The season’s London games have wrapped up (well a few weeks ago) and I have been thinking about the idea of a team in London. It seems crazy to think about teams playing in Europe. I would have argued with people that it would be foolish to put a team in London.
However, now I am starting to rethink that idea. I believe that a team will move to London in the near future. It seems that the likely option would be the Jaguars (and hey, they would not even need to change their name, just how they pronounce it). The fans definitely seem to like the games and the massive stadium at say Wembley would be perfect for a team looking to sell season tickets.
One of the biggest concerns would be the travel. The logistics would be difficult, but I think it would be workable. Perhaps hold the games on Sunday night there (that way they are in the afternoon here). Try to work the bye week into the traveling teams schedule. Or at least give the visiting team a late game in the week (no travel back from London and then have a Thursday game).
Aside from the travel issues, there is also the problem with players having to either move there or at least stay there for a large portion of the year. Perhaps the franchise or NFL could pay for housing, or at least give a stipend for a place.
One of the good things about the United Kingdom is that sports betting is legal and there is definitely an interest in betting on football, especially since they started playing games there over a decade ago. The number of wagers made on those games has increased as well as bets on other football games played in the United States.
The top American legal betting sites will continue to open up as the laws are changed here, but in the UK, there are plenty of excellent betting sites. One of the great things about British sports fans is that they consider betting to be part of the fun and hopefully that mentality can come to America!
