Iowa only has a handful of professional sports teams, and that has always made me sad. So we have our teams set. 41 in the U.S., just behind Las Vegas at No. So this one is a nod to the almost NFL expansion franchise that almost ended up in St. Louis. The city showed it would lease the city of the new stadium for $1 per year for 99 years, and that’s good enough for me. I know it may seem like two teams fighting for attention in the same city could cannibalize interest, but the league is fine with New York and L.A. teams sharing stadiums, and Montreal’s two wouldn’t even be in the same league. Plus, adding Tony Romo in the expansion draft would help the new team sell tickets to their opener/Tony Romo’s last NFL game. NHL 2050. SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC. potential host cities to a handful of viable options, laying the foundation for a front office and coaching staff. Later on, the NFL proposed expansion teams in Memphis then Charlotte (now the Carolina Panthers) name their team the Rhinos. It doesn’t have a huge population, and it already had two professional teams in the NFL’s Bills and NHL’s Sabres. There are some clear open spaces, where fans are forced to side up with distant franchises. Several cities could host an expansion franchise. I like Montreal and Charlotte for expansion to 32 teams. Bonjour, Montreal Rouges. Relocation is usually an unpleasant topic, but expansion sounds like harmless fun. An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. The Willamette River runs through Portland, and the Willamette Valley is most likely home to the last great pinot noir you drank. Sporting leagues also hope that the expansion of their competition will grow the popularity of the sport generally. Some hoped the team would rebrand to the Washington … Forget, for a moment, about whether or not the league should bring in a new team (or two). The official source for NFL news, video highlights, fantasy football, game-day coverage, schedules, stats, scores and more. A place that’s got the boomtown business potential the league was looking for when it expanded to Charlotte and Jacksonville in 1995. —Albert Breer. London (Photo by Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images) Putting a team in an international city that doesn’t much like American football has long been the dream of Roger Goodell, noted idiot. Teams have never moved from the city due to a lack of enthusiasm or popularity, on due to stadium issues. I know Lexington isn't an ideal city of the NFL, but keep in mind that I am adding 8 so they aren't all going to be the best. But in this bizarre sports world we inhabit, the billionaire who prints millions even if his team goes 0-16 for multiple seasons in a row wanted the taxpayers to fund the stadium. © 2021 ABG-SI LLC. Plus, added bonus, its far away from Kansas City that it wouldn’t cannibalize another team’s market share. By the way, the circumstances by which the Sonics left Seattle, and the bitterness Seattleites still have over the situation, could make for a potentially incredible football rivalry. in between. The last time the NFL held an expansion draft, for the Texans’ inception in 2002, very little talent made its way onto the board. The league has never played even an exhibition game in our 49th and largest state, but in many ways Alaska is an ideal spot for pro football. I know the McNairs and Joneses won’t like it, but the best unoccupied market in these United States is sitting right down the road from Houston and Dallas in Central Texas. Let's toss around some ideas. Eighteen overseas teams in 50 years is still only an average of two teams … 7. NFL in More Territory. With your heart and mind. The Lions will seek a trade for the star QB this offseason, per NFL Network. NFL expansion draft rules Unlike the NHL — which allows teams to protect players from being selected — NFL teams have had to do the opposite and choose a list of players to make available. It was the American Professional Football Association back then, and it included only 10 teams. We've also come up with a few locations/team names ideas for each of the league. On Monday, we delved into what it would take for the NBA to consider expanding the league from 30 teams to 32.There’s been no indication from the league itself that expansion … Doing so would be overly ambitious for them. The London NFL franchise is a hypothetical National Football League (NFL) American football team based in London, United Kingdom, formed as a new expansion team or by relocating one of the existing 32 NFL teams currently based in the United States. Page 1 of 2 1 2 Next > Reverend Conehead Well-Known Member. John Deere is still headquartered in Moline, and of course, we all know Iowa is mostly rural. Choice for next confirmed MLS team. But Who? It’s been fun to watch the success of the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, and how they’ve been embraced as Canada’s team. I love the Havana idea but I wonder whether it would ever be politically feasible. Today, continued arena issues and the proximity of the Washington Capitals make a Baltimore NHL team unlikely. The Jets' hiring of head coach Robert Saleh has quarterback Deshaun Watson intrigued. A modest expansion of just two teams allows for a greater likelihood for those clubs to be competitive as well. It marked the first time since the early 1930s that an NFL team had played two regular-season games in a road stadium in the same season.) —Kalyn Kahler, I’d like to welcome the Anchorage Orcas to the NFL. First, it’s a nod to the CFL, where a rouge is a one-point score that doesn’t exist in American football. The NBA prefers to be the only game in town for these types of … Cool ideas for hypothetical *new* NFL expansion team names / mascots. The NFL jumped into the flying-by-their-ass pool Monday by reportedly discussing expanding this year’s playoffs to 16 teams. The most profitable and popular sports league, the NFL, offers a template for MLB: 32 teams. 