By Omkar Pratapwar
This year, the NFL is planning on playing 3 regular season games over the pond at Wembley Stadium in London. The cause behind the dislocation of these three games is due to the NFL seeking a new market to expand into by either establishing new teams or sparking the interest by playing there. The Bills are a good example of this with their formerly annual games at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. Canada is just one of many places the NFL is thinking about expanding to, but does London actually have any real interest, and is it even viable? There are much better cities and regions that the NFL could expand to, without too much of a hassle for travel.
First off, Canada, a country that is accustomed to American professional sports expand into. Just look at the Blue Jays (Baseball), Raptors (Basketball), Mapleleafs, Jets, Canadiens, and Senators (all Hockey). American sports in Canada is already well established, so why not football? In fact, of all the places I could list, the country with the biggest interest is probably Canada, which also has its own Canadian Football League. Also fivethirtyeight.com’s Nate Silver estimates that there are over a million football fans in Toronto alone, and many more across Canada. The Buffalo Bills did try for a few years to tap into that Toronto market, but there was little interest and crowd numbers began to dwindle, so new owners Terry and Kim Pegula decided to cut out the annual game there, but a team in Toronto or Quebec, maybe even Vancouver would allow Canadian football fans to have a team of their own.
Another good option would be to ignite a Pacific Northwest rivalry by adding a team in Portland, Oregon. The ol’ Portland v. Seattle rivalry is one that is undeniable. Just look at Major League Soccer today. When the Portland Timbers take on the Seattle Sounders, every soccer fan in the U.S. has to turn an eye towards the Northwest, because this rivalry is heated and very competitive. The same could be said for the Portland Trailblazers and now defunct Seattle Supersonics, back when they played. Rivalries are never bad for the NFL, when it comes to making a profit, and that’s exactly what the League is looking for.
When someone says football in Hawaii, most people will think of the highly criticized Pro-Bowl taking place a week prior to the Superbowl. But to Hawaiians, football goes beyond that, with the Hawaii being the birthplace of many excellent football players like Manti T’eo, Dominic Raiola, and Marcus Mariota. Plus, who doesn’t want to live in Hawaii? Hawaii has the perfect stadium in Aloha Stadium in Honolulu. Statistics from fivethirtyeight.com show that fan allegiances in Honolulu are in a three-way split between San Francisco, Seattle, and Dallas. so a pro football team in Hawaii would allow for football fans in Hawaii to have a local team, and also possibly open up the opportunity to expand football into Asia.
Often overlooked, Mexico could be next big market for the NFL to break into. According to Nate Silver, Mexico City contains the largest number of international NFL fans, placed near 1.5 million people. Mexico City also has an excellent arena in Estadio Azteca, which is only used on the sparse occasions of international soccer matches.This surprisingly puts Mexico City above major NFL cities like Miami, Atlanta, Seattle, Denver, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and the list goes on. Securing a firm sports stronghold in North America could help make the NFL like the Barclay’s Premier league in the United Kingdom. I doubt that any of you would care about the Welsh Premier league, because of the success of the BPL in those areas. By setting up teams in other nations, you are diminishing the chance of other sports to spring up there, and by bringing a higher level of competition there, you could attract more fans to watch your games rather than others.
Out of all the areas I just listed, the most likely of the NFL to expand to by far Los Angeles. First, the LA area has already had a team there in the 70’s when the St. Louis Rams were the LA Rams, and later made the switch to Missouri. Second, it makes the most sense, it is just obvious to place a team there, the MLB and the NBA both have wisely decided to create two teams in LA, just because of the sheer popularity of sports, and the opportunity for a rivalry (see Portland), but of course, the NFL is likely to start with one team and move from there, but still, the love of football is clearly seen in the support for the USC and UCLA football teams, along with the fact that many LA fans are unfortunately forced to support the… Oakland Raiders. But in all seriousness, Los Angeles is a great place to start expansion because of the nature of the sports culture there and the great opportunity for further NFL support.
There are plenty more cities that I could roll off and list for you here, but these five just make the most sense; there is a large fan base, an excellent stadium available for use, and the costs for the NFL would be lower than if they were to expand into a far off city such as London, Paris, Madrid, or Dusseldorf. There are still plenty of other good options that I can list off in the U.S. like Columbus, Las Vegas, San Antonio, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Louisville, and the list goes on, but there would still be conflicts with stadiums and the fans in that area could already have a strong tie to other teams. Even in parts such as San Juan, Puerto Rico, the fan base is low, the stadium options are limited, and the majority of people are baseball fans, which is also what limits the possibility of having any Caribbean teams. If money is what the NFL wants, than expansion is how they can get it. The NFL needs to play its cards right by adding teams in good numbers like 4, which would change the NFL from 8 divisions of 4 teams to 6 divisions of 6 teams. Adding a team to a league as large as the NFL isn’t an easy job, but it can haul in big money in the long run.
