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Potential London NFL franchise
A potential London NFL franchise is a hypothetical National Football League (NFL) American football team based in London, formed as a new expansion team or by relocating one of the existing 32 NFL teams currently based in the United States. Should the league establish a team in London, it would become the first of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada to establish a franchise outside either of those two countries.
A London NFL franchise would be intended to grow the league's revenues and provide further access to the British and European markets. However, the agreement of league owners is needed to undertake an expansion or relocation, and a London franchise would face financial, legal and logistical challenges. Possible home stadiums for the London team include one or more of Wembley Stadium, Twickenham Stadium or Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Since 2007, the league has held multiple regular season games in London each season as part of the NFL International Series, allowing the league to test solutions to some of the challenges facing a hypothetical London franchise.
Although American football in the United Kingdom has historically been a niche sport, British interest in the NFL was piqued in 1982, when Channel 4 began to show game highlights, and London began to host preseason games, beginning with the American Bowl in 1986.
From 1991, the city hosted the London Monarchs in the league's developmental World League of American Football (WLAF), initially based out of the original Wembley Stadium, at which they won World Bowl '91 to become the inaugural champions. Following the 1992 season, the World League disbanded: however, after a restructuring that removed the North American teams, the League returned for 1995, and London gained a British rival with the creation of the Scottish Claymores, based at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh. The Monarchs, meanwhile, left Wembley Stadium for reasons of cost, size and availability, and the team's home games were played at Tottenham Hotspur's White Hart Lane in the 1995 and 1996 seasons. White Hart Lane's field was only 93 yards long – nowhere near large enough to hold a full 120-yard field and end zones – so the WLAF had to grant an exemption from the usual rules. London left Tottenham one game early, playing their 1996 season closer at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge before moving there for the entirety of the 1997 WLAF season.
The WLAF became NFL Europe from the 1998 season, the year sweeping changes were brought to the UK teams. As the Monarchs rebranded to England Monarchs, playing at various venues across the country (Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London, Bristol City's Ashton Gate and Alexander Stadium, an athletics stadium in Birmingham), the Scots' team began playing across not only Murrayfield but Hampden Park in Glasgow too. However, as all NFL Europe franchises outside Germany and the Netherlands, both British teams were ultimately relocated due to lack of public interest: Monarchs bound for Berlin for 1999, while the Claymores moved to Glasgow permanently from 2001 (save for one match in the 2002 season) before heading for Hamburg in 2004. The League would become NFL Europa for the final season in 2007.
Popular interest in the sport waned with the growth of the Association football Premier League in the 1990s, although it grew again from 2007 following the establishment of the International Series. It also led to steady increases in actual participation in amateur games.
An affirmative vote of three-quarters of the owners of the NFL's 32 clubs is required before a new team can be created (known as expansion) or before an existing team is allowed to move to a new market (known as relocation), i.e. 24 or more clubs would have to approve of the decision.
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Potential London NFL franchise
A potential London NFL franchise is a hypothetical National Football League (NFL) American football team based in London, formed as a new expansion team or by relocating one of the existing 32 NFL teams currently based in the United States. Should the league establish a team in London, it would become the first of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada to establish a franchise outside either of those two countries.
A London NFL franchise would be intended to grow the league's revenues and provide further access to the British and European markets. However, the agreement of league owners is needed to undertake an expansion or relocation, and a London franchise would face financial, legal and logistical challenges. Possible home stadiums for the London team include one or more of Wembley Stadium, Twickenham Stadium or Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Since 2007, the league has held multiple regular season games in London each season as part of the NFL International Series, allowing the league to test solutions to some of the challenges facing a hypothetical London franchise.
Although American football in the United Kingdom has historically been a niche sport, British interest in the NFL was piqued in 1982, when Channel 4 began to show game highlights, and London began to host preseason games, beginning with the American Bowl in 1986.
From 1991, the city hosted the London Monarchs in the league's developmental World League of American Football (WLAF), initially based out of the original Wembley Stadium, at which they won World Bowl '91 to become the inaugural champions. Following the 1992 season, the World League disbanded: however, after a restructuring that removed the North American teams, the League returned for 1995, and London gained a British rival with the creation of the Scottish Claymores, based at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh. The Monarchs, meanwhile, left Wembley Stadium for reasons of cost, size and availability, and the team's home games were played at Tottenham Hotspur's White Hart Lane in the 1995 and 1996 seasons. White Hart Lane's field was only 93 yards long – nowhere near large enough to hold a full 120-yard field and end zones – so the WLAF had to grant an exemption from the usual rules. London left Tottenham one game early, playing their 1996 season closer at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge before moving there for the entirety of the 1997 WLAF season.
The WLAF became NFL Europe from the 1998 season, the year sweeping changes were brought to the UK teams. As the Monarchs rebranded to England Monarchs, playing at various venues across the country (Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London, Bristol City's Ashton Gate and Alexander Stadium, an athletics stadium in Birmingham), the Scots' team began playing across not only Murrayfield but Hampden Park in Glasgow too. However, as all NFL Europe franchises outside Germany and the Netherlands, both British teams were ultimately relocated due to lack of public interest: Monarchs bound for Berlin for 1999, while the Claymores moved to Glasgow permanently from 2001 (save for one match in the 2002 season) before heading for Hamburg in 2004. The League would become NFL Europa for the final season in 2007.
Popular interest in the sport waned with the growth of the Association football Premier League in the 1990s, although it grew again from 2007 following the establishment of the International Series. It also led to steady increases in actual participation in amateur games.
An affirmative vote of three-quarters of the owners of the NFL's 32 clubs is required before a new team can be created (known as expansion) or before an existing team is allowed to move to a new market (known as relocation), i.e. 24 or more clubs would have to approve of the decision.