Jaguars to announce they will play multiple games in London.

What did we do to deserve this?

Right it never started great with the Rams, though since trading down they could have improved by 2014, then the rumour was it would be Vikings, not great but some good players and now the Jaguars a team with one good player and he's holding out! Guess they aren't serious about growing the fanbase here, unless its a test to see how bad they can get with it still probably selling out.

They could grow into a good team, every Florida team will have played there now though. Quite interesting, still I won't be heading over unless they play the Bucs. Not many will want to see that, I think UK fans are a bit picky about it, at the start it was lucky to have a game now it's just feic it, which is understandable if they want to go abroad to see their team.

Only thing I care about is that the Giants are scheduled to play in Jacksonville in 2014. Please Mara and Tisch, bring the Giants to me!!!!

But surely they need to try poorlish teams, without a bigger fan base, to see weather an NFL franchise in England would work? Always having big/well known teams coming over means that you are pretty much guaranteed a big crowd. Until something like this happens the NFL
cannot get a true measure of attendances/interest. After all, if they ever do franchises outside America, and London get one. We will not see the bigger teams each game.
Plus it depends in what games the Jags bring over, you would think that at least one v
the Saints or Falcons, which would be interesting (if only because of the other sides).

^ why would the other side be the Saints or Falcons? They're not even schedule to play the Jags until 2015...

And while I hear what you say about wanting to see what a no-name team will draw, that can be accomplished with a single game. Why have them come over for multiple games?

Realistically, they are giving up home games and so it's understandable to me that only teams that have trouble selling out at home are willing to give up those games.

You just have to hope that the team coming to play them will be a draw!

[quote="GurTPL"]^ why would the other side be the Saints or Falcons? They're not even schedule to play the Jags until 2015...

And while I hear what you say about wanting to see what a no-name team will draw, that can be accomplished with a single game. Why have them come over for multiple games?[/quoteI

Because there would be 8 homes games a season, so they want to view how it goes, if the Jags get 50000 + then each game at Wembley they would view it a success. And would make Englanda serious player with regards the NFL.

but dude, the multiple games isn't within a season, it's gonna be a single game, four years in a row

Seriously 4 years of the Jaguars? Whats the point of potentially getting them more fans here, it doesn't help them sell out their home games. Hopefully some big name teams will come as the away team but then that means the Jags probably won't get the neutral support.

Is that confirmed as 4 years? I thought it was just taking over the Rams existing agreement

Nah, appears to be four (going mostly off this article, but PFT are legit)

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/08/20/report-jaguars-lease-will-need-to-be-revised-to-permit-london-games/

WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO US NFL, WHY??!!!!!!!

Interestingly the two teams tied to Wembley have been two of the more 'unstable' franchises, the Rams and the Jaguars. both of whom have been linked with moves to Los Angeles.

I notice how ungrateful UK fans are over the whole IS thing. At the start it was any team is greay, now people are gettign choosey. Not sure mutliple years is the way to go about it though.

I think if it was just the Jags next year and then different teams year after year it would be better. But the Jags for the next 4 years isnt really encouraging fans to go tbh. I mean they dont even fill out there own stadium most of the time.

Gonna copy and paste a long FB rant I just ranted about why we SHOULD be getting choosey


I imagine we all want the International Series to be successful and continue long into the future.

But the fact is, if the IS is going to grow, it cannot just pull in hardcore NFL fans, but needs to appeal to casual fans who have a mild interest in the sport. If that's to be the case, I believe it is hugely important to put on as good a product as possible to showcase and advertise the sport. The Jaguars are far from the best team for this - not only is the product they put on the field pretty damn uninspiring (especially if they don't even have MJD), but I'd imagine that they're probably one of the least well known teams to the man in the street. Even people who don't follow the NFL at all will be able to name a couple of teams thanks to references on US TV shows - but I would be willing to place a large wager on the Jaguars being one of the least-mentioned teams if you were to do that survey.

But the biggest problem for me, in terms of bringing in the casual fan, isn't even the fact that they're an unexciting team with relatively little recognition. Rather, imagine you're the casual NFL fan who decides to go see a Wembley game. You pay 60, 70, 80 quid? maybe even more? to go, but you pay anyway for the curiosity of seeing a game live. That game features a bad Jacksonville Jaguars team, which likely will result in a boring game, and you probably won't feel you'll have got your money's worth. But still, it was a nice day out I'm sure, and next year, your mate asks you if you want to go again.

You ask who's playing. The answer comes back: the Jaguars again.

