Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell were Downtown on Tuesday to discuss plans for the Jaguars to play four games in London over the next four years and how that global stage will benefit the local economy.
“(Jacksonville) is a great community that we are proud to have as a part of the NFL community. When we were talking about how we were going to expand our game on a global basis, the big issue for us was finding a community that understood this could be great for the community, wrap their arms around it and say, ‘This is a win-win situation,’” said Goodell.
The first regular season NFL game to be played in the United Kingdom took place in 2007 between the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants. The teams played in front of a crowd of 81,176 fans. The highest attendance was 84,254 in 2009 in a game between the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“We not only want to help the game grow on a global basis, we wanted to make sure that we could help our own community grow and, our franchise grow, on a global basis,” said Goodell.
While Khan has discussed taking the team overseas since he took ownership of the Jaguars in January, the idea of playing games in new locations is not foreign to the NFL, said Khan.
“There has been a lot of tradition where you build a bigger fan base. You take the pressure off of the local fans, expecting them to buy tickets to give you energy in the stadium. It’s been something important to me. I’ve talked to Roger (Goodell), I’ve talked with other owners and it’s about everything falling into place,” said Khan.
NFL owners approved a resolution Oct. 11, 2011, that authorized the league to schedule regular-season games in the U.K. in each of the following years, including determining the number of games per season, the venue and the competing teams.
The Jaguars will play one regular-season home game in London from 2013-16, all at Wembley Stadium. The date of the 2013 game and the opposing team will be announced in the months ahead.
“The key point is to sell Jacksonville to the world. We are a well-kept secret, and I think after today that is not quite going to be the case,” said Khan.
“We are serious about marketing Jacksonville as a world-class leisure destination, as well as, and more importantly, a place to grow a business, a great place to raise a family and to really have the full power of the NFL, to leverage this area,” he said.
Some fans have greeted the news with frustration for losing a home game in Jacksonville while others fear losing the team to another city, but Khan assured the crowd Tuesday at the University Club that the organization knows its place.
“We are the Jacksonville Jaguars. Jacksonville is the heart of our effort and, moving forward, all of us are going to be uplifted,” said Khan.
Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll praised the efforts of Khan as he works to expand the Jaguars brand and reach a global audience.
“Jacksonville, as Shad has said, is a vibrant city with great business opportunities and a wonderful tourist destination. We want the world to know Florida is the best place for football, travel and business,” said Carroll.
Carroll supported Khan’s efforts by revealing one of Florida’s strongest markets for overseas visitors.
“The United Kingdom remains Florida’s strongest core market for overseas tourism. For the airline operators that have been very engaged and involved with Florida, increasing the international list (of flights) into Florida has been instrumental in getting tourists to come to Florida,” said Carroll.
“Last year, Florida welcomed 1.3 million visitors from the United Kingdom and they spent about $1 million during their visit to our state,” she said.
Mayor Alvin Brown offered his thanks and appreciation to Khan and the NFL for their choice of overseas representatives.
“What we are seeing, and what we are appreciating, here today is a tremendous vote of confidence from the NFL leadership. We should be proud of everything Mr. Khan and his organization has done to energize this team,” said Brown.
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