London Franchise

lbj666

I can't see if its been talked about recently but there is a few things recently that made me slightly less sceptical of the prospect of a franchise in London.

When LA gets a team back of course.

Firstly i thought it was unthinkable that they could sell out 3 games in Wembley given the match ups they are offering but they have more or less.

Sky have just signed a 5 year deal for practically everything except SNF. A few years ago they only had a deal sorted a few days before the season started. Just a sign of the demand and growth in the UK and Ireland which is incredible given the indirect competition they have with gamepass (which is also growing).

The NFL are constantly looking for means of making more TV slots for themselves since they can't have games on Saturday until December. It will be interesting to see what sort of audience the Lions Falcons game gets at 8-9am on the East Coast , if its decent they could be on to something, where an early morning London home game would get stand alone coverage maybe 4-5 times a year. It could make up for the fact snf tnf and mnf games in London would never be workable. A lot of people wake up early now for Premiership games over there now so its not unthinkable.

Stadium options,
Wembley is possibly too big for a franchise, but its amazing what a big tarp can do to keep the ticket supply/demand balance right. Its obvious they prefer Wembley as it is an iconic venue and under used in the Autumn.
But there are other smaller options like a ground share with Spurs or West Ham or if Chelsea ever get a new stadium built.

As for concerns about west coast teams and travelling there are ways to overcome this. Have a west coast team play Sunday on east coast the week before, give them a bye week after the London game. Thats what Oakland are getting.
Have a 2 bye weeks in the season for everyone just to keep scheduling flexible.

Granted i am well aware of the ulterior motives the NFL have for talking about an NFL Franchise but given the struggles smaller market teams are having and the lack of other bigger potential markets once LA get a team the scope for growth will really only be this side of the pond.

Anyone who says that they would fill wembley for a new team because everyone already has a team, hasn't seen how many rival fans show up in Dallas or Florida recently.

Just don't call them the Monarchs

eagle eye

The big problem is that there are no bye weeks in the first three weeks or the last five weeks of the season. This is where problems arise and teams don't want to be traveling to and from the UK at the end of the season with the playoffs on the line.

I'd love to see it happen and it probably will but its going to be a few years yet. It going to be hard to get all the owners behind it, well at least until they see more money for themselves out of it.

lbj666

eagle eye wrote: »

The big problem is that there are no bye weeks in the first three weeks or the last five weeks of the season. This is where problems arise and teams don't want to be traveling to and from the UK at the end of the season with the playoffs on the line.

I'd love to see it happen and it probably will but its going to be a few years yet. It going to be hard to get all the owners behind it, well at least until they see more money for themselves out of it.

Ya of course no one ever talks about the disruption of the London team going on road or to the west coast , even 3-4 road trips in 2-3 game batchs would be a lot of disruption.

eagle eye

lbj666 wrote: »

Ya of course no one ever talks about the disruption of the London team going on road or to the west coast , even 3-4 road trips in 2-3 game batchs would be a lot of disruption.

There is no London franchise, there are 32 franchises in the USA. The 32 decide whether there is another one so it has to be in their favour for it to happen. It is not happening unless they agree to it.

GoldFour4

Seems like the NFL has set a goal of 2022 to get this done which seems very soon. A move like this would probably be in the planning stage already I'd imagine, the logistics of a team being based in the UK and competing in the USA are pretty difficult to think about.

sentient_6

I really wish this would just go away. Daft idea.

jack presley

I know there is a healthy NFL fan base in the UK as the 3 sold out games this year show. But these fans already have teams. How many would change their allegiance to support the London Jaguars or whoever it is? Would they sell out 8 games without a fan base that actually supports the team?

Having said all that, I'm sure NFL fans in Jacksonville and Charlotte followed some other NFL team before the Jaguars and Panthers were created so maybe they do hope people change.

Guffy

I imagine london would be everyone's second team initially and grow from there.

Itssoeasy

This London team to me is madness considering that a huge market like LA hasn't had a team in nearly twenty years. The nfl will surely put a team in LA before a team is in London.

BaronVon

I think the main reason for suggesting it is market growth. The American NFL market is fairly saturated at this point, leaving very little room to grow. Obviously they see the UK / Europe market as a huge, largely untapped market where they already have their foot in the door.

The biggest obstacle I would see in a London franchise is attracting players over, and keeping them happy while they spend 6/7 months in the UK!

would there be an issue with visas given some of the stuff nfl players seem to get up to

jack presley

Adrienne Some Chisel wrote: »

would there be an issue with visas given some of the stuff nfl players seem to get up to

and they'd have to sort out the tax differences as well. If tax in the UK is higher than the US, players will be looking for more money which would affect salary caps etc.

jack presley

jack presley wrote: »

and they'd have to sort out the tax differences as well. If tax in the UK is higher than the US, players will be looking for more money which would affect salary caps etc.

a theres tax differences within the us i dont think that would be an issue the currency maby but not tax

TO.

Adrienne Some Chisel wrote: »

a theres tax differences within the us i dont think that would be an issue the currency maby but not tax

I read before that the UK now charges athletes full rates same as you and me. Athletes in the US get seperate rates and even then the tax in the US in most states is a lot lower than the 20+ the UK hits.

