so incompetent they couldn't put a good plan together before the league deadline to bid for a new expansion team expired..  McNair already had a model of Reliant stadium built, already had a agreement in place on how to pay for it all with the city, and all his other "I"s and "t"s crossed. The L.A. group didn't even have plans on a new stadium yet.  The league than extended the deadline to give the L.A. ownership group another chance and they still couldn't get their ducks in a row.  It's the only reason why Houston got the expansion bid over L.A., but the league bent over backwards to deliver it to L.A.

 

But now speaking on possible future expansion like a poster above brought up.. I don't see any new expansion teams being created any time soon and Goodell (again speaking on behalf of the owners) has already said there is no plans for future expansion teams, because of how perfect the division/conference alignment is now... it's one of the reasons why they added the expansion Texans, just to get to that even alignment of teams.  It gave them 8 even divisions (4 in each conference) with 4 teams in each division.  For scheduling purposes it works out perfectly when creating schedules involving games in and out of divisional play.  You would have to add a lot of expansion teams (which would water down the talent level of the league.. see NBA) just to get back to that type of even alignment again..  That's why it isn't going to happen any time soon.

 

Another reason why it isn't going to happen any time soon, is because as long as they don't over flood the market with expansion teams, the owners know they can strong hold cities into building new bright and shiny playgrounds that bring billions of dollars to the league.  The fact that there isn't a team in L.A. right now and the threat of the league moving one there is the reason why Minn. will end up getting a new stadium, it's also why a lot of these other owners have had no problem getting cities to vote on new taxes to supplement stadium upgrades to already existing stadiums. In a lot of cities the NFL owners have their city by the balls here.  If they added a bunch of expansion teams, they wouldn't, because there's only so many markets in this country and outside of this country that would be a viable threat to uproot a already existing team.

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