http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/513...ondon-jags

I figure it would be fun to predict how the NFL would handle it if the Jacksonville Jaguars move their team permanently to London, England.

This is my prediction. The NFL will eventually re-organize into East and West Conferences, with 8-team divisions. For example:

East Conference - Atlantic Division
London Jaguars, New England, Buffalo, Miami, NY Jets, NY Giants, Philly, Washington

East Conference - Mid-East Division (need a better name)
Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincy, Cleveland, Tampa, Atlanta, Carolina, Tennessee

West Conference - Central Division
Chicago, Green Bay, Minny, Detroit, Indy, Houston, Dallas, New Orleans

West Conference - Mountain Pacific Division
San Diego, Oakland, Denver, KC, Seattle, Arizona, San Fran, St Louis

Each team plays 7 games each year against its own division, playing each team once, alternating home one year and away the next year.

Then each team plays 5 teams against its sister division in the same conference. This means it will play each of these teams 5 times in 8 years.

Then each team plays 4 games against teams from the other conference. 2 from each division. This means it will play each of these team only 2 times every 8 years.

Bottom line, west conference teams would only have to play in London once every 8 years. Plus London would only have to travel to mountain-pacific time zones once a year.

Other than moving Dallas to the West Conference, I can't think of any other thing being controversial about this plan

Other than moving Dallas to the West Conference, I can't think of any other thing being controversial about this plan

translation: other than changing some of the most historic rivalries & the most historic franchise....I cant think of any other thing being controversial about this plan


its a good plan and well thought out. but of all the teams in the NFL the cowboys should be THE LAST team you messed with. the NFC EAST is one division you dont mess around with because the teams are so iconic and are tightly bound to each other. they are like the b10 of the NFL

Europe doesn't care about American Football. The majority of NFL Europa teams ended up in Germany, because they're the only country that supported football. The only city outside of Germany to average over 10k fans was Amsterdam.

London or any other city in Europe would be a huge mistake. Soccer rules all of Europe followed by rugby in some countries and basketball and hockey in others. I could see the NBA being more successful in Europe than the NFL. The Jaguars need to move to L.A. once they build that stadium if not L.A. then maybe Toronto, Las Vegas, San Antonio, Portland, etc might be better choices.

Didn't the NFL learned anything from their failed venture in NFL Europe?

(08-06-2013 09:10 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  London or any other city in Europe would be a huge mistake. Soccer rules all of Europe followed by rugby in some countries and basketball and hockey in others. I could see the NBA being more successful in Europe than the NFL. The Jaguars need to move to L.A. once they build that stadium if not L.A. then maybe Toronto, Las Vegas, San Antonio, Portland, etc might be better choices.

Didn't the NFL learned anything from their failed venture in NFL Europe?

Apparently not because they have committed to sending games over there every year because they keep selling out Wembley Stadium.

The issue with NFL Europe was everyone knew it was minor league football. One real NFL game per year is a bit different than that, and it's a bit different than having a team - which I think won't do as well simply because it won't be such a novelty.

Sports are no longer about sports. It's all about greed.

(08-06-2013 08:29 PM)john01992 Wrote:  Other than moving Dallas to the West Conference, I can't think of any other thing being controversial about this plan

translation: other than changing some of the most historic rivalries & the most historic franchise....I cant think of any other thing being controversial about this plan


its a good plan and well thought out. but of all the teams in the NFL the cowboys should be THE LAST team you messed with. the NFC EAST is one division you dont mess around with because the teams are so iconic and are tightly bound to each other. they are like the b10 of the NFL

I guess if the NFL ever expanded again, then Dallas could be moved to an expanded 9-team Atlantic division so that it can hang with its old NFC East pals.

This plan works as long as the expansion team is somewhere in North America.

(08-06-2013 09:18 PM)oklalittledixie Wrote:  Sports are no longer about sports. It's all about greed.

agreed

(08-06-2013 09:16 PM)CommuterBob Wrote:  

(08-06-2013 09:10 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  London or any other city in Europe would be a huge mistake. Soccer rules all of Europe followed by rugby in some countries and basketball and hockey in others. I could see the NBA being more successful in Europe than the NFL. The Jaguars need to move to L.A. once they build that stadium if not L.A. then maybe Toronto, Las Vegas, San Antonio, Portland, etc might be better choices.

