It’s no secret the NFL is thinking expansion in it’s near future, but when will they take the plunge into making the dream a reality? Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, in a conversation with Peter King of MMQB, said he believes London and Los Angeles will have a team much sooner than we think.
Blank spoke about the progression from having one game in London to the full slate the NFL has for 2014.
I think it will lead to [a team]. I think it will start with an increased number of games. That will be translated into a very successful series of games, and eventually, I think a franchise. And maybe more than one. London’s a big city … I think eventually having that many games says that we really are playing a season in London, so we probably ought to have a team here. I think it will be a natural progression to a team.
Like London, Blank believes that Los Angeles has been ignored long enough.
I think that eventually there will be a team in L.A. It’s a matter of getting the stadium puzzle, getting the public/private partnership puzzle—getting all that worked through and worked out. I can’t see the NFL ignoring the city long-term.
The NFL has been a mixed bag when it comes to Los Angeles, but it is rather odd that the sports league with the most success hasn't planted a successful flag in such a major market. Many in the NFL believe that expansion is coming in the form of Los Angeles and London and at this point it is a matter of when not if. The NFL is ever growing and if a league was going to dip into the international market, it was always going to be the NFL.
[MMQB]
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