As we all know, the National Football League (NFL) is one of, if not America's favorite spectator sports. Millions, if not billions, watch the games in the fall all of the way up to the Super Bowl, along with the huge amounts of money spent on tickets, team apparel, among other things. Profits for the NFL are at or near all-time highs, but commissioner Roger Goodell is just not content with only dominating America, as he has his sights abroad, but I think it is not feasible.
Since 2007, the NFL has held the "International Seriesm," in which there has been at least one regular season game held in London's famed Wembley Stadium. As the years went on, more and more games have been added to the London slate, with the 2014 and 2015 seasons saw three games each in London. A London-based franchise would never work in the NFL. Sure, my favorite NFL team, the Jacksonville Jaguars "give up" a home game in their stadium, EverBank Field to be the "host" in London once a year, and will do it every year until at least 2020, but one game is different than eight.
Here are some of the big reasons why a team outside of North America would not work:
1. Travel
Flying back and forth from the United Kingdom to the United States multiple times a month would not be easy on anyone. The jetlag would ruin weekly routines and sleep schedules. According to Google Maps, the shortest opponent for a London team would be the New England Patriots, which is a seven-plus hour flight, but if they had to visit the Seattle Seahawks, it would be nearly ten hours.
2. Taxes
According to Forbes, the players on the hypothetical London team would have their salary docked via a 45 percent rate. Forbes listed California as the highest rate among the NFL states, at 13.3 percent. I personally do not think it would be a popular free-agent destination from the perspective of money.
3. Football versus Football
Not surprisingly, the UK loves football, or what we Americans call "soccer." Londoners already have their die-hard allegiances to their football clubs, whether it be Chelsea, Tottenham, Fulham, or Crystal Palace. It would be hard for the NFL to compete with an already established game for the people's hard-earned money and viewership on weekends.
4. Game Times
London is five hours ahead of the biggest media market on the East Coast, New York City. Add another three if you're in Los Angeles. All football fans are aware that the weekly Sunday games start at 1 p.m., 4:15 p.m., and 8:20 p.m. For London fans to see their team in the afternoons, they'd have to play each and every week in the 1: p.m. eastern slot, assuming all of their games (home and away) are against teams in the east coast, which is unlikely. To accommodate the locals for the London games in 2015, all of those games were in the afternoon (GMT), which made them kickoff at 9 a.m. for the east coast fans.
And we have not even started talking about the Thursday and Monday night time slots, which are in the 8 p.m. eastern slot, which would make it a 1 a.m. local kickoff for the home London fans. I don't know about you, but I don't know if I would stay up until past midnight to watch a football game.
An international league of American football would be a phenomenal way to influence American sporting culture abroad, but it just is not likely to work at this time. Since the International Series has proven to be such a success, the NFL should just find ways to improve it, rather than failing miserably with a franchise an entire continent away.
