RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Sports and Wrestling NHL seeks to copy NFL by sending teams to London

Sources say Kings will open 2007-08 in London

By E.J. Hradek
ESPN The Magazine

The NFL isn't the only North American pro sports league that will play a regular-season game in London during the 2007-08 season. The buzz around the rinks is the NHL is preparing to do the same.

According to multiple league sources, the Los Angeles Kings will open next season with a pair of games at The O2 in London. The O2 is a state-of-the-art arena scheduled to open with a series of Justin Timberlake concerts in early July. It is operated by Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which also owns the Kings.

L.A. will open its London swing with an exhibition contest before the two regular-season games. The Ducks and Canucks are two teams believed to be in the running to accompany the Kings to Great Britain.

This won't be the first time the league sent a pair of teams overseas to open the regular season. The Ducks and Canucks opened the 1997-98 season with a pair of games in Tokyo, Japan. A season later, the Sharks and Flames also traveled to Tokyo to begin the season.

The league is expected to make a formal announcement by early March.

The Dolphins will host the Giants at London's Wembley Stadium on Oct. 28, the first NFL regular-season game to be played outside of North America.

E.J. Hradek is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine.

This is a stupid idea. Seasons have been ruined in the past because the NHL chose to send two teams to Japan to start the season. Now it wants to copy the NFL by sending two teams to London to start the season. And not just any two teams. Two west coast teams. As if the time difference wouldn't be bad enough for a couple of east coast teams, the NHL is almost guaranteeing a poor start for the suckers being sent over.

I think the NFL is screwing over the two teams it is sending over as well, but who am I to argue with the most successful league in the US. As for the NHL, haven't they made enough mistakes to last this decade alone?