In 2020, the Jacksonville Jaguars will play two of their home games in back-to-back matchups at Wembley Stadium in London. It’s a move the team says aims to increase its local revenue. That’s something the Jaguars have struggled with — partly because they’re in one of the NFL’s smallest markets, but also because they’ve had a winning record once in the last 12 seasons.
It will be the first time a team has played two games outside of the United States in the same season, and it’s unsurprising that it’ll be the Jaguars. They’ve played a game at Wembley in each of the past seven years.
Their relationship to the UK market runs deeper than simply being part of the NFL International Series, which has seen most teams playing one-off games in London or at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. It’s part of a deal that was originally struck in 2012 and extended through the 2020 season to help the Jaguars generate revenue, all the while working to increase their profitability at home.
It may seem strange at first — playing fewer home games to increase profits — but there is a reason Jacksonville is doing this. Let’s dive into the details.
Why are the Jaguars are playing in London?
The Jaguars have a reputation for poor attendance at home games, but the reality is that it’s not too bad. Even during a mostly hopeless 6-10 season in 2019, there were still 10 teams below Jacksonville’s average of 63,085 fans.
When the Jaguars went to the AFC Championship in January 2018 — their only trip to the playoffs in the last 12 years — the team had 66,674 attendees per game in the following season. That’s not far from filling the maximum stadium capacity of 67,862. Evidence would suggest Jacksonville is a viable market, given an occasional winning season.
The Jaguars believe they need to think more creatively than that, though.
“We have done a crappy job of winning,” Jaguars president Mark Lamping told the Florida Times-Union. “Hopefully we will get better. But just to sit back and say winning is going to cure everything, not in this market.”
A home game in London nets the Jaguars twice what home games at TIAA Bank Field in Northeast Florida generate, the team said. This money is important, but the Jaguars insist it’s more supplemental than anything and that they are not testing the waters for a potential relocation.
In fact, the team is currently spearheading a proposed $700 million entertainment district development around the stadium in Jacksonville. It’s worth pointing out, though, that the Jaguars will ask for a significant amount of taxpayer help with the project.
Reminder: Shad Khan is expected to ask taxpayers for at least $200 million in cash to build a development next to the stadium.
— Christopher Hong (@ChrisHongTU) February 4, 2020
That development, if completed, would provide substantial revenue for Khan and the Jaguars, largely based around folks going to games and spending extra money along the way.
Will the Jaguars end up relocating to London?
If the newly proposed development gets greenlit, it would bode well for the team’s future in Jacksonville.
It hardly makes sense for Khan, the team owner, to commit to such an ambitious, multi-year project if he then intends to move the team. The Jaguars have also invested over $100 million into the publicly owned TIAA Bank Field, including gigantic scoreboards and swimming pools.
The Jaguars’ lease with the stadium expires in 2029 and that could cause relocation chatter to heat up near the end of the decade. But that’s far off on the horizon and there are also potential pitfalls that would make placing a full-time NFL team in London a long shot. Travel is one, and it’s also questionable whether fans in England even want a team of their own.
Playing two games overseas in 2020 doesn’t really push the Jaguars closer to making London their new home.
So why are they playing two games in 2020?
There are some fringe benefits of playing back-to-back games in the United Kingdom. For one, it costs a lot to pack up a football team and get all the gear necessary to London for a game. Playing a second game maximizes the value that the Jaguars get out of those expenses.
It also gives them a chance to see whether or not the extra week without travel helps with any ill effects of playing overseas, such as jet lag.
But most of all, if the Jaguars make more money playing home games in London, then they may as well play more than once. The end goal, according to the team, is still increasing Jacksonville’s viability as a home market. It’d be good to create more fans outside of Florida too.
The Jaguars are one of the least recognizable brands in the NFL and establishing a fanbase in Europe can help combat that lack of popularity.
What does the NFL get out of this?
Other than sharing in all revenue, the NFL continues to look for ways to build its presence outside of the United States. One day the league may aim for a team in London or Mexico or another country, but there’s no reason that team would have to be an existing one or even one that spent a sizable portion of time in London already.
In short, any team playing any games abroad gives the league more information about those markets. They are — hopefully — converting people abroad into fans of American football, with the ultimate goal of expanding, however it happens.
How have the Jaguars fared overseas?
The Jaguars are 3-4 in London and have lost their last two outings. Their biggest win was a 44-7 drubbing of the Ravens in 2017, and their biggest loss was a 42-10 blowout against the 49ers in 2013. Still, their record is respectable given the Jaguars have only had one winning season since they’ve started playing games in London.
Below is the full list of results from Jacksonville’s games in the UK and their final record that season:
- Oct. 27, 2013: 49ers 42, Jaguars 10 (4-12)
- Nov. 9, 2014: Cowboys 31, Jaguars 17 (3-13)
- Oct. 25, 2015: Jaguars 34, Bills 31 (5-11)
- Oct. 2, 2016: Jaguars 30, Colts 27 (3-13)
- Sept. 24, 2017: Jaguars 44, Ravens 7 (10-6)
- Oct. 28, 2018: Eagles 24, Jaguars 18 (5-11)
- Nov. 3, 2019: Texans 26, Jaguars 3 (6-10)
The Jaguars had a bye week after all but one of those games. After destroying the Ravens in 2017, the Jaguars lost to the Jets seven days later. It’d be surprising if Jacksonville didn’t have a bye after back-to-back games in London in 2020.
What are the Jaguars saying about this?
Khan is adamant that this move helps the long-term future of the Jaguars. Along with the planned development, he says the moves he is making now are important to the next 25-plus years of the franchise.
“This isn’t about next season or the next few seasons in Jacksonville, but really about the next 10 years, 25 years and beyond,” Khan said in a statement. “There is no better time than now to capitalize on the opportunity to play two home games in London, where we will continue to develop our loyal and growing fan base there and throughout the UK, during a period in which I will be focused heavily on creating a new downtown experience that we want, need and must have here.
“We have an exceptional opportunity right in front of us for Jacksonville to meet its potential and be the city I imagined we’d become when I arrived here in 2011. I am optimistic and believe it will happen.”
There are always concerns with losing more home games, of course. For one, it means season ticket holders get less value out of their seats, though the Jaguars say they are reducing the price of preseason tickets by 50 percent and season tickets by 15 percent to help make up for it.
Still, that’s not something they should be lauded for — fewer true home games should equal a reduction in price. There are many Jaguars fans who still aren’t happy, and for a number of reasons.
What are the fans saying about this?
For some reason Khan thought fans would be excited to see their slate of home games in Jacksonville cut to six:
#Jaguars owner Khan said he expects reaction from fans to be “positive” cuz they understand added revenue is needed to keep team in Jax, but hard to imagine there won’t be pushback.
— Eugene Frenette (@GeneFrenette) February 4, 2020
He was wrong. Jaguars fans — and sports fans in general — don’t care much for talk about revenue. Fans in Jacksonville have spent decades facing accusations that they don’t support the team as well as they should, despite the Jaguars consistently poor performance.
A group of Jaguars fans called the Bold City Brigade released a statement Tuesday to “vehemently oppose” the decision:
“Decisions like the one announced today only serve to perpetuate negative perceptions and surely cannot be framed as being done ‘for the fans’ or ‘for the long term health of the market,’” the statement reads in part. “We would contend that a record of 38-90 and only one season at or above .500 over the past eight years would not create much sustainability in any market.”
An organization called Duval Coalition started circulating a petition opposing the pair of London games a day later.
Jaguars fans are angry, and it’s hard to blame them. For years, the team has given them little reason to feel anything else.
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