40,000 in 90 minutes

That is how long it took to sell all the first day alloted tickets to the NY Giants vs. Miami Dolphins game at Wembley Stadium.

40,000 tickets were alloted for this first “buy”. A list that reportedly had over half a million requests. That is incredible.

"“Today’s first sale was exclusively to fans in the United Kingdom and Europe,” said Alistair Kirkwood, managing director of NFL United Kingdom. “The speed in which such a large number of tickets were snapped up through our partners at Ticketmaster demonstrates the great excitement and appetite for the game in this country. We know that the last few tickets available in this first batch will be gone very soon.”"

Tickets for the game will be made available to the fans of both teams here in the U.S. within the week. More tickets will then be sold to European fans next month.

I was, at first, against this game being played over there. Taking away a home game for any team in the NFL is not a good thing. Especially when teams need every home game they can get. On paper this game is a home game for the Miami Dolphins, but it’s still not a “home” game. There is a lot of speculation that a large number of Dolphins Fans live in England and that the base of fans at the game will be predominantly cheering for the Phins. Still, it is not home turf and why could the NFL not see fit to schedule this game earlier when the Florida Marlins would still have the infield dirt covering half of the field? That would have been nice.

Yet, now i’m not so sure if I truly am against this game being played on the other side of the pond. Not completely anyways. There is a lot of hype, which should lead to positive press about the Dolphins. This is an opportunity to expand, not just the NFL fan base, but the Miami Dolphins fan base, and that is always a good thing. The opportunity to be a part of something historic, for the players, should be enough to erase the fact that they are not home in Miami that weekend, and with the bye week coming after the game, there is time to get prepared for the Buffalo Bills…..at home for real 2 weeks later.

The only downside to this game, in reality, is that the game is not a primetime affair. No big showcase. In fact, it’s on Fox, and Fox will have to follow the rules of every other Sunday game. Local teams first and then in division market games. No showcase for what the NFL is trying desperately to showcase…..someone seriously fumbled the ball on that one.