The Jacksonville Jaguars are playing a pair of “home” games in London this season. The economics of those contests, however, couldn’t be more different.
The team’s last-second win over the Philadelphia Eagles last week in Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was organized and operated by the NFL, part of the league’s more standard rotation of all teams playing overseas. For that game—like Commanders vs. Colts in Tottenham’s stadium the week prior—the league covers travel costs and some accommodations, but the home team loses out on the millions it would typically capture from hosting in its local market.
By contrast, the Jaguars’ game on Sunday against the Houston Texans in Wembley Stadium is operated by the team, not the NFL. Under that unique arrangement between the league, team and venue, the Jaguars are responsible for game day staffing, vendors, operations, ticketing, concessions and more. It’s a standard home game, and even given the added costs, it typically nets out better than the team’s games back in EverBank Stadium.
In 2022, for example, ESPN reported ticket revenue at Wembley was 40% higher than a standard home game at EverBank. A rep for the team didn’t respond to an email this week seeking comment.
This dual-game arrangement began in 2022, when the Jaguars became the first NFL team to play two consecutive games in the U.K. Jacksonville had for years been a mainstay in the league’s London efforts, but that became a much more formal arrangement with the addition of a second game in the city. Jaguars owner Shad Khan also owns London soccer club Fulham F.C., and in 2018 he bid unsuccessfully to buy Wembley.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has said that despite the obvious logistical challenges, he believes London could support multiple permanent franchise. There has been speculation for more than a decade that the Jaguars could eventually make that move. That said, Khan and the city of Jacksonville are currently jointly financing a $1.4 billion stadium project, and the league doesn’t appear to be in any rush to add permanent teams in Europe.
During an event earlier this year in Jacksonville, Khan hinted the team was at “an inflection point” and evaluating whether its presence in the U.K. would change once the new development is done.
The Jaguars are speaking with the league about “what, if any, role we should have moving forward,” Khan told event attendees, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record. “Stay tuned. But it’s definitely something we’re really reflecting on.”
The Wembley arrangement has historically worked out well for the Jaguars financially. Not only is the West London stadium significantly bigger than EverBank—90,000 seats vs. 68,000—but the team has also historically sold tickets at a higher price point than it does at home games in Florida. It also represents one fewer game to sell in Jacksonville, allowing the team to concentrate ticket efforts in North Florida across a smaller set of games.
To accommodate this special London presence, the Jaguars have full-time staff based in the U.K. They’re one of 10 NFL teams that have marketing rights in the country via the league’s Global Markets Program, and they been able to utilize their presence, and their relationship with Fulham, to add sponsors. JagTag, a youth flag football platform the team launched in the U.K. and Ireland, had more than 100,000 participants last year.
In the early years of its international push, the NFL compensated the “home” teams with a stipend that made up the shortfall in local revenue. That changed in 2022. With the expansion to a 17-game schedule, the league determined that every team would play internationally at least once every eight years. So instead of making teams whole each time, the NFL now just pays teams’ travel expenses for their international game under the rationale that every team will lose a home game—and, in turn, home game ticket revenue—during that time.
Before Washington “hosted” the Colts in London this year, Sportico asked Commanders owner Josh Harris about the financial impact. “It’s not good,” he said, while laughing. “It’s bad in a lot of ways. But I’m not so much focused on economics, honestly. I’m focused on being part of the NFL community and growing the game internationally.”
The Jaguars are worth $7.91 billion, according to Sportico’s most recent numbers, which ranks 29th among the league’s 32 teams. Thanks in part to the unique London arrangement, the team’s local revenue ranked 25th.