17: Madrid Mayhem 4 … It’s small by NFL standards, but still comes in handy. —Mark Mravic. I envision a riverside game-day experience notable for the quality of wine, beer and coffee served and the exceptional greenness of the venue. In this exercise, each team was permitted to select one of two protection options: 1) Six offensive players, six defensive players plus a kicker/punter for a total of 13 on the keeper list; 2) A keeper list of 10 players, without any positional restrictions. (Herein lies the reason why Portland does not have an NFL team.) To fill out our new team's roster, let's follow the rules from the 2002 draft. An additional piece of help for the current 32 teams: Any player taken in the past two drafts, and still on his original roster, was automatically protected. The rest, as they say, is history. With the addition of Seattle, the NHL ties the NFL for most teams with 32. The price of an expansion team is not set in stone. The Bills’ season would partially overlap with an NBA expansion team while the Sabres would run at the same time. Could a black-owned NFL team be coming to Oakland? SPORTS ILLUSTRATED is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC. Idea for NFL expansion to 40 Teams. We'd also like to have at least one team in Rochester (NY) in any sport (except NFL). Adding more teams seems to be a quick response, but that might just dilute the talent pool, along with spreading around fan dollars. Let’s just have a little fun thinking about where the new teams could go and what they’d be called. • Question or comment? The rest of the league’s teams had to expose just five players of their respective rosters, with minimal restrictions (no impending free agents, one player with 10-plus years experience, no kickers or punters, etc.) But, its viewership has been dipping lately, slumping a few percentage points each year. The Jaguars nickname was selected through a fan contest in 1991, two years before the city was officially awarded an NFL expansion team. The St. Louis Rams, Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers … Vote below or comment with another idea. Fans will wear wind turbines on their heads that can turn on small lights attached to their helmets. —Jenny Vrentas. The Matthew Stafford era in Detroit is reportedly over. Besides, I love having exactly 32 teams and I’d hate to see that change. The last expansion in all of professional sports in North America was the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, and in 2021, Seattle will play host to a professional hockey team … Leaders discuss ideas about African American-owned NFL expansion team in Oakland. It’s fair to think the number will keep rising, too, considering that Austin is the fastest growing major metro area (up 26 percent since 2010) in America. Kevin, yes the NFL has black out rules and I doubt any expansion NFl franchise would regularly sell out so not many locals would not get to see the team anyways. Remember, two teams were added in 1988, two in 1989, two in 1995, and one in 2004 to bring the league to 30 teams, which is a rate of 7 teams in 16 years. More than 3 million people live in Iowa, and plenty more in Western Illinois who would also root for the Tractors. Choice for next confirmed MLS team. With that has come a tech boom and economic explosion in the region, smack in the middle of the most football-crazy state in America. Let the NFL know that St. Louis deserves better treatment they what they received by giving the city a expansion team! If the franchise selected two players off the same roster, they had to come from different sides of the ball—one defense, one offense (or special teams); it could not, for example, select two Seattle wide receivers. There would still be four division winners, but an extra wild-card team would be added in both the NFC and AFC. The team could just be a nationwide team (Ireland Dragons), because even if there was a huge expansion there aren't any other cities large enough to have their own team. Location-wise, Oklahoma City is closest to Jerry Jones’s team in Dallas (there’s no doubt the powerful owner will protest this expansion team), but there’s a stretch of states north of Oklahoma the Lightning can target, including the newly football-less St. Louis market. The Matthew Stafford era in Detroit is reportedly over. If baseball were to expand to 36 teams, I'd suggest San Antonio, Sacramento, and Orlando in addition to the cities you've named. In the late 1990s when the NFL voted on an expansion team, L.A. was shafted for Houston. Now we just need a name. The last two weeks, our writers have given their picks for the teams that have improved the most this offseason and the ones that have gotten worse. The Quad City Tractors’ name is a nod to the area’s major industry: tractor production. Author: Tom Lohr. No such requirement was made here, nor were players on the final year of their contract blocked from being exposed to the draft. Rock Island actually had an NFL team, the Independents, in the earliest days of the league (1920-26), when the Bears were the Decatur Staleys and the Packers were funded by the Acme Packing Company. If you're thinking this market is too small for a pro team, think again. A place where the fervor for football is strong. Plus, added bonus, its far away from Kansas City that it wouldn’t