With the league periodically talking about placing a team in London, and with some thinking that it’s just talk aimed at keeping the London fans fascinated by the potential of a full-time team of their own, it was time to dust off the hat with the card that says “PRESS” and start poking around a little.
Per a league source with knowledge of the dynamics at play, ownership most likely would support a move of the Jaguars to London, if owner Shad Khan wants to do it. It’s unknown whether he actually wants to do it.
There’s a chance Khan simply wants to have a split schedule between Jacksonville and London, playing more games in England and making more money than he makes playing games in Florida. The league would likely support that approach as well, because the thinking is that, if the Jaguars don’t move to London, there’s no other current candidate to relocate to a location outside the U.S.
Khan has denied that he intends to move the team, but that’s what plenty of sports owners say before a move happens. The circumstantial evidence points to a potential departure from Jacksonville, what with the Jags playing in London once per year and Khan recently trying to buy Wembley Stadium.
It’s enough circumstantial evidence to get the league thinking about the possibility, even though the move would (as Commissioner Roger Goodell recently admitted) entail competitive issues for the team that plays there on a full-time basis and the teams that play road games on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.