(05-03-2018, 05:41 AM)Andy G Wrote:

(05-02-2018, 12:47 PM)HURRICANE!!! Wrote: London's population is 9 million
England's population is 53 million
UKs population is 65 million

IMO Khan would have no issues capturing the UK's population by marketing the team as Home of the UK Jags.  Right now, the Jags are comparable to a Premier League team (Southampton) playing here in Jacksonville for a single match.  The interest wouldn't be 100% but I guarentee you if Southampton moved their team to Jacksonville, you'd capture the entire state of Florida as your fanbase as fans would flock to see them play the top English Soccer teams on a weekly basis here in Jacksonville.

I’m not convinced by the “build it and they will come” argument.

There’s interest in the current games because they’re a novelty and because they bring across a range of different teams every year. And they sell very well because of that.  But the sport is still a minority one in this country, with amateur leagues and relatively little media exposure. The NFL has sometimes claimed there are 13 million NFL fans in the UK, which is laughable - there is no way that one in five people over here watches the NFL. The Super Bowl is watched by around one tenth of that number and regular season games are seen by just a few tens of thousands. (Although that’s partly because of the time they are on the telly)

And despite what you were told at the State of the Franchise event, there aren’t 86,000 Jaguars fans here, ready to pack out Wembley. I’d be surprised if there were a quarter of that number at Jaguars games at Wembley - the vast majority at all the London games are neutral fans, who just want to watch some NFL. The “86,000 Jaguars Uk members” figure probably includes anyone who says “yes I would like more information about the Jaguars” in surveys, possibly with the chance of winning a prize. I’ve signed up at least three times myself for this reason.

Maybe that doesn’t matter if you just want to stage eight games a year over here. There might just be enough interest from all NFL fans to sell out those games. (Just as neutral soccer fans might flock to see EPL games in your Southampton analogy) But even the best supported teams over here wouldn’t sell enough tickets to become the “home” team, with the majority of fans on game day. And you’ll really struggle to find enough fans to support a new franchise or one of the less well supported ones (like the Jaguars).

And then there’s Tottenham’s stadium. It’s also being touted as a venue for a possible franchise. It’s slightly smaller than Wembley, so might be easier to fill and it’s been designed with NFL games in mind. If it succeeds in attracting more games (it is starting with one this year) there certainly won’t be room for two franchises in the UK.

Maybe I’m wrong and fans will come out of the woodwork to support “their” team, but I just don’t see it at the moment.