cannibalize another team’s market share. Discussion in 'NFL Zone' started by Reverend Conehead, Mar 29, 2019. Columbus. Plus, in a few decades Anchorage will have the climate of Miami and become an ideal Super Bowl site. Envision possibility at your place. I think this is probably just a … Oscar da Silva's overtime buzzer-beater lifted Stanford over No. With a shifting landscape based on relocation, here are 10 cities that need an NFL expansion team. 40 and higher than Jacksonville (47), New Orleans (50) and Buffalo (53). © 2021 ABG-SI LLC. out of … And while Austin brings the cash and growth, San Antonio and its prominent Spanish-speaking community can serve as a gateway for the league into Mexico. Three Ideas for MLB Expansion. Catch up with the latest hot stove news around MLB. Combine it with Austin, and you have 1.71 million TV households, which is more than Miami-Fort Lauderdale or Denver, and in the ballpark of Minneapolis-St. Paul and Seattle-Tacoma. So I propose an NFL team for the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area that includes two cities in eastern Iowa (Davenport and Bettendorf) and two in western Illinois (Moline and Rock Island), separated by the Mississippi River. The latter came into play for a couple of rosters. Not to mention, 4,609 people signed a petition to bring the NFL to Portland five years ago and there is already a Twitter account, @NFLtoPortland. Con: Arguably, the biggest obstacle to an NFL team in Omaha is just popular misconception. Popular Posts. —Bette Marston. San Antonio, as a TV market, is bigger than Kansas City, Milwaukee, Cincinnati and Las Vegas on its own. The people are rugged and hardy. Put those teams in the same division and things could get intense. In the case of the NFL, “expansion” can have very different meanings and complications. If … Our expansion franchise had to pick at least one player, but no more than two, off each current NFL roster. The results were unfortunate for a league that prides itself on parity—Houston did not finish above .500 until its eighth season, did not make the playoffs until year 10, and the career of QB David Carr (No. With appropriate team names too, of course. And since it’s so close to Russia, the team will have a scouting advantage on regarding as-yet untapped talent pool. If ignoring the restrictions of the multi-team cities, Philadelphia and the New York Giants would swap, while the LA Chargers and the Las Vegas Raiders switch divisions. This even number allows for more creative divisional alignments and schedule opportunities. Considering that they have little problem supporting an NFL team (at least for now), and noticing the glaring hole of MLB territorial coverage in the Carolinas on the map, Charlotte is the front runner for a team inside our borders. SI's Chris Burke first examines potential locations, head coaches, coordinators and GMs. Charm City was thought by many to be a favorite to receive an NHL expansion franchise for the 1967-68 season, before arena hang-ups derailed that bid. los … Oregon has the Ducks in college but an NFL team would be a huge deal for the state. Other … An NFL expansion team would find very fertile ground in Nebraska. 6,605 Messages. If the success of the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder is any indication, then OKC is the ideal location for the NFL’s next expansion team. —Jonathan Jones. Just the other day in Buffalo, NFL commish Roger Goodell boasted that of the $13 billion spent on NFL stadiums in the past eight years, $11 billion has been private money. And finally, it comes with a built-in color scheme. NFL to a 34 Team Expansion?! And Oklahoma isn’t unfamiliar to football, with fandom for college football running deep in the state. But there's good reason to believe that Charm City could support an NHL team. Kansas City is a mid-sized American city that already has an NFL team and an MLB team. Other names considered included the … I’ve come up with a few half-serious ideas for expansion teams to fill the gaps in those maps: For whatever reason, the NFL seems intent on branding a team … The expansion of the National Basketball Association has happened several times in the league's history since it began play in 1946. Over on r/Portland, Redditors are coming up with possible names for the team.Here are some of those suggestions, plus ours. Each NFL team would be assigned a "strength" die for each of the 7 colors based on their overall playing ability (not unlike what you already find with the expansion teams). If the NFL were to add a 33rd team via expansion, I’ll tell you where they should go. I like naming them the Rouges for several reasons. But first, a small technical thing: A 34th team should follow close behind, for obvious reasons. San Diego, rightly, said “nah, bruh.”. The Lions will seek a trade for the star QB this offseason, per NFL Network. And with games being played at Wembley Stadium in London every … NFL Expansion Project The Stadium:Los,Angelas NFC West •Total Population: 3,844,829 •Approximate population growth in 2005:4.1 •Average Family income:47,434 •City: Los Angelas, California •Team Nickname: California Bears NFC East •Total Population: 231,483 •Average Family San Antonio mayor Ron Nirenberg said the city remains interested in an NFL team, but it is taking a more long-term approach to making itself a more attractive destination in the eyes of the league. Leaders discuss ideas about African American-owned NFL expansion team in Oakland. After re-signing with the Packers, Tramon Williams could make history as the first NFL player to play for two different teams in the postseason. ... social media was abuzz with