This year's NFL games in London wrapped on Sunday with the Texans defeating the JaguarsGETTY IMAGES
The NFL "feels it has done everything it can to pave the way for a franchise to be established in London," and now "all it needs is an owner willing to relocate" a team across the Atlantic, according to Dan Cancian of NEWSWEEK. League execs are "convinced football will soon be able to call the British capital home for longer than just four weeks each year." NFL Exec VP and Chief Strategy & Growth Officer Chris Halpin: "There is nothing blocking us from having a franchise in London, but we have to get all our ducks in a row. ... We need to have an owner who wants to relocate a team here, but that is out of our control." He said of London, "The fan base is here, the demand for tickets is here and the speed at which sellouts happen is incredible." Cancian noted the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium "hosted its first NFL game last month." An expansion franchise would in "all likelihood play eight home games in a row, followed by eight straight road games or vice versa." Halpin suggests the nature of NFL scheduling "makes it relatively easy to predict which West Coast teams would have to fly to London during the regular season, but concedes the playoffs would prove to be a logistical challenge" (NEWSWEEK.com, 11/4).
JUST KEEP SWIMMING: In Miami, Armando Salguero cites sources as saying that the Dolphins "will be playing abroad" next season, with one of the team's regular-season games set to be played as part of the NFL's Int'l Series. It "remains unclear if the Dolphins will be playing in London or Mexico City." The Dolphins kicked off the London games in '07 and returned to the U.K. in '14, '15 and '17. They have "never played a regular-season game in Mexico" but played the Broncos in a preseason game at Azteca Stadium before 104,629 fans in '97. Adding the Dolphins to the Int'l Series next season "means the team will host seven rather than eight home games at Hard Rock Stadium" (MIAMI HERALD, 11/5).
