Every year as teams head to the UK for the NFL London Games, two questions arise — Why do the Jacksonville Jaguars get to play in London every year and why do they have a healthy fanbase there? The answer to these questions can be found if one understands the vision that the Jaguars owner Shahid Khan has.
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Back in 2011, when the NFL was barely expanding its Global Markets Program; Khan cracked a never-before-heard deal in the NFL circles by partnering with the English Football Association. The demands of the deal in a nutshell were simple — the Jaguars would play in London compulsorily for four straight years, starting in 2012.
A year after the one-of-a-kind deal started, Shahid Khan expanded his sports team portfolio by acquiring London-based Premier League Club Fulham FC. Considering Shahid was taking over from Mohamed Al Fayed, a polarising figure in London, Fulham fans were excited.
This move was enough to make British fans feel an extra bit of connection with the Jaguars and the stats back it up. As per recent reports, out of the 83,000 sold-out crowd that attends Jaguars’ matches in Wembley, a whopping 82 percent are British fans. And even out of the rest, only 3 percent are American expats.
Considering the vested interest of Shahid Khan in London’s very own team in Fulham, them extending that support to Jacksonville is no surprise. A similar phenomenon can be seen with F1 Ferrari fans in Italy who extend this support to Italian Football giants Juventus owing to the same parent ownership.
However, one might argue that the best reason for Jacksonville’s sustained interest in London is its revenue share agreement with the NFL.
The Jacksonville Jaguars retain all the revenue from London games
Considering the special connect and contractual obligations that Shahid Khan has conjured up with London-based stakeholders, it’s no surprise that the Jacksonville Jaguars have been a regular NFL representative in London.
In fact, since 2012, Shahid Khan’s team has played at least one game in London every year with the exception being the 2020 season. This move also makes a lot of sense from a financial lens for the Jaguars.
As per the NFL, Shahid Khan’s team is currently on a 3-year contract [signed in 2022] that allows them to retain 100 percent revenue of the games played in Wembley Stadium.
With the way the NFL is getting popular in London and the reception that the Jaguars are getting, it’s unlikely that this deal will be extended.
If things continue this way, it would be exciting to see where this leads the NFL in its Global Markets Program. After all, one of the initial ideas of the program was to gauge the feasibility of a London-based NFL team!
