If you consider any objective measure when assessing the Major League sports that rule America, the NFL is the most successful. For all the talk of the NBA, NFL and MLB, the reality is that professional football stands tall over its rivals. As an avid fan of the the NFL - the biggest and most entertaining brand of professional American football in the world (I’m sorry XFL, you’re not quite there yet) - the prospect of a ‘home’ franchise in the UK feels like a pipe dream. It would be truly unbelievable to have a British franchise participate in my favourite sport at the highest level, and whilst the idea has been discussed frequently, how realistic is an international franchise - particularly one on the other side of the Atlantic?

International Viability

The first obstacle that immediately comes to mind when considering an international franchise is the viability of travel between home and away games. It is an intriguing issue, but one that could be dealt with. The most effective option for the London franchise would play home and away games in bunches, with the British team flying to the US and staying there for three or four weeks at a time in order to offset the impact of travel as much as possible. Of course, they would need facilities to train and stay at, but that would not be a problem when you consider the available infrastructure for the sport in the US. When teams come to London as part of their schedule, they could be given a bye week before or after their game to ease-in travel.

Revenue

A former-leading international executive for the NFL, Mark Waller, commented in 2017 that the league’s long-term goal for expansion was to play a full programme of eight annual games in London - the equivalent of a full home schedule. There were four games played in London in the 2019 NFL season, and double the amount of games would likely lead to near twice the amount of revenue brought into the city - an appealing aspect of housing a franchise in London.