Didn't the NFL learned anything from their failed venture in NFL Europe?

Apparently not because they have committed to sending games over there every year because they keep selling out Wembley Stadium.

The issue with NFL Europe was everyone knew it was minor league football. One real NFL game per year is a bit different than that, and it's a bit different than having a team - which I think won't do as well simply because it won't be such a novelty.

Which is exactly my thoughts as well. Once the novelty wears off they won't sell Wembley out.

The NFL had some preseason games at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City and at one time it set a record attendance for a preseason or regular NFL game (over 110k people). That doesn't mean the NFL should have a team in Mexico even though the league is very popular over there. The Jags would be better off moving to L.A. or even Toronto.

LONDON MONARCHS ARE BACK, BABY! Or they will be. Stan Gelbaugh 4 life!

You know your team sucks when they are the ones considered to be moved overseas lol

I don't think Toronto is an option for the Jaguars, the Bills are slowly transitioning to being the Toronto Bills. And Ralph Wilson is 94, thing could get interesting in Buffalo soon.

(08-06-2013 10:15 PM)Minutemen429 Wrote:  I don't think Toronto is an option for the Jaguars, the Bills are slowly transitioning to being the Toronto Bills. And Ralph Wilson is 94, thing could get interesting in Buffalo soon.

You apparently missed the off-season news : Buffalo signed a new 10 year lease that includes a $400 million penalty to move the team out of Buffalo in the next 7 years. The lease terms are the same, regardless of ownership. The hope is to have a new domed, lakefront stadium before then. No more worrying about a 94 yr old owner for Buffalo fans, like me !

(08-06-2013 09:10 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  London or any other city in Europe would be a huge mistake. Soccer rules all of Europe followed by rugby in some countries and basketball and hockey in others. I could see the NBA being more successful in Europe than the NFL. The Jaguars need to move to L.A. once they build that stadium if not L.A. then maybe Toronto, Las Vegas, San Antonio, Portland, etc might be better choices.

Didn't the NFL learned anything from their failed venture in NFL Europe?

That was minor league football and the Brits are not stupid. If the St Louis Cardinals basball was replaced in St Louis by the Memphis Redbirds I doubt they would average 39,000 a game either. A real NFL team might be fine in London...

One of the problems with a London NFL team is that very few free agents would want to go live on another country, besides desperate players like Chad Johnson, or TO

(08-06-2013 09:10 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  London or any other city in Europe would be a huge mistake. Soccer rules all of Europe followed by rugby in some countries and basketball and hockey in others. I could see the NBA being more successful in Europe than the NFL. The Jaguars need to move to L.A. once they build that stadium if not L.A. then maybe Toronto, Las Vegas, San Antonio, Portland, etc might be better choices.

Didn't the NFL learned anything from their failed venture in NFL Europe?

People always say this but if you look at actual soccer attendance figures you'll see there is plenty of room for an NFL team in a major city like London. The EPL is arguably considered the best soccer league in the world but yet their average attendance is only 34k...they basically draw as well as the old Big East.

SBUfan, that's a very Ameri-centric viewpoint. And those who have such a viewpoint are historically...American. That Atlantic Ocean has created isolation through all of history...but it also has kept many Americans from having a truly global worldview. If you polled people who have lived in both London and a major American city, it's probably very even as to which is better.

The typical American might THINK that "no one" would want to live anywhere other than 'Merica...but it's not true. Millionaire athletes would probably find the UK quite agreeable for a few years of their lives.

The NFL doesn't make many big mistakes but they sure did in giving Jacksonville a team. The Jaguars have always struggled at the gate and their market is the second smallest in the NFL behind Green Bay - which is in a very unique position. That means that even if Jacksonville starts to support the Jags in meaningful numbers, their growth potential is still quite limited. I still have no idea what the NFL was thinking when they gave Jacksonville a team. It was stupid at the time and it looks even more stupid in retrospect.

