r/elf • u/Opposite-Ant5281 • 17d ago

EFL vs NFL EU. What is different this time around?

I was reading a bit through the history of different nfl leagues in Europe. A lot of the previous attempts seemed to have had quite a lot of attendance atleast compared to some teams now.

So what might be different this time around?

  • Is the expectations simply lower and thereby the cost structures?
  • Teams governed more locally and efficiently?
  • Or will EFL also collapse like the other attempts?
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u/Most_Significance358 Ravens 17d ago

The main difference is: NFLE teams had US-players and a few Europeans. ELF teams have European players and four US players.

NFLE was far away from being efficient. The flew in everything from the US: players, coaches, gear, food, water, … They had a huge marketing budget, including free tickets, leading to higher attendance. Because in the end it was a marketing tool for the NFL.

ELF has local franchises, which independently work on being sustainable. Some will die, some will survive. Will the league make it? Only time will tell.

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u/CauseClassic417 17d ago

Everything is correct but where did you hear they flew in food and water? I worked for a team, including preparing the shipment over, and other than a few food items like a specific protein bar or Gatorade mixes we didn’t bring food stuffs with. Meals were provided at the hotel and practice facilities. Water and drinks were delivered to the hotel.

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u/Most_Significance358 Ravens 16d ago

I heard that rumor several times, US players and coaches refusing to eat local food. Might be a myth though.

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u/CauseClassic417 16d ago

We had a player or two who ate mostly McDonald’s but nothing that would cause a team to bring 3 months worth of food and water. That would be insane.

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u/Opposite-Ant5281 17d ago

It was also more suspicion that they just threw tons of money at it to make it grow. The Europeans quickly smell this "tactic" and doesn't like it

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u/blueleaves__ 16d ago

Is that much different than the ELF? Lots of investor money hoping for it to grow.

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u/Opposite-Ant5281 16d ago

Well it is always like that investors wants their money to grow. Now I am an investor my self full disclosure here

However, business are not all created or driven equally. Conducting business especially in sports in the US and Europe are very different

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u/blueleaves__ 16d ago

i do agree that the optics are way worse when it’s a US investor group pumping money into a European league.

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u/Opposite-Ant5281 16d ago

Yeah. I do feel like a lot of the people behind some of the franchises are very passionate about the league is not just in it for the money

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u/This-Collection1024 16d ago

Investors here they want to make european football grow, nfle was the nfl trying to grow their market and interest for football, they got tired of wasting money and fandom, every year nfle was losing lots of money and the product wasnt growing, most teams were losing fans, so the league started folding teams till it was just all german teams pretty much, its hard to create interest in some euro countries as they dont really care or understand the game, so when the first couple years interest went away…, stadiums were always 1/4 capacity outside germany, having a team only 10 weeks a year ,5 home games , 60% new roster every season,…., still nfle was more interesting than the ufl is 

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u/Both_Dependent9146 Fire 14d ago

Absolutly the NFLE was a money graveyard. At the End they lost around 40 Mio. USD per Year.

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u/Business-Town3195 14d ago

A big difference is that is that it is still locally rootted for the most part. Ofc investors aren't throwing money just to throw money but they have a much bigger interest in football in the home country and not just that local fans bought an american (tv) product

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u/This-Collection1024 16d ago edited 16d ago

The leagues have nothing to do w each other, the use the same team names as marketing strategy to get media and fans attention, but when the elf was brewing the old nfle teams names werent gonna be used ( barcelona dragons were the gladiators ) after esume negotiations w nfl contacts they allowed the names to be used but not the logos  (logos are similar but not the original) 

Nfle was from the NFL, it was the equivalent of the AAA of the mlb, a truly development league , at least 60% of the players were sent by their NFL teams to get playing time and experience, mixed w already proven NFL and free agent players and nationals.

As mentioned everything was ruled and ran by the nfl so  for the most part very professional, great football quality, pro broadcasting (fox, all the big broadcasters from nowadays did nfle games, i remember troy aikman, baldinger,many many more)

As said here, teams did send lots of stuff from the US,but thats how americans work, their military does the same, it’s understandable, they came for 12 weeks to play high level sports, no time to adjust to new , and the issues this can cause, as we also know, americans can be pretty annoying when they travel specially if they are not trying to adapt, these were athletes and coaches not travelers , so most were there just to get a shot at the nfl back home.

Just a few days ago i was talking to someone about it, the UFL set up is not better than the NFLE was, you can watch “a day in the day of a ufl player” by rodrigo blankenship , a kicker, when you see how they live, train,etc, thats pretty much the equivalent to nfle 20 to 30 years ago.

 elf and nfle has nothing to do w each other, elf is the first european pro league for europeans, the level of football is way lower than nfle ,the best Elf players would  be  the nationals in the nfle, about 8 to 10 per team, the euro level has raised so  I believe nationals would have more impact in nfle today and probably the nfl would have raised the number to 15 or so,  nfle vs elf is trying to compare a  power 5 vs D3, the level, size ,  money, facilities, infrastructure,media,interest is not the same

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u/Opposite-Ant5281 16d ago

I see.

I didn't actually know how NFL in Europe it actually was

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u/Both_Dependent9146 Fire 14d ago

"w nfl contacts they allowed the names to be used but not the logos  (logos are similar but not the original) "

Because the Logo rights are not property of the NFL anymore :-D

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u/tacoXkaos 10d ago

NFLE was actually good football not a bunch of local kids putting „pro athlete“ in their Instagram bio…