In recent years, the NFL has been very aggressive as far as expansion. They have moved a team (back) to Los Angeles, currently send four teams a year overseas to London to play football, and are seeking to reach a global audience in the same way that the NBA did under David Stern.
There are a variety of concerns that the league would have to deal with should they choose to move a team there full-time. Compensation (dollars or euros?), recruiting, and travel time are just three of them. Which concern is the league most concerned about? Not the one that most fans would expect.
From CBS Sports:
"Believe it or not, what the league is most concerned about sorting out lately is how it would handle a London franchise once it inevitably reached a playoff round and faced a team from beyond the Midwest."
While there certainly is value in moving a team to London, NFL owners have to answer these kinds of tough questions. Surely playing in London would give the team in London an almost unfair home field advantage in a variety of ways. The most obvious way? Time difference. The human body loves routine and is very slow to adapt to change, especially with regards to sleep cycles. Anyone who has had to go from working during the day to working at night will most likely confirm that it takes your body a while to adjust.
It’s good that the league is open to moving to London. But there are concerns that must be addressed before moving to London becomes a reality.
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