How the Jaguars Turned London Into the NFL’s Most Profitable Road Game
From charter planes to tax exemptions, this is how the NFL’s London operation really works (and why the Jaguars are the league’s biggest winner overseas).
The Jacksonville Jaguars have one of the most unique deals in the NFL, enabling the team to generate tens of millions of dollars from its international games in London.
When Shad Khan acquired the Jaguars in 2011, the NFL was still trying to get its international strategy off the ground. Teams didn't want to play games in London because it meant sacrificing revenue from a home game. But Khan felt comfortable playing the long game, sacrificing short-term revenue for a larger payday later on.
In 2012, the Jaguars became the first and only NFL team to commit to multiple years of London games. The Jaguars will play their 14th international game this weekend — they missed 2020 due to COVID — while no other team has played more than four.
And as a reward for helping the NFL build its international fanbase, the Jaguars now retain complete revenue control over their international games. The Jaguars get to keep all ticket revenue, all food and beverage sales, all merchandise revenue, all suite and premium seating revenue, and the team even sets ticket prices. This is drastically different from the economics of every other NFL team, and it means the Jaguars now generate about $35 million to $50 million in revenue each time they play in London.
This deal between the NFL and the Jaguars might not last forever, but it’s also only one of the many unique aspects of the NFL’s increasingly large international schedule.
So for today’s newsletter, we’re going to examine how the NFL’s international games work financially. First, we’ll cover the logistics, including how teams transport 40,000 pounds of gear, what hotels the players and staff typically stay at, the hourly rate to rent large planes with additional first-class seating, and how teams handle passports and customs. But then, I want to talk about the future, including how the NFL’s revenue-sharing agreements work today and what they might look like in the future.
This is something every football fan should care about. Not only is it incredibly interesting, but every NFL team is now required to play international games, and the league eventually wants to expand its international schedule to 16 games per season.