The annual recent NFL game in London, England, which was between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Chicago Bears, was a bad news-good news scenario. The bad news came when the British Government said it wasn’t interested in holding one or two games each year at Wembley Stadium. However, the good news was that it said they wanted their own full-time NFL franchise.

A Member of Parliament named Richard Fuller from Bedford said there’s a lot of support for the American version of football in the Westminster and London area and he has put together a group of people who would like to develop the sport in Britain at both the professional and amateur levels. He said his people will be working hand in hand with the NFL, the British American Football Association, and other groups to try and help promote the sport in Britain.

He added that they want to get kids involved in football at the grassroots level and find ways for local athletes to develop their skills in the game. But, he admitted, the thing they want the most is an NFL team to be based in the UK. He also admitted that there’s an endless amount of work to do to make it happen and one of the major obstacles will be developing a fan base that’s big enough to support a team in London.

Of course, the NFL would also have to agree to it. But so far it seems there are several owners interested in placing a team in Britain, especially with the number of Americans who are starting to invest in English Premier League soccer clubs. John York, the owner of the San Francisco 49ers, who’s also the chairman of the NFL’s International Committee, said he thinks it’s quite an ambitious plan and he doesn’t have any clue when it would happen, but feels that sooner or later there will be a team in Britain.

At the moment, it looks like if an established team is moved to England that it could be Tampa Bay as they’ve played over there a couple of times now and seem to be building up a fan base. It would be a little strange to send Tampa there each year and then end up moving somebody else. This wouldn’t sit too well with Tampa’s home fans though and it’s all conjecture at this point. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he wants more teams to volunteer to play in London so the league can play at least two games a year in the English capital.

It does make a bit of sense though, considering that the Glazer Family owns the Buccaneers as well as Manchester United and have seen firsthand how powerful a franchise can become if it has a huge global following. Goodell also said the NFL plans to concentrate on England only in the near future rather than other European nations.

It looks like London will be the testing ground and if the league isn’t successful there then there’s no point in trying things out on the continent. There were 76, 981 fans at Wembley for the Bears 28-14 win over Tampa Bay on Oct. 13.

NFL boss Roger Goodell had some fans scratching their heads after recently saying he wants the league to play an additional game in London, England each season. He’s pretty serious about it and NFL owners will discuss the possibility of an additional game at an upcoming meeting.

The problem with adding another game is that this year’s contest, which is to be played on Oct. 23 at Wembley Stadium between the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers hasn’t sold out. However, Goodell told the press that games in England have been very successful and that the fans have reacted positively to the overseas matches, both abroad and at home in the U.S.

He added that the game isn’t sold out because the tickets didn’t go on sale until the player lockout ended. But that lockout ended long ago and British-based fans have had several weeks to snap up tickets and they haven’t exactly been lining up to buy them. Goodell said the league wants to build on the positive response from British fans though.

The NFL played its first regular season game outside of the U.S. back in 2005 when it held a game in Mexico City and attracted over 103,000 fans. Goodell said it was a success and that’s why they decided London would be a good base for a game starting in 2007. London hosted its first regular season contest that year when the Miami Dolphins came out on the wrong end of a 13-10 decision against the New York Giants.

The league has held one game a year at Wembley in London since and the crowds have usually been pretty good, with about 80,000 showing up at the 90,000-seat stadium. But many NFL fans don’t like the idea of playing games overseas because it means the fans of one club are losing a home game.

In the case of Tampa Bay this season, the team is struggling a little bit at the gate and the present condition of the economy certainly isn’t helping, especially since most of the team’s home games were blacked out over the past couple of years.

It’s hard to get Tampa fans excited though when the league is taking away an attractive home matchup and moving it to London. The Buccaneers vs Bears clash has been a pretty popular one for quite some time now with a lot of Bears fans heading down to sunny Florida to take it in.

In addition, it’s believed the NFL isn’t attracting new fans by playing a game in London since most of those in attendance are already fans since they hail from North America. Most Britons have a mild curiosity about the sport, but that’s about all.

