
Kirkland keen for more at Wembley
NFL UK boss Alistair Kirkwood is confident two regular-season games will be played at Wembley next year.
Kirkwood hailed the clash between the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in London a "great success".
A sold-out crowd of more than 84,000 saw superstar quarterback Tom Brady dissect the Bucs defence in a 35-7 rout, but the lopsided nature of the game did little to dampen the crowd's enthusiasm.
This was the third year in a row that Wembley has sold out for an NFL game, and although no firm plans are in place Kirkwood now believes London has done enough to prove it deserves two games as early as next season - a timetable that league commissioner Roger Goodell has said nothing to discourage over the past few days.
"It was a great success," Kirkwood said. "I've been involved in a lot of events over the years but this is the first one where I've genuinely not heard one word of criticism - about the operation, the event, the atmosphere, everything.
"You know when you have players like Tom Brady and (Patriots receiver) Wes Welker comparing it to the Super Bowl you are in a good place."
That kind of positive feedback should now persuade other teams to commit to making the trip across the Atlantic, and Kirkwood hopes to find out in the coming weeks whether he can go ahead with plans for a second game in 2010.
"We now have a track record of six teams coming over here and we have a great level of feedback as we look to move to two games a year," he said. "It's really important that the teams and the owners are saying good things about it.
"We're going to be working hard in the next couple of weeks or so to see if we can get some agreement in the next couple of weeks and then hopefully make some announcements by Christmas."
Moving to multiple games each year could be the first step to one day having a team based permanently in London, but Kirkwood is being careful to walk before he can run, and admits there will be no guarantees that two games would be successful.
"The proof will be in the pudding," he said. "I don't think we can be complacent, but on the other side you saw 15,000 people around the stadium before midday so the fans are not merely excited to be here, they want to consume it as much as possible, so potentially if we can give them more games we can satisfy them."
With the NFL now expected to rubber-stamp plans for next year's games, the only question is which teams might be on the bill.
Representatives from the New Orleans Saints, who played here last year, as well as the San Francisco 49ers and Buffalo Bills were here to watch last night's game, but Kirkwood insists those are not necessarily clues, while refusing to give anything away.
"Watch this space," is all he would say.
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