NFL keeps dangling the carrot regarding European expansion
It's truly a tradition unlike any other.
Every year, right about this time, the NFL gets ready to play games in Europe. And, right about this time, the NFL starts dangling a carrot about the possibility of a full-time team in London.
It came up again during a Friday morning media conference call aimed at promoting the package of 2023 European games, with NFL executive V.P. of international Peter O'Reilly alluding to the possibility in response to the question of whether, in time, teams will simply play eight home games, eight road games, and one neutral-site game, or whether it's more likely that there will be one team headquartered overseas. (If that ever happens, there would be at least two.)
"I think both or either of those paths . . . is in the realm of possibility," O'Reilly said. "And I think it just is a testament to what we're seeing in these markets. The passionate fan response. The great partnerships with stadiums and government officials in these markets. So, that's why we're doing this diligence around the opportunity to potentially expand number of games played or have the capacity and the infrastructure in place if there were a scenario in the future where there was potential relocation or as discussed maybe even expansion. So I don't think we would rule out either of those scenarios over the horizon ahead. Hard to put a timeline on that. But [it] comes back to, there is passion and demand for our game and for the NFL outside the U.S., and that's why we're exploring it as fully as we are."
The rough timeline is, loosely put, within the next 10 years. That's what it always is, every year. And that's why it's hard to believe the notion of a team in Europe feels like nothing but a short-term, annual effort to generate more interest than there is.
Frankly, the full extent of the foreign interest is debatable. A General Manager recently raised, unprompted, the question of when the NFL is going to give up on the effort to get England to fully embrace NFL football. Even though the handful of games fill stadiums, the G.M. said it's still a fringe endeavor that barely moves the national needle.
O'Reilly's comment also will catch the eyes of certain folks in and around Jacksonville. He uttered the word "relocation," at a time when: (1) the Jaguars have the most consistent presence in London; (2) a local debate is raging over whether to spend $1 billion in taxpayer money on stadium upgrades; and (3) the team's president dropped a threat/promise that without the money, the team will leave.
There's been a sense in league circles for several years that, if Jaguars owner Shad Khan ever did want to move his team to London, at least 23 other owners would allow it.
Still, a European franchise creates many thorny logistical and competitive issues. Those would inevitably take a back seat, as they often do, to the big mamoo.
Even without England at large viewing NFL football as an alternative to soccer or cricket or silly-walk competitions, there's enough interest to fill a stadium eight or nine times — and for the Jaguars to make more money in London than they make in Jacksonville.
And, remember, it's still a business. They don't want you to think of it is as business, but it most definitely is.
"But, but, but football is family."
No. Football is business. And it's good for business to say, "Football is family."
