There’s a tremendous difference between relocating to Canada north of the American border and England 4000 miles away.
It’s still a better market than Jacksonville.
Other than the length of the plane ride home? What aspects are you thinking of?
Minor correction: The Jags play the NFC West every four years, and the AFC West every three years.
That would indeed solve many problems. Good thinking.
The University of Hawaii has a similar travel problem, but they don’t seem to try to schedule around it by clustering their games etc. They’re not good this year but they have been in the recent past.
In fairness, this year they play exactly one team in the Eastern time zone.
They usually don’t even play that many; in 2013 they played Navy in Annapolis but otherwise they haven’t visited this time zone since 2011.
A video on this topic that I like on the feasibility of the Jaguars moving to London. The dl;dw: it’s not hopeless, but unlikely.
Another drawback: if they keep the name, we’ll have to get used to the convoluted British pronunciation.
Well considering that an MLB season has about 10x the number of games of NFL, it’s (potentially) worse for baseball. Although they make it easier by playing in the same city for a few games, it’s still more travel than football.
I think dry stadiums are pretty common at the college level in the US. I spent too long once trying to find beer at Memorial Stadium (Cal), and it was made more difficult that the employees were completely unaware. Meanwhile in line some students knew better and had gin in water bottles :o
And let’s face it, culturally there’s not a lot of difference.
True - to this Yank, London doesn’t feel any more foreign than Montreal, probably less. The climate is milder, too. A Southern kid might have a harder time adjusting to Green Bay.
Hawaii just visited Ohio State a few weeks ago, and will play at Wisconsin later. Maybe they just never go to class?
You wouldn’t even need the bye. Have the team play MNF the next week. Only needs to happen 8 times a year. The problem will be with the London Jaguars traveling but hey, you chose to have the island all to yourself.
Something that I haven’t seen mentioned, London is a huge, wealthy, cosmopolitan city. Many players would much rather play there with all the culture, nightlife, women and endorsement opportunities over playing in the small market NFL cities like Green Bay, Kansas City, Jacksonville, Charlotte, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Indianapolis or Minneapolis. Some of the rust belt cities like Detroit, Cleveland, Baltimore and Pittsburgh might not that high on the list either. Remember, it’s not all about proximity for some of these guys.
I also wouldn’t be shocked if league minimum guys and UDFAs would choose London simply as an opportunity to live abroad, kind of like an international work-study program. There was never a shortage of players in NFL Europe after all.
That’s pretty much what I was saying with “beats Green Bay.” Though I’ll point out that Jacksonville is a surprisingly large, cosmopolitan city, and certainly has more attractive women (if not culture, nighlife or endorsement opportunities) than the majority of NFL cities.
Do most players really choose what team they’re going to based on the city? The league minimum and UDFA guys will pretty much go to whoever takes them. The only ones who really get a choice are the big money free agents.
They’re more lightly clad than in Green Bay, at least. Which is enough, of course.