NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell has long yearned-for London to one day be the home of an NFL franchise.
The desire is that an NFL franchise in one of the biggest cities in the world would help the game to blossom even more internationally.
Since 2007 there has been a tried and tested formula in the ‘NFL International Series’ which has meant that every year (aside from 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) an NFL regular season game has been played in London, with some recent years having seen three or even four games played.
NFL Europe
Many UK based American football fans will know that there has once before been (kind of) a London NFL franchise.
The London Monarchs participated in ‘NFL Europe’, which was essentially a development league for the NFL, consisting of 10 teams in total, three of which were based in Europe, the other seven in North America.
This format only survived for two years for various reasons. At the time American football had limited appeal outside of North America. Director of the Centre for the Sociology of Sport at the University of Leicester, John Williams, cited the league’s “lack of flow”, with play broken up for “tactical talks and time outs”, deemed “too contrived” by fans of more free-flowing sports such as football.
Challenges
Despite such attempts beforehand and the massive growth of fans the NFL has seen in the UK, the logistics behind moving an NFL franchise to London has become even more difficult in recent years. For obvious reasons the COVID-19 pandemic has most recently put the conversation on the back burner.
Other challenges that could arise would be; that having one franchise play eight or nine games in London a season could cause the team to consistently suffer from fatigue from travelling week in week out. Making it very likely the performance of the players would suffer compared to their opponents.
The resolution for this that every NFL franchise that played a game in London would have a bye the following week. However, that wouldn’t ease the franchise located in London’s woes at all.
The Five Key’s
For Roger Goodell there are five key things that must be in place for London to host a franchise; The first of which is a fan base that will offer sustained support and can sell out games consistently, something which has not been an issue for ‘NFL international series’ games.
Second, a quality stadium that meets the league’s standards and offers a great fan experience. Twickenham, Wembley and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium all meet that criteria and have already hosted NFL regular season games in recent years.
Support from local government officials and the football logistics must all be in place and approved. Again, this is not an apparent issue, as in 2014 the British treasury chief, George Osborne, told the Evening Standard newspaper that the government will do whatever it can “to make this happen.”
Finally, a team owner must want to relocate his franchise. Now this is where the biggest snag lies. There was a point where the possibility of a London franchise looked like it could happen in the very near future.
Jacksonville Jaguars owner, Shahid Khan, who also happens to own Fulham F.C, explored the possibility of buying Wembley Stadium, and since then the Jaguars have been the only franchise to play a game in London every season, becoming a favoured team for many NFL fans in the UK.
‘Won’t Happen’
However, more recently the Jaguars drafted highly regarded prospect Trevor Lawrence number one overall in the 2020 NFL Draft, bringing a new light of hope for a fanbase that hasn’t had much since their inception in 1995.
Further trying to show their fanbase this change of culture and identity, the Jaguars also hired Head Coach Urban Meyer on a long term, lucrative deal. NFL insider Albert Breer believes Meyer signed this deal with the Jaguars in large part because he was promised a new facility.
In June of this year, Meyer posted concept art of the Jaguars new facility that is planned to be built. Shortly after, CBS analyst Pete Prisco posted a message about the future of the franchise.
It stated; “The Jaguars were never moving to London, despite the perception.” Prisco added, “The new developments announced today show that won’t happen.”
As of now the NFL doesn’t believe it has the logistics squared away as there isn’t a team owner willing to move his franchise. As a result, despite Roger Goodell loving what London has to offer, an NFL London franchise isn’t in the immediate future.
