London Calling: The Globalization of the NFL

The NFL is considering giving London an NFL team. London is a thriving,desirable city with a large NFL fan base. There are already games played there -- for instance, the Jacksonville Jaguars will play there each of the next four seasons. In giving London a team, the NFL would generate tons of money regarding television rights, create a new fan base, and give the NFL an opportunity to compete with the Premier Soccer League. NFL Commissioner Robert Goodell talks about his desire to do so here . 

However, there are several downfalls to putting a team in London. First, it is unclear if London has the right market. When there are NFL games in London now, they are wildly popular but mostly among people from other parts of Europe. They travel semi-long distances to see the games, and although this is feasible to do once a year, it many not be feasible to do for the eight home games of the season. Next, many of these fans already have a team they support. Therefore, even if London introduced a team, it is unclear if people would support the new team or continue to support the team they originally were a fan of. Traveling is also a big concern for the potential London team. The team would be disadvantaged especially when traveling to the West Coast of the US because of the long hours spent flying. Last, there would be several financial issues that would need to be worked out regarding draft picks, taxes, and differences in the cost of living. This would have a trickle down effect for teams in the US and create a big mess. 

This International Business article gives further reasons an NFL team in London would never work, including time distance and the fatigue of players. He compares this to how many Americans have always wanted a team in London, but the time change and travel is impractical. What makes London different? Nothing, he argues. He also discusses how when teams travel to London, they will be disadvantaged, and when the London team travels to the US, the London team will always be disadvantaged. It's simply too much travel. 

There are solutions to many of these problems, for instance, the NFL could give the London team a bigger salary cap or more draft picks. They could have a 'home base' in America -- maybe in Orlando. The NFL could also create special scheduling to accommodate this team. However, making these adjustments seem to complicate a lot of things and create more problems than they are really worth.