London Calling

Recently the NFL has brought games to London in an effort to gain international attention and increase economic gain. In addition there is potential a interest from the Jacksonville Jaguars owner to move the franchise to London permanently given the lack of current ticket sales as noted in the article. With a common language and being an “internationally renowned city” London marks arguably a great location bringing in a range of European fans.  In order to push this effort forward, the NFL has considered giving a London based franchise an additional 30 million dollars a year in cap space to ensure that it remains “competitive in the marketplace”. In addition they have considered setting up team bases in America to help aid travel concerns.

However, even with such efforts there are a lot of limitations that the NFL will have to overcome to make this expansion successful.  The first thing that the NFL has to do is convince players to play and potentially live in London. Second, they have to work out scheduling so that long distance traveling is limited and finally they have to overcome the challenges of the different time zones such as the effects on game times and even players bodies, i.e. jetlag.  With all this in mind it seems clear that such an expansion is not in the immanent future. The NFL will continue to host games in London, however, with the current barriers and potential costs it is does not seem rational for the NFL to make London a permanent stake for operations given current circumstances.