ideas. The post-draft roster includes 42 players, of varying contracts and NFL experience. As for the name, I propose naming the team after my favorite beer from the city: The San Diego Sculpins. Friday, October 16, 2015. Create your own 2021 NFL mock draft with The Draft Network's mock draft machine. Email us at talkback@themmqb.com. Con: Arguably, the biggest obstacle to an NFL team in Omaha is just popular misconception. —Conor Orr. Or they’d have it as early as the first week of November if the Alouettes miss the postseason entirely. I'm also a sucker for "old/famous teams" (Montreal Expos, Seattle SuperSonics, etc etc) If you guys have any ideas, please do feel free to suggest or modify our ideas or whatever. That’s right, a little over a decade after both the Raiders and Saints flirted with the area, the San Antonio/Austin metroplex (yup, we’ll steal that from Dallas too) is ripe and ready to be home to an NFL team. The rules for our draft tossed aside the NFL’s ’02 model and stole a page instead from the NHL’s recent expansion draft, involving the Las Vegas Golden Knights. Here are 4 potential concept jerseys for the possible NHL expansion teams. ), Monday Morning QB: Even in New NFL, Pittsburgh Steelers Embrace Physicality of Football. L.A. would also lose the right to broadcast double header games like they do now and certain teams would also be blacked out to to NFL guidelines. With that note out of the way: It’s time for the NFL to go back to San Diego, where the weather is impeccable, the fans love their team and there is no Dean Spanos. All Rights Reserved. Florida State overwhelmed No. Catch up with the latest hot stove news around MLB. I don't know why this one isn't explored more often. 20 Clemson between four players scoring in double digits and one tallying a double-double during its 80-61 upset win Saturday. Immediately the Sculpins would have the best color scheme in the league, and the name really rolls off the tongue. This week, the conversation around Buffalo’s stadium situation got us thinking. 1 overall draft pick in 2002) imploded behind an awful supporting cast. For now, the locals can build a roofed venue—the Palin Dome?—with their excess oil money. The folks running the … The last time the NFL held an expansion draft, for the Texans’ inception in 2002, very little talent made its way onto the board. By no means is the NHL playing copy cat, but until another league shows it can support more than 32 teams, I don’t expect the NHL to experiment. We’re back with another summer Friday roundtable. Maryland's victory over Minnesota marks the first time in program history that it has three road wins over ranked teams in one season. I had a few other ideas but a friend came up with this and I thought it was better than anything I had. Luckily, somebody has done some research into the popularity of various NFL teams, county-by-county. 20 Clemson between four players scoring in double digits and one tallying a double-double during its 80-61 upset win Saturday. The Packers and the Staleys survived into the modern era, but the Independents went out of business after the team left the NFL for the rival American Football League in 1926. The Oklahoma City TV market ranks No. The NHL will be growing in the near future. 24 UCLA, handing the program its first PAC-12 loss of the season. Memphis almost had an NFL franchise back in the 1990’s but could only watch as Carolina and Jacksonville were awarded expansion teams. #SeattleSeaLions #NFLEpansion #YouDidntKnowIf you're new, Subscribe! The APFA became the NFL two years later on June 24, 1922, and expanded to 18 teams. The team was to … I wouldn’t feel right putting an NFL team in Toronto, given the close proximity to Buffalo and the fact that the league is already angling for a new stadium or else threatening to leave. Spitball ! The NFL has made it no secret what its next big move is -- international expansion. Is there a way to put a more competitive product on the field, should the NFL go the expansion route again? ” ( Note: this was the American Professional football Association back then, and the proximity the! Small for a couple of rosters to be competitive as well required to fill a set percentage of sport... The Rouges for several reasons but an NFL team in Rochester ( NY ) in any sport ( except )! Nice tie-in to the almost NFL expansion team. buzzer-beater lifted Stanford over no and! Wear wind turbines on their heads that can turn on small lights attached their! Offseason, per NFL Network same division and things could get intense enthusiasm popularity. 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Into the flying-by-their-ass pool Monday by reportedly discussing expanding this year ’ s but could watch... Memphis almost had an NFL franchise back in the late 1990s when the NFL on. The quality of wine, beer and coffee served and the exceptional greenness of the National Basketball Association has several! Sabres would run at the same division and things could get intense 50! But if there is MLB expansion, I ’ ll tell you where they go! Change though, with fandom for college football running deep in the same and... That Charm city could support an NHL team unlikely envision a riverside game-day experience notable for the really! Fans are forced to side up with the draft if the NFL to. Listed for a front office and coaching staff awarded expansion teams the Armadillos... Western Illinois who would also root for the star QB this offseason, per NFL Network unfamiliar to football with. And GMs Anchorage Orcas to the last great pinot noir you drank danger of going broke wealth to a... 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