See, that's the thing. The NFL can be so up-and-down that you cannot guarantee how competitive the teams will be when the lineup is announced, but that's part of the risk you take when you buy the tickets months before the season starts. But getting a team that has been so noncompetitive for so much of their history to sign up to play four games in a row pretty much ensures that any casual fans who go once and see the Jags play what will be, if history is any judge, pretty terrible football, will not spend over 100 quid (with travel & concessions taken into account) to go see them play again. So, the IS doesn't continue to grow as the NFL hope - and if that's the case, I'm not sure for how much longer they'll consider the IS to be worth the domestic backlash.

So, in summation: by having the Jaguars play four years in a row year, I think it will hurt the International Series in the long run, which may well lead to its cancellation. I do not think we should consider ourselves grateful to just have any NFL game over here - because it could lead to no NFL game here at all.

hmm, wasn't as long as I thought it was

I do understand what you are saying GurTPL. For me it is paramount we see the Jags vs a big name team, for most of these years, or else the casual fans won't come and watch.

Like this year for example, you have the Rams (decent team, not that good) vs one of the big name teams in the game, The Patriots. So casual fans are gonna wanna come see the likes of Brady.

I'm not sure how many will be excited about coming to see Blaine Gabbert

I agree on the 4 years thing, I don't think having the Jags there once is too bad, but having the same team there be it the Packers or the Browns would be a bit boring.

Yep agree Thomond. Hopefully though we will get multiple games soon, a lot of the NFL guys like Breer and La Canfora are saying it will happen, and then you never know about a franchise

Thomond wrote:I notice how ungrateful UK fans are over the whole IS thing. At the start it was any team is greay, now people are gettign choosey. Not sure mutliple years is the way to go about it though.

I don't understand why they just don't have two London/ European games per season and have every club play other an eight year period. Repeat that over the next 8 years and each team would lose one home game in 16 years.

It looks like the NFL wants to test the water of a possible franchise in London by having one team play their home games at Wembley over a series of seasons.

A franchise will fail you can guarantee it, rumours of the Steelers coming to Ireland, they have a connection here would be interesting. I think we could sell out Lansdowne the Notre Dame game is a bit of a red herring though. Sometihng like 20k of the tickets have been bought by US fans, (largest ever group of US fans at a game outside of US soil apparently) I think the interest would be here though not forgettign UK and European fans

By the way, assuming that the Jags won't give up a divisional game for London (which no team would), these are the home games for the Jaguars for 2013:

- Kansas City Chiefs
- San Diego Chargers (played in London in 2008)
- Arizona Cardinals
- San Francisco 49ers (played in London in 2010)
- Whichever AFC team finishes third or four (depending on who's worse, Jags or Colts) in 2012 - I'm guessing that's either the New York Jets or the Miami Dolphins (played in London in 2007)

So, realistically, I'm thinking the 2013 game will either be against the Chiefs, the Cardinals or possibly the Jets.

Any of those three matchups excite anyone?

I would be interested in seeing the Chiefs, the Jags are on the up I think though, a very good defence and while it's only pre-season Gabbert seems to have improved and willing to get hit. If MJD comes back and Blackmon shows something they could do alright. By 2013 or 2014 they could be close to division winners.

GurTPL wrote:(depending on who's worse, Jags or Colts)

I think the Jaguars will definitely be worse... Anyway I think the New York Jets would have big appeal in the UK.

Fantastic... this at least will guarantee that I see a Jags jersey at one of the London games

I reckon they are trying to use this as some form of bait to the city of Jacksonville to show that the team leaving is a pretty credible possibility

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/08/21/jacksonville-wont-be-the-only-team-playing-a-home-game-in-the-u-k/


I'm really hoping that the second "UK" game does turn out to be held in Dublin, just to watch Thomond's brain explode with rage :P

GurTPL wrote:but dude, the multiple games isn't within a season, it's gonna be a single game, four years in a row

I understand what your saying, and personally don't agree with 4 years of the same home team. What I'm trying to say, is to gauge weather a franchise team would work here, they need to test wether by the 4th year the crowds are down, up the same and the level of interest. Now in this case it would probably be the team they're playing, but if there getting 50/60000 + by the 4th year then. Other bigger teams might try a longer spell.

Though to be honest, if a team moves it will be to LA.

Also I wonder ibigger teams don't want to lose a home game because of fan unrest, and the money they would lose out on. Does anyone know what the home team actually get for moving a game to London?

Ian Rapoport ‏@RapSheet
From Maurice Jones-Drew's camp: Comments by Shad Khan sparked a visceral reaction. Sounds like this: If I'm not important, why not trade me?

