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| (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) |
By Jeremy Philipson
The NFL is a
multi-billion dollar industry, and is looking to take their business
international.
This international
appeal has been almost a decade in the making. In 2005, the NFL began
scheduling games outside of the United States. The first game was between the
Arizona Cardinals and the San Francisco 49ers in Mexico City, and it became the
first regular season game to be played outside of the US. Another “first” happened
in 2007, when the New York Giants beat the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium,
the first game held outside of North America. Every year since 2007 has
featured a game at Wembley Stadium, with different teams each year.
Earlier this year,
the Jaguars announced that they agreed to play one home game in London per
season, from 2013-2016, which could be foreshadowing. New owner Shad Khan has
no ties to the North Florida region, making a move more likely. This further
intensifies the rumors that the Jaguars are the probable team to move across
the pond. And with the league satisfied with the current 32-team model,
relocation is more likely than expansion. Expansion teams usually struggle for
a while, but relocating a team would ensure competitive balance.
While distance
could be a factor, the potential team would only have to make 3-4 trips to the
states each season. The team would play 2-3 games each road trip, instead of
flying back and forth after each away game. On the other side, the teams going
to London could have a bye week before or after they travel, giving their
bodies extra time to get acclimated or recover.
Another reason that
Jacksonville could make the move is because of the low popularity of the team.
Although they are the franchise with the largest city (in terms of land mass),
they boast only 1.3 million people and are at the bottom of the league in
popularity. London has 8 million people and the team would benefit from the
popularity increase of being new and different.
The NFL is looking
to make this move soon, with some saying it can happen within the next 5 or 10
years. With Los Angeles also making a push to regain a team in the NFL,
relocation will be a hot topic in the upcoming years. Jacksonville may not be
the team that moves, but the one that does will be a pioneer for not just the
NFL, but all major professional sports.
