NFL reaches deal to play games at Tottenham's new stadium in London

[soxhop411]

“@ProFootballTalk: NFL reaches deal to play games at Tottenham’s new stadium in London http://t.co/w8Ms8WMc0r”

Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City - Premier League
Getty Images
In April, there was word from London that English Premier League side Tottenham wanted to share their new stadium with an NFL team when and if the NFL put a team on that side of the Atlantic.

There’s no team heading there on a permanent basis, but there will be games at Tottenham’s building when it opens in 2018. The EPL team announced that they and the league have struck a 10-year agreement to play a minimum two regular season games a year at their stadium, which is under construction. The stadium is being built with the NFL in mind and will have two fields — grass for soccer, FieldTurf for football — that can be swapped out as needed.

“With growing enthusiasm for the NFL in the United Kingdom, we are committed to hosting NFL games in world-class venues and are excited to partner with Tottenham Hotspur to play games at their future stadium,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement from the team. “We share a vision and commitment to creating the best experience for our teams, fans and the local community.”

The deal does not mean the league will stop playing games at Wembley Stadium, which will host three games during the 2015 regular season. NFL executive vice president of international Mark Waller said, via Daniel Kaplan of Sports Business Journal, that the league has a “great relationship” with Wembley and that securing another site in London gives the league more flexibility in scheduling as well as the opportunity to play more games in London as either a visitor or permanent resident.

“@AlbertBreer: Wow … So (at least) two games per year from 2018-27. And maybe eventually the home of a London NFL franchise. https://t.co/UCDl5BXIYa”

“@SpursOfficial: Our new stadium, due to open in 2018, will feature a retractable grass pitch with an artificial surface underneath to be used for NFL games.”

 

[BigA27]

An NFL team in London is inevitable. Stadiums in London are now jockeying for the team. Shad Khan is gonna have his choice of wear to put the London Jaguars (With perhaps a color rebranding into British Racing Green).
 
Too much smoke. This is gonna happen and we are all gonna have to deal with it. 

 

[DJnVa]

 This is gonna happen and we are all gonna have to deal with it. 

 

Thankfully, where millionaires play their games has little bearing on our actual lives.

 

[Gunfighter 09]

As I posted in the soccer forum Spurs thread, I see two possibilities for this deal: 
 
A. The NFL now has a stadium to their liking (NFL roster sized locker room, field turf)  for their 2-4 London games a year and a new replacement location to leverage cities that don't want to spend taxpayer dollars to keep their teams. 
 
B. The loser of the LA race now has a new home. Assuming the two winners are playing in the Rose Bowl / Dodger stadium / Home Depot(!) center for the 2016 season, that gives the loser the 16 and 17 seasons to get a deal done in Oakland / St Louis / San Diego before moving to London in 2018. I can see the losing team (likely either the Raiders or Rams) having to playing two home games in London to help build a fan relationship a year before moving. 
 
What is the value of an NFL team in London. We know the value of an NFL team in LA is no less than $2.5 billion based on the Clippers and Dodgers sales. I have to think the London franchise will sell tickets for insane prices by comparison to what NFL teams charge in the states, plus they will essentially have the NFL's largest market to themselves.
 
Finally, Tottenham Hotspur are huge rivals with Arsenal, who are owned by Stan Kroenke.... owner of the St Louis Rams. So, I am not exactly sure if the NFL can force the Kroenke to help fund his largest rival. This might be a sign that the Rams are the leaders for the race into LA. 
 
 Lots to ponder and speculate about on this one. 

 

[Gunfighter 09]

 
Thankfully, where millionaires play their games has little bearing on our actual lives.

 
 
So will my Raiders season tickets transfer to London? That will be quite the financial windfall.  This would be an absolute disaster for the fanbases, in that the team is really, really gone, as opposed to just moving up/down the coast (Raiders / Chargers) or moving to a location where a forty year fan relationship already existed (Rams). This really is incredible leverage on the fans and cities for the NFL in that the majority of the "losing" fans will likely never see their team live again. 

 

[DJnVa]

 
 
So will my Raiders season tickets transfer to London?

 

I agree that it would suck for fans of the team leaving. But it's not like Baltimore Colts fans were able to transfer season tickets to Indy.
 
But outside of that fanbase, we "all" don't really have much to deal with. Personally some 9 am games once in a while will be awesome.

 

[NortheasternPJ]

Tailgating for a 1pm home game and watching a 9am game is my idea of heaven. 

 

[SoxinSeattle]

And we think the Celtics can't attract free agents. I wonder if the NFL would subsidise players?

 

[Rook05]

And we think the Celtics can't attract free agents. I wonder if the NFL would subsidise players?

There are obviously currency and tax challenges, but I don't think recruiting would be a huge problem in the long run. Maybe there would be some short term transition assistance, but it would be the equivalent to living in NYC or LA, only athletes would have all of Europe to themselves.

The real question is the number of players that fail to look right before crossing the street.

 

[BigA27]

There are obviously currency and tax challenges, but I don't think recruiting would be a huge problem in the long run. Maybe there would be some short term transition assistance, but it would be the equivalent to living in NYC or LA, only athletes would have all of Europe to themselves.

The real question is the number of players that fail to look right before crossing the street.

 
London is luckily mostly idiot proofed. They have instructions written on the crosswalks alerting you to which direction you should look. At least downtown.
 
I think the Jaguars are the easy favorite, or at least I thought so. Shad Khan owns Fulham, I wonder if that would hinder his relationship with Tottenham.

 

[( . ) ( . ) and (_!_)]

No obvious examples are jumping to the top of my mind, but what about a situation where a player is arrested by the London Police for something that is not illegal in the United States? I'm curious how the NFL would handle those situations and how British due process would relate to the personal conduct policy vs. the way we do it here.
(I know nothing about England.  This might not be an actual issue, but I'm just curious)

 

[singaporesoxfan]

I wonder if an NFL team moving to the U.K. might have implications for media coverage, given the different libel law regimes in the U.K. (That said, the British tabloids don't seem to have a problem covering Premier League football players and team owners...)