Why an overseas NFL franchise feels closer than ever

After a year away due to Covid-19, the NFL made its long-awaited return overseas to London in 2021.

And following two sell-out games at the spectacular Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last October, this year promises to be even more spectacular.

The first-ever NFL regular-season match in Germany is set to take place in 2022, when the Seattle Seahawks will take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the Allianz Arena in Munich on November 13.

NFL will also return to Mexico after a two-year hiatus, when the San Francisco 49ers take on the Arizona Cardinals.

It’s been 17 years of games since the first ever game overseas game at the Estadio Azteca. But London has hosted the majority of fixtures since. Considering the success of the games, there is a growing possibility regarding a franchise re-locating permanently to the British capital.

With fixtures now taking place three international countries, is it time for a franchise to be located abroad?

Whether you agree with the idea or not, it’s a case of when, not if.

How realistic is an overseas team?

American football has always been considered a secondary sport in Europe.

The World League of American Football and its predecessor NFL Europe never really took off in the 1990s, and the game still lacks the popularity and reputation of sports like football, which are heavily rooted into the European way of life.

But in recent years, the NFL has become one of the more popular sports to watch across the continent.

In the UK alone, more than four million tuned into the Super Bowl last year on the BBC and Sky alone for 2021. And over a million viewers a week watch the BBC’s NFL Show.

In Germany, the free-tv broadcast of the same game had over 2 million average viewers, while the peak was almost 2.5 million.

When you consider that just 1-1.5 million people watch NFL RedZone at some point every Sunday, those figures are more than respectable. Clearly, sports fans outside of the USA are slowly and appreciating the American game.

Across Europe, we are seeing so many team sports, for better or worse, becoming much more franchise orientated. Teams are brands, internationally recognised institutions. It’s all big business.

We’ve seen it with football and the European Super League. While we saw a lot of backlash to the idea from fans, the prospect of something similar happening in the US with an NFL team moving into a new market is much more unlikely.

Since 1982, ten NFL teams have relocated. And with moves such as the Rams from St. Louis to Los Angeles, or the then Oilers (now Titans) moving from Houston to Tennessee, it’s not like teams have moved to a different part of a city or state. We’re talking moves of hundreds, if not thousands of miles.

American sport is built on franchises. And it thrives how it is.

The NFL cares about crowd attendance, but its real wealth comes through television and licensing. Attracting a new audience to pay for TV rights by positioning a team outside of the US will only do wonders to their viewing figures across the globe.

In late 2021, the NFL announced an initiative that would see 18 teams be awarded access to 26 International Marketing Areas (IHMA), including six in the UK. Those rights were awarded to the 49ers, Bears, Dolphins, Jaguars, Jets and Vikings.

The deal allows clubs to pursue activities that are consistent with their domestic market. It means more in-person digital marketing, corporate sponsorship and fan events, as well as youth football activities to encourage more young people into the sport.

It’s obvious what the NFL are shaping to do, expand and enhance the league. This has been talk for many years, particularly amongst fans and commentators. Back in 2018, Roger Goodell admitted a team in London was a more than a viable option.

With the overseas matches proving to be a huge asset for the NFL, it makes sense to have a team based outside of America.

Many options to base an overseas team

As the designated team for the International Series, the Jacksonville Jaguars are often regarded as the most likely current NFL team to relocate abroad.

Having played in the British capital every year since 2012, the Jaguars are well accustomed to the working outside of the US.

Their owner, Shahid Khan, is himself based in London as the owner of Fulham Football Club. He has also previously been involved in offers to buy for Wembley Stadium.

There are other franchises with strong British links too. The Glazer family, in charge at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, also own Manchester United, while LA Rams owner Stan Kroenke is the majority shareholder at Arsenal. Their influence on football in the UK is controversial, but there is no doubt to their influence to the NFL over the Atlantic.

Generally, the UK is seen as the biggest market outside of the US. But there are plenty of alternative destinations to locate a team. Germany and Spain are the other European nations including in the NFL’s new IHMA initiative, as well as Canada, Mexico, China and Australia across the globe.

Re-locating teams is a big ask, but rather expanding the league seems to be the priority.

The NFL has been a 32-team league since 2002. According to NFL Insider Mike Florio, conversations about growing the NFL to 40 teams were “already happening at the highest levels of the league.”

“It will take time to get there, but in time it will happen. The money will make it so”, Florio writes. And with an expansion, the chances of a brand-new team coming from abroad is undoubtedly high.

Of course, there are plenty of logistical concerns. Moving staff and equipment across the Atlantic for every away game would be complex. There is the possibility that players may refuse to relocate. And the odds of a non-American player making it to the NFL are incredibly slim.

But ultimately, whether you like it or not, the NFL will go wherever the money is. The European market continues to grow and if an overseas team brings more people and money into the sport, then surely a move is a no brainer.