It’s well known that Goodell is a big fan of playing games in Europe and has even said he’d like to see a Super Bowl played there. But if the league can’t sell out one game at Wembley, is there really a point of adding a second one? It doesn’t look like British fans are demanding more games it looks like Goodell is trying to sell them on the idea.

The greed, arrogance, and selfishness have been put aside for hopefully another 10 years as the NFL lockout is now over. After weeks of mistrust and court cases the millionaire players and billionaire owners have agreed to come to terms on a new 10-year collective bargaining agreement. NFL head Roger Goodell and Players Association boss DeMaurice Smith announced the news on July 25, while several players and owners kissed and made up in front of the news cameras.

If anybody came out ahead in the new deal it could be the owners. They’ll receive 53 per cent of revenues with the new CBA as opposed to the approximate 50 per cent they were making. In addition, the contracts of first-round draft picks will also be reduced. The owners also got the players to drop all antitrust suits against the league.

The players succeeded in having a few practice rules changed in an attempt to make things safer for them. But one of the major issues is still status quo for now. The owners wanted to expand the season to 18 games from the currents 16, but the players balked. However, the two sides agreed to discuss it again in 2013.

Neither side got everything they were looking for, but the deal does look to be pretty balanced and fair. The next step is getting the business side of the NFL up and running. This means things could get pretty hectic and chaotic as club facilities will reopen and there’s the matter of free agency to deal with and rookies to be signed. Some teams might even start training camps as early as July 27.

However, the Hall of Fame exhibition game between the Rams and Bears that was set for Canton, Ohio on Aug. 7 has been called off. But other than that, it’s business as usual and none of the pre-season and regular season games will be affected.

The basics of the new CBA were agreed to on July 21, but there were still a few issues that needed to be resolved before the end of the lockout became official. These were discussed over the weekend and everything fell into place early in the morning on the 25^th. The new deal will run until the year 2020 and there’s no opt out clauses, meaning it can’t be terminated before the expiry date.

It’ll be a good idea to keep your eye on the sports pages over the next week or two as there’s bound to be a flurry of activity involving free agent signings and trades over that period.

There is still one other matter to take care of though, and that is for the players to re-establish their union. It was dissolved on March 11 and turned into a trade association. Also, the players have to officially vote on the new CBA, but that’s believed to be just a formality now. However, this can’t take place until the NFLPA re-establishes the union.

After that has taken place the poor players and owners will gladly start taking the fans’ money off their hands for them. It’ll be business as usual.

The NFL owners and players’ union are gradually inching their way towards a new collective bargaining agreement after wrapping up more meetings on June 24. Both NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith, the executive director of the NFL Players Association, were on hand when the two sides got together in Hull, Massachusetts, and both of them said they’re committed to getting a deal done before the season’s scheduled to start.

NFL sources said the league’s rookie pay system was discussed for the first time and it was also the first time Smith and Goodell got together and delivered a public statement since the players were locked out about three months ago.

However, Goodell said the league is under a court order so he can only discuss certain matters with the press. But he did manage to say that everybody is working hard on coming to a solution, but things are still complex and complicated and he can understand if fans are frustrated at the lack of progress.

Smith told the press that both sides are optimistic since they’ve been talking about the most important issues. He also said things are complicated and it’s still going to take a lot of hard work by everybody to get a new agreement in place.

Several of the league’s owners were present at the meeting along with their legal representatives as well as numerous players, but most of them declined to make any comment other than saying that things were progressing.

However, Mark Clayton, a wide receiver with the St. Louis Rams, said that things were looking pretty good at the moment, but the players are set on what they’re after and are determined to get it. He added that many of the things the players have been asking for have been agreed upon except for the financial ones.

The league and players have now met four times since the end of May. They got together in Chicago from May 31 to June 2, in Long Island, N.Y., on June 7-8, in Maryland on June 14-15 and the get together in Massachusetts on June 24.

It’s expected that the two sides will continue to meet on a regular basis until a new collective bargaining agreement can be banged out. Compared to the ongoing NBA negotiations with its players, the NFL and the football players’ union seem to be making quite a bit more progress.