Tottenham Releases Images of New Stadium

Check out the images of London's newest stadium to host NFL games from 2018

NFL International Series

Catch up on the latest results and fixtures from the NFL in London

NFL Shop Europe

Get the latest merchandise for your team this side of the Atlantic

Jacksonville Jaguars UK Fan Club

With rapidly growing support, join the Union Jax and support the team

The Challenges Ahead

We break down the difficulties facing a future NFL franchise in London

Monday, 19 October 2015

Buffalo Bills Arrive In London

The Buffalo Bills have arrived in London ahead of their regular season game this Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

After a defeat to the Cincinnati Bengals, the Bills will be looking to turn things around at Wembley Stadium, despite losing out on Wide Receivers, Percy Harvin and Sammy Watkins, to injury. The Bills are already without their Quarter Back, Tyrod Taylor, and Running Back, Karlos Williams, also due to injury.

They will face a tough matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars, who have made London their unofficial "second home", after club owner, Shahid Khan, promised to commit them to a regular season game in London for 4 years in 2012.

London's Regent Street will also be reserved especially for the event on Saturday, becoming a traffic free zone for fan events and pre-game festivities.

Sunday, 18 October 2015

NFL Wembley Seven Years Away?

Tottenham fan Mark Waller is desperate to get his team into Wembley Stadium, but not just as a temporary home while the builders are in.

An Englishman in the National Football League's New York headquarters, Waller will have failed as the league's head of international expansion if he has not got an American football team sharing the national stadium with the England football team by 2021.

Waller - born in Kenya, Welsh mum, English dad, school in Wales, university in England, "career all over the place" - was speaking in a hotel about 20 minutes' drive from Wembley, 48 hours before the NFL stages its ninth game there since 2007, when Oakland Raiders take on Miami Dolphins on Sunday.

Every single one of those "International Series" games has sold out - bar Chicago's win over Tampa in 2011 when tickets went on sale late because of the NFL lock-out and the attendance was 76,981. And having coyly dipped a toe in the water with one game a season for six years, the league tried two last year, before climbing in up to the thighs with three this season.

A quarter of million tickets have been sold for this year's games, with more than 33,000 people buying a mini-season ticket for all three. Nine out of 10 tickets have been bought by people who live within three hours' travel of London.

Whether all of those will remain in British hands is debatable: StubHub, the online ticket exchange, says sales for Sunday's game are up nearly 20% on the equivalent game last year. But when you factor in this week's announcement that Sky Sports has agreed to show five NFL games a week from next season, plus the improving viewing figures and participation rates, you start to wonder 'why wait seven years?'.

"To permanently relocate an NFL team to the UK is a massive task" said Waller, not sounding remotely like somebody who thought it was too massive. "It's not like putting a team in a US city. There are a whole set of logistical implications for the players, coaches, back-office staff and so on. There are also implications for the rest of the league and issues for the stadium. We play at Wembley, England play at Wembley, so it's important for both of us that the surface holds up. So we need to test playing games over consecutive weekends, followed by an England game. And, at the moment, we give any team that comes over here the following weekend off. That is not going to be practical in the future, so we will have to look at a team playing here one week, and then back in the US a week later. So there is a lot still to be done, because any team we put here has to be competitive. It's not just about putting a team in the marketplace, that team has to be able to win the Super Bowl."

It is often all too easy to get swept along by an expert salesman's patter (and I say that with genuine respect, Waller is also the NFL's chief marketing officer) but it is important to remember just how remarkable a statement that is. It was only 16 years ago that London's last professional gridiron team folded. Gates had slumped to 6,000, although by that stage the Monarchs had been forced into a nomadic existence, each new home less regal than the last.

Ten years ago, the UK's last professional gridiron team, the Scottish Claymores, fell on its sword, too. Like dizzy teenagers, it seemed the British public had picked up American football in the 1980s and decided it was the coolest thing in the planet, only to get bored and put it down again. But that is the thing about fashion - wait long enough and it comes around again.

This time, however, the NFL is determined to reach "timeless classic" status. Which timeless classic, though? The London Chargers? Jaguars? Rams? Raiders? All four of those franchises - currently in San Diego, Jacksonville, St Louis and Oakland respectively - are on short-term leases with their existing homes, and two of those, the Jaguars and Rams, are owned by men who already own London sports "franchises", Fulham owner Shahid Khan, and Arsenal's Stan Kroenke.

But that is getting ahead of ourselves slightly, particularly as the NFL's bigger priority must surely be re-establishing a team in the second biggest city in the US, Los Angeles.

Either way, Waller was not going to give the game away. "In both markets we have focused on laying the groundwork - the stadium, the fans, the logistics," he explained. "We [at NFL HQ] have spent very little time thinking about the teams, and who goes where. That is for our owners to decide."

That said, Waller acknowledged it was "clearly a help" that some NFL owners know the British market and "media environment" better than others. And to that number you can add Manchester United's proprietors, the Glazers. Talk of them, and "soccer" in general, got me wondering if the NFL's charm offensive was a response to the sight and sound of Premier League tanks on their Astroturf.