That team is definitely going to relocate - it has to. It's now only a question of when and where?

It is very clear that the NFL is highly intrigued by the possibility of a London franchise as the professional football league has been flirting with England's largest city for decades now. As such, I have given this issue a lot of thought. I like to think of myself as an out-of-the-box pragmatist but I still don't understand the long term vision of this?

Let's take the travel for example. If you play for London, you are making so many long flights that after a short period it would get very tiresome. It's a six or seven hour flight from London to New York City. Just imagine how long the flight would be to Cleveland or Dallas or Seattle. I don't know how you ever bridge that gap?

I think the only way a London franchise would work over the long haul - and this too is extremely iffy for a myriad of reasons - would be as part of an entire European division. Otherwise, it just wouldn't work, IMHO. Hell, I'm not sure it can work even under optimal conditions.

However, this is Fantasy Island so I'll indulge it in this instance.

The only way a London franchise can work without being destroyed by travel would be to move not one but two teams to the UK: one in London and another one in one of Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow or Dublin. That would give teams the opportunity to play them back-to-back, which saves on travel costs and other issues.

Then, when the NFL next expands, they would need to add two more teams in Europe. My choice would be Germany as that is the nation where NFL Europe found its most popularity. Finally, some time after that - assuming it's working - I would add two more expansion teams to two other European nations. Or, if the appetite is so strong in England and/or German, just add them there.

If I were the NFL, my eventual goal would be to get to six divisions of six teams each with one of the divisions being located in Europe. In a 16 game schedule, that would allow each of those teams to travel outside of Europe just three times per season. It would also cut down on the number of times American teams would be asked to travel to Europe.

So, if I was the NFL I think what I would do is first increase the number of games played each year in Europe and probably move some of those games around. Maybe you play a game or two in London, another game or two in Manchester, and yet another game or two in Berlin, etc. That gets North American fans used to traveling overseas for football games and it primes those European cities for what the NFL experience is like.

Also, if I were the NFL and European expansion were on my list, I would spend a TON of time and money on development camps and on educating the populace on the rules and nuances of the sport. Develop young British boys into serviceable or better NFL players and interest in that young man as well as the port as a whole will increase. I once watched a Super Bowl with a group of English students and it was interesting to watch the game through their eyes. They literally knew nothing about anything relating to football and were asking questions like, "Why do the guys just run into the human pile and fall down? What is the purpose of that?"

It was eye opening.

Also, there is the fact that there are plenty of North American cities that could easily support an NFL team. Los Angeles, Toronto and Mexico City are the obvious three but there are others as well that would make great NFL cities and we could add them without going through a radical cultural transformation and language barrier and all the rest of it.

This is an interesting topic but I think we're still 10-20 years away from it being even close to happening.

(08-06-2013 10:29 PM)Tulsafanzz Wrote:  

(08-06-2013 10:15 PM)Minutemen429 Wrote:  I don't think Toronto is an option for the Jaguars, the Bills are slowly transitioning to being the Toronto Bills. And Ralph Wilson is 94, thing could get interesting in Buffalo soon.

You apparently missed the off-season news : Buffalo signed a new 10 year lease that includes a $400 million penalty to move the team out of Buffalo in the next 7 years. The lease terms are the same, regardless of ownership. The hope is to have a new domed, lakefront stadium before then. No more worrying about a 94 yr old owner for Buffalo fans, like me !

The new deal has the $400M penalty for every year, except year 7, when it drops to $28M. That's the out ownership wanted since the Wilsons do not want the burden of taxes if the team is handed down upon his passing. All they have stated is, as long as Wilson is owner, the team will not leave Buffalo. But when he isn't it will be sold to the highest bidder. There are a few local people who could pony up but outsiders would present a challenge. His death will cause a painful period in many regards.

The stadium improvements within the lease insured there will be no new stadium any time soon. That domed stadium plan was just drawings paid for by a small group who took it to the Buffalo city council, who of course loved it. But they never talked about it to who really matter; Erie County, NY state, or the Bills. Russ Brandon stated the Bills had heard about it but had no interest in the group's ideas.

What about Montreal or maybe Calgary?