N/S Jaguars Moving To London A Possibility (1 Viewer)

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I need to find the Jags fan on twitter who called me and our team every name in the book when I predicted they would eventually become the London Jaguarsa about 3 years ago.
Haven’t looked at the video yet, but I could definitely see them playing 4 home games in Florida and 4 across the pond.
 
I’m just enjoying the NFL day to day because I know I’ll probsbly not be watching 10-20 years from now. I could give you a list why...but I think the forum has a limit on post sizes.
 
Colin311 said:
They would have a serious issue getting free agents. It would be tough to convince a player and his family to move to a different country.
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I don’t know. I’ve visited London twice in my life and it is an absolutely awesome city. One of the best cities in the world. I’d live there in a heartbeat.

I think the problem is football would be a marginal sport there. London is very cosmopolitan, there are thousands for French speakers, Indians, Arabs living there. Huge numbers of people who don’t give a rat’s behind about football and never will. None of the players will be local. When was the last time an English player even started in the NFL? Nothing for the local lads to root for.

It won’t work. It will last 5 years and then the Jags will move to St. Louis.
 
J.T. said:
Move Miami into the AFC South and Jacksonville/London into the AFC East. Make the Patriots, one of the MAJOR proponents of the International move, have to travel to London every year.

NYJ, Buf and NE would be the "closest" to London of any three other NFL teams currently in one division.
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This is the solution. London to NY is 8 hrs. SF to NY is 6.5. The Jags could get a 2 home, 2 away schedule. I will never advocate for a team to relocate but isn't as difficult as people make it.
 
mccombmike said:
I don’t know. I’ve visited London twice in my life and it is an absolutely awesome city. One of the best cities in the world. I’d live there in a heartbeat.

I think the problem is football would be a marginal sport there. London is very cosmopolitan, there are thousands for French speakers, Indians, Arabs living there. Huge numbers of people who don’t give a rat’s behind about football and never will. None of the players will be local. When was the last time an English player even started in the NFL? Nothing for the local lads to root for.

It won’t work. It will last 5 years and then the Jags will move to St. Louis.
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I beg to differ the point about marginal support.
I'm not sure that people understand the strength of support over here for all things NFL. Every London game is massively oversubscribed for tickets, with applications running into hundreds of thousands.
Since 2008 the Saints market over here has gone off the scale. We even have weekly UK SAINTS podcasts. The direct flights from London to New Orleans has meant large numbers flying over for games each week. Trust me the market is huge in the UK.
I don't see logistics being an issue and most players will live anywhere if the money is right (have you been to Green Bay ?).
No, the big issue is that even though the market is huge over here, the majority of fans already have a strong allegiance to another team. Due to the Jags playing over here every year they have managed to manufacture a growing support but I'm not sure whether it would be enough to sustain a team.
I agree that London is cosmopolitan but if you attended a London NFL game you would be pleasantly surprised at the ethnic diversity of the fans. Even Jags owner Mr Khan is of Pakistani descent.

The thing to remember is that not everybody over here lives in London. In fact the majority of UK NFL fans come from outside London.
If you think that the mainland countries of England, Scotland & Wales have a combined population of around 64 million people. The major cities in the mainland UK countries enjoy easy airport and train access to and from the capital and I would estimate that around 60 million of our population live within a less than 1hr flight or 2.5hr train journey from London.
When you factor in the easy access to London from all over Europe, I'm sure you can see why the NFL are happy to explore the possibility of increasing their brand over here.

As for British players starting in the NFL.....
There have been 5 British players who have won Superbowl rings. You may remember British RB Jay Ajayi helping the Eagles to a win in last years SB or popular NYG DE Osi Umenyiora to name but 2.
The Saints currently have our very own Alex Jenkins on the practice squad. Thomas Morstead's family are from and still live in the North East of England and even Sean Payton himself played QB for Leicester Panthers in 1988.

As I say the game over here has never been stronger or more popular. The 4 games this year will sell out immediately as they do each year. I'm just not sure that a fixed team would work.
 
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This will happen.
The NFL can make the travel for visiting teams work. By that time, we may have the 18 week schedule with two bye weeks.
London is an extraordinary city to live in.
And there will be no problem selling out the stadium. I went to the Saints-Miami game in London last year, and was surprised by how many fans of the NFL there are in the UK and how much I enjoyed the game there. You can watch LSU play in Starkville or the Saints in London. Take your pick.
It would make sense for Jacksonville time move into the AFC East, or the NFC East but Jerry Jones would never go for it.
 
J.T. said:
I was thinking the same thing, then I did the math. I used online calculators of combined State and Local taxes (I used New York State, because that is one of the higher ones and because they would probably have the Jets in their new division.) and a UK income tax calculator. I also used "single" because I would guess that slightly more NFL players are single than married.

I used the following yearly salaries:

NFL Minimum: $480,000
Yearly of $1.5 Million
Yearly of $10 million

NY State and combined Federal taxes, take-home pay:

$480K > $287K
$1.5M > $800K
$10M > $5.38M

UK Taxes: (all converted to pounds and back to dollars)

$480K > $216K
$1.5M > $809K
$10M > $5.31M

So, actually, not a massive difference in taxes, plus, you have to consider that half their games would be in the USA and the USA would tax them, and they would also get a credit for taxes paid in the UK.

All in all, taxes would be close to a wash for most players. (I know Florida has no income tax, so the Jags would get hit, but most states do have income taxes, though not as high as NY.)
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You still have to pay federal income tax on foreign income. Playing in London 8 games doesn't get them off the hook for that. They'd be getting double taxed.
 
BoNcHiE said:
You still have to pay federal income tax on foreign income. Playing in London 8 games doesn't get them off the hook for that. They'd be getting double taxed.
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I am pretty sure that you get a full credit (or deduction, but you can choose to take as a credit) for foreign taxes paid. I am not a tax lawyer, but my understanding is that if you pay foreign taxes, you get an offsetting credit for those taxes on what would be due to the IRS.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p514
 
guidomerkinsrules said:
like this was someone from your company just fooling around or someone from the hotel made a goof?

either ways it's pretty dang funny
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I told the company the next day when I went on the site visit, and they laughed and said that the receptionist that took my info was hard of hearing.

Either way, Tampa isn’t a bad town, and it has some good food.
 
Nah, not happening.

The NFL floats a story in the UK press annually about how London might one day get a franchise. Every year it studiously avoids saying anything concrete, but merely acts as a piece of PR to sell tickets to gullible fans based over here that it might one day happen.

That same story always comes out just as tickets are going on sale for one of the current slate of London games, no doubt just a hugely recurring, unrelated coincidence...

Like I say, don't sweat it, it's not a thing. The Jags speculation has run every year since Khan took over the team. It's meaningless
 
dutar76 said:
I understand that NFL is dying in the US
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Where are you getting this from?

The NFL is the highest rated program on television. It’s 100 times more popular than MLB, NBA, and NHL.

The NFL draft had 5.5 million viewers, the Stanley Cup had 4.7 million.

MLB this week - Red Sox vs Yankees - two of the most popular baseball teams in history, 4.4 million viewers.

NFL this week - Saints vs Redskins - a small market team vs a large market - 10 million viewers.

The NFL is the highest rated program on television.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/1592862002
 

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