America's favourite league - and it still is, despite a truly horrible run of self-inflicted bad press - is also the world's most profitable, with annual revenues about double the Premier League's. But the gap is closing, and our football is catching on with them, too. Waller, who as well as supporting Spurs, counts cricket and rugby among his favourite sports, denies the NFL is responding to any perceived threat from the Premier League.

"Not at all," he assured me. "We started [the International Series] before the Premier League gained its current momentum. I don't like comparing sports, but our average audience for a live game on Sky is the same as a Premier League game on NBC." This might be true in terms of share (actual Premier League audiences in the US are about four times the size of NFL games here), but our game has certainly done better in terms of extracting money from US networks than the NFL has so far here.

"Yes, it would be fair to say we're in investment mode," said Waller. "But it is hardly a loss-leader."

 It is worth noting that Waller's boss, Roger Goodell, made his feelings on the matter clear last year.
 "We've got passionate fans in the UK," said Goodell, who wants to more than double the league's revenues by 2027. "Our ownership understands that this is a market we need to be more active in."

So, enough of us seem to want it, the NFL's accountants would love it, and if the University of Hawaii's players can travel 2,500 miles and cross four time zones to play college games, surely the NFL's well-remunerated professionals can make it work, too. Over to you, agent Waller.


[Original article by Matt Slater: BBC Sport]

Monday, 12 October 2015

The Trouble With T.Y. Hilton

It's been a rough campaign for Colts Wide Receiver, T.Y. Hilton. Not only did he severely bruise his knee during the second game between the New York Jets, but also suffered a severe lack in value due to Quarter Back, Andrew Luck, missing time with a shoulder injury. From a Colts perspective, this his left them without any form of real threat at  Wide Receiver (no offence, Andre Johnson), and from a fantasy perspective, this has left owners disgruntled to say the least.

However, is a change of fortune coming?

Hilton was obviously hobbled by his ailing knee injury for a while, but knee injuries heal, as do shoulder injuries on top Quarter Backs. It is highly likely that Andrew Luck will be back for the Colts week 6 matchup against New England, and once he returns, there is very little limit to T.Y's value. The QB/WR connection both Hilton and Luck have is one of the best in the league, and it is only improving with time (Hilton has improved his receiving yards and target numbers continuously over the past three years), and with the Colts running game looking average at best, now is the time for Hilton to make a come-back and forget the bad fortunes of the first 5 weeks.

If you're a fantasy owner, hold onto Hilton. If you're a Colts fan, get ready for some serious production from 2 of the best players in the league.

Thursday, 8 October 2015

NFL Approves International Matches Until 2025

The NFL has approved a resolution to play regular-season games overseas until 2025, with some fixtures rumoured to be played in Europe as well as the United Kingdom
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Regular fixtures have been played in London since 2007. At the moment, 3 games are played at Wembley Stadium annually, but the NFL is looking to increase the number of games per year to 5 in order to further test the market across the Atlantic.

Earlier this year, the NFL signed a 10-year partnership with Tottenham Hotspur to play at least two games a season at Spurs' new stadium, which is due to open in 2018 after construction.

In a statement, the NFL also said that Wembley was "...expected to host games in future seasons. Fans in the UK have responded incredibly well to the regular-season games we have played in London since 2007. They have demanded more NFL games, and we have worked to accommodate them. We think it's time to expand our international series to other countries and respond to the growing interest in our game not only in the UK, but elsewhere around the world."

A total of 12 season games have been played at Wembley over the years, with two more to come this season - Buffalo Bills v Jacksonville Jaguars on 25th October and Detroit Lions v Kansas City Chiefs on 1st November.


Image Attribution: The London Economic

Wednesday, 7 October 2015

Is Arian Foster Worth The Hype?

It was rumored during the pre-season that Texans Running Back, Arian Foster, would only miss a couple of weeks while he underwent surgery to repair a groin injury. Those rumors have proven to be true, as the star player returned to the field in his week 4 matchup against the Atlanta Falcons.

If you were smart enough to draft Foster in fantasy leagues as a late round pick-up, well played. You're now in possession of a quality Running Back with high-end value.

However, fantasy football aside, is the MVP for Houston reliable for the weeks ahead?

Lets not forget, no matter what surgery someone goes through, it takes time to heal, regardless of whether their a Football player, Rugby player, or any other form of athlete. Foster is no exception...when you're recovering from being under the knife, you're gonna be sore, and certainly protective of the site most vulnerable to injury, which no doubt has an effect on performance.

Psychologically speaking, Foster's head may not be 100% in the game for his Week 5 matchup against the Colts, but that's not to say he wont be productive (don't forget, this is Arian Foster we're talking about here). We can expect a couple of yards made and some breakout runs on show, but don't expect anything too special this week. The guy needs to heal up, ensure re-injury does not occur (which happens all too often with Foster), and remember that there's plenty more weeks left in the season before he goes hell for leather.

Expect Foster to be slower than usual, but a return to the 5* Running Back we're used to seeing from Week 6 or 7 onwards.