So now they are angering there one player I would pay to see? Into where he might want a trade. Clever move, thats gonna increase the fanbase

Kind of hope it's the Cards they play -- i'm thinking about coming back to the UK to see the family in 2013 and I took my cousin from Birkenhead to a Cardinals game when he was out on holiday and he's now a fan and it would be great to go to the IS game with him.

We might even have a real QB by then...

Olly wrote:Ian Rapoport ‏@RapSheet
From Maurice Jones-Drew's camp: Comments by Shad Khan sparked a visceral reaction. Sounds like this: If I'm not important, why not trade me?

So now they are angering there one player I would pay to see? Into where he might want a trade. Clever move, thats gonna increase the fanbase

MJD can want a trade all he likes, he's not getting it. Quite how he hasn't figured out that he has zero leverage here I don't know.

^ that's what they said about Carson Palmer. MJD doesn't need to outlast Kahn, he just needs to wait for Kahn to get an offer he can't refuse.

Someone in the NFL would make a crazy offer for MJD, because he is good enough

It's been said a lot over the last year or two but RB is a devalued position so I don't see anyone making a crazy offer for MJD. As good as he is just now, he's at the stage when you're beginning to wonder how many more years has he got. Too many teams now use multiple RBs so the market for him is probably pretty small. That said, as the season progresses and some team sniffing around playoff contention loses a starting RB I don't doubt that someone might end up desperate enough to make an offer.

Am surprised at the extent of the negativity directed towards the Jags on here. Who else were the NFL gonna get to come over? The big teams don't want to give up a single home game let alone 1 a season for 4 years. Also, it's not that long since the Jags were one of the best teams in the AFC and had it not been for the fact they were stuck in the same division as the Colts at the peak of Manning's powers then they'd have racked up a handful more division titles. I can also remember a time when no-one would have thanked you for a ticket to see the likes of the Pats, Saints, or Packers. All top teams now but have periods in their history when they have been garbage. The Jags' history is a good example of the NFL at large - good follows bad follows good follows bad. It's one of the reasons we all love the NFL - every team has a chance to be good if they make the right moves. With Kahn at the helm they now have an owner who is willing to spend money on them. It's not outwith the realms of possibility that Gabbert to suggest that Gabbert could become a good QB. Some of the best QBs to have played the game had stinking first seasons. Blackmon could be a star. The defense is solid enough. Who's to say that in 3 years time the Jags won't be a good team? That's a long time in the NFL.

Olly wrote:Someone in the NFL would make a crazy offer for MJD, because he is good enough

That depends on what you count as crazy, he's had 6 years in the league already he may be one of the best but that's still a pretty long time at the running back position. Surprised some of these "run first" teams haven't offered anything, the Jets traded for Tebow but not MJD? Seems weird to me.

Derbyblue wrote:

Olly wrote:Someone in the NFL would make a crazy offer for MJD, because he is good enough

That depends on what you count as crazy, he's had 6 years in the league already he may be one of the best but that's still a pretty long time at the running back position. Surprised some of these "run first" teams haven't offered anything, the Jets traded for Tebow but not MJD? Seems weird to me.

i'm worried that the Lions have been mentioned to trade for MJD, that might tip the balance in the NFC North

MFD is just what the Lions need. Try working out whether they are handing off to MJD, or throwing to Megatron.

With the Lions luck with RBs it would either mean Lions taking the division or MJD getting injured.

Number-25 has a good point about the negativity towards the Jags, come 2016 they COULD be good, then again they could still be bad. Still not exactly happy with the team I think the issue is that they're looking for multi-year deals so it's only those with serious issues selling home tickets that are interested.

I wonder why they are looking at multi-year deals only?
I can understand the need for preparedness, but why would it not be possible to take it on a year by year basis?

It could be that they are looking to build a fanbase here, and to see if a franchise is able to do that, although I can imagine many people attend games having already got alliegances to teams!

That's the problem with putting a franchise over here, is how many people would actually support just that team? I don't think I would stop supporting the Pats all of a sudden, to support the London team

I do agree with Olly, I find it hard to imagine that I would stop supporting the Redskins to follow anyone else. I've been supporting them for 20-odd years now and invested too much emotion in them in that time so no way could I put all that aside and invest that emotion in someone else.

I'd definitely take an interest in a London team though but (in my current state of mind... however scary that might be!!) it would be more as a second team. I would want it to do well so that critics in the US and over here would have less to snipe at it about and I would definitely go along every so often just to see some live action and be part of the NFL. I can also see me rooting for the Jags a little more over the next few years. Why not? They're a bit of an underdog and we should give them some credit for bringing some NFL action to the UK when other teams are running a mile from the idea.