Right Turn Clyde

jack presley wrote: »

How many would change their allegiance to support the London Jaguars or whoever it is? Would they sell out 8 games without a fan base that actually supports the team?

I'm a Laois man, and I had no problem handing out €50 for a ticket for the hurling yesterday. And I can see hurling anytime I want, in every county in Ireland. And anytime I'm in England I try to get to a local game, be it Premier League, Championship or whatever. The novelty of seeing live action (particularly NFL) is a novelty that will not wear off, regardless of who people support. Filling Wembley eight times might be a big ask, but there's no shortage of quality stadia in London. Arsenal, for example, are shrewd operators. They'll be looking at the current run of Wembley games with a keen eye.

Right Turn Clyde

The biggest positive of a London franchise is that when the Super Bowl winners are crowned 'World Champions' it will sound somewhat less ridiculous.

TO.

TO. wrote: »

I read before that the UK now charges athletes full rates same as you and me. Athletes in the US get seperate rates and even then the tax in the US in most states is a lot lower than the 20+ the UK hits.

I read slightly wrong but I will find the article as tax was one of the factors. I know MMQB had an article on it and it was touched on. There will be a difference in the wage structure and being in London will cost them more.

One of the factors that will cause the biggest issue for me is the time difference especially for the Thursday game, Sunday Night game and Monday Night game. On top of that you would have to structure bye weeks for every team after they played in London as an away game.

Guffy

TO. wrote: »

I read slightly wrong but I will find the article as tax was one of the factors. I know MMQB had an article on it and it was touched on. There will be a difference in the wage structure and being in London will cost them more.

One of the factors that will cause the biggest issue for me is the time difference especially for the Thursday game, Sunday Night game and Monday Night game. On top of that you would have to structure bye weeks for every team after they played in London as an away game.

Only viable way would for a london team to play in blocks. Would prob have to be 3 away 8 home 5 away for bye week purposes. The london team would have to pay for a second base then for their time in states

mikemac1

jack presley wrote: »

and they'd have to sort out the tax differences as well. If tax in the UK is higher than the US, players will be looking for more money which would affect salary caps etc.

That already exists in the USA. Players like Ray Lewis or in baseball Alex Rodriquez declared they lived in Florida. No state income tax in Florida. New York and Maryland have some of the highest taxes of the 50 states

Son Of A Vidic

Itssoeasy wrote: »

This London team to me is madness considering that a huge market like LA hasn't had a team in nearly twenty years. The nfl will surely put a team in LA before a team is in London.

There might be an LA team already up and running by then. But I'm guessing any expansion to London will also involve a simultaneous expansion to LA.

Corvus Maximus

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

There might be an LA team already up and running by then. But I'm guessing any expansion to London will also involve a simultaneous expansion to LA.

what franchises tough i dont think jags will anymore as there upgrading there stadium

Son Of A Vidic

Adrienne Some Chisel wrote: »

what franchises tough i dont think jags will anymore as there upgrading there stadium

No idea, but the LA sports fan market is absolutely huge and they could easily start a new franchise there.

SantryRed

Still don't know how they'd manage if the London team somehow made it to the play offs and had a home game. Throw in them playing San Fran or San Diego and it's a logistical nightmare

AbusesToilets

Maybe a bit of a noob question, but how will the NFL adapt the current conference set up to new francises? Right now it is perfectly balanced with 32 teams split into 16 AFC/ NFC which is further split into conferences of 4 teams. It would seem like it would unbalance things with another team or two added.

jack presley

AbusesToilets wrote: »

Maybe a bit of a noob question, but how will the NFL adapt the current conference set up to new francises? Right now it is perfectly balanced with 32 teams split into 16 AFC/ NFC which is further split into conferences of 4 teams. It would seem like it would unbalance things with another team or two added.

That's another unknown. Will the inevitable London and LA teams be expansion teams or relocation teams?

Son Of A Vidic

AbusesToilets wrote: »

Maybe a bit of a noob question, but how will the NFL adapt the current conference set up to new francises? Right now it is perfectly balanced with 32 teams split into 16 AFC/ NFC which is further split into conferences of 4 teams. It would seem like it would unbalance things with another team or two added.

I don't think that's a noob question at all. And I don't know about the rest ye, but I find it a real head scratcher about how they'll work it.

ArmaniJeanss

They had an unbalanced structure (mix of 5 and 4 team divisions) when I first started watching, so I don't think its that big an issue if they have it unbalanced again in the future. Having any London team in a 5 team Eastern Division (most likely AFC East) would make some sense as it would help limit the amount of games they'd need to play against Western Teams.
A new LA Team could simultaneously go into a 5team NFC West to keep 17 in each conference.

Mind you I don't think it will happen but it won't be because 34 is an unwieldly number.

tripperman

i thought i read some were a while back that the commisioner wanted to make 40 franchises in time, can i ask when is the deadline for a franchise to announce relocation?

JONJO THE MISER

I read somewhere that after L.A get a team its London next and they want to get this done by 2020 at the latest.