Government keen on London NFL franchise
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne says the government are doing everything they can to get a full-time NFL franchise in London.
The NFL has been playing regular-season games at Wembley Stadium every year since 2007, and this season there are three games on the schedule. But they haven’t yet announced any plans to put a team permanently in the national stadium.
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Could Wembley’s next tenant be an NFL team? © Getty Images
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After Osborne told the Evening Standard that the government will “do whatever it can to make this happen”, the NFL released a statement which read: “We warmly welcome the chancellor’s strong support for the possibility of an NFL team in London and look forward to welcoming him to a game at Wembley over the next few weeks.
“Our key priority is to continue to build our fan base in the UK so that there is strong demand for any future plans in London.”
The Detroit Lions and Atlanta Falcons will play at Wembley on Sunday. Last month, the Miami Dolphins beats the Oakland Raiders 38-14, and next month, the Dallas Cowboys will face the Jacksonville Jaguars.
While there has been much talk over the last few years, feasibility of a franchise in London is uncertain. So is how many players would want to join a team so far away from the rest of the league.
“This is primarily a decision for the owners of the clubs and the NFL organisation, but I’ve said to the NFL that anything the government can do to make this happen we will do, because I think it would be a huge boost to London,” Osborne said.
“Clearly there are some tremendous sports fans in the UK, and we’ve seen the growth of our sport and the popularity amongst those great fans over the last few years,” Lions president Tom Lewand said on Wednesday.
“How much we can continue to grow that is a real opportunity in front of us. I wouldn’t put anything past the NFL. I wouldn’t put anything past the talented people that we have in the league and I certainly can understand the desire given the popularity of a lot of different sports over here.”
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The Jaguars also played at Wembley last year, losing to the San Francisco 49ers, and are slated to keep coming to London over the next two seasons. They are owned by Shahid Khan, who also owns Fulham Football Club.
Because of Khan’s plan to keep his franchise in the British sports fan’s consciousness, the Jaguars have often been rumoured as the most likely team to relocate to London.
Osborne, however, would not speculate on which team might pick up and move abroad.
“There are 32 teams in America – and one of them could be a London team. That’s a serious prospect,” Osborne said. “It’s not going to happen overnight but over the next few years. I just think it will cement London as a global sporting capital as well as a global financial and business and cultural capital.”
ESPN.com’s Michael Rothstein and The Associated Press contributed to this report
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