Jacksonville Jaguars London charm offensive shows no sign of abating

“You’ve got to fish in ponds where you’ve got fish in there,” said owner Shahid Khan at the time. “We’re going to a pond where there are no fishermen.”

Khan bought the Jaguars in 2011. The franchise had only managed two play-off appearances in the previous decade and were struggling to bring in fans. Between 2005 and 2009, they would regularly cover up to 10,000 seats in tarpaulin. Their ground’s showpiece fixture every year was college football – the annual game between Florida and Georgia. As one of three teams in Florida, they were fighting for every eyeball.

Within two years, Khan also became the owner of a London club, buying Fulham from Mohamed Al-Fayed. He has now spent more than a decade immersed in London as a sporting market, both through his Premier League team and through the Jaguars who have played here every season since that first game in 2013, with the exception of 2020 when covid derailed plans.

His financial confidence in the city as a sporting hub is so great that in 2018, he attempted to buy Wembley.

This marks the 12th year of the Jaguars’ London charm offensive, with Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Rams their 14th game in the city. Their record here is as neutral as can be, having won seven and lost six of their games. The Tennessee Titans are the only NFL side with fewer followers on Instagram than the Jaguars. A recent YouGov study ranked them as the 11th most popular NFL team in the UK. British fandom is clearly not tied to success either – the New York Giants came out top.

Rey Smart first went to watch the Jaguars play at Wembley in 2015 when they narrowly beat the Buffalo Bills 34-31.

“I’m local to Wembley so I decided to go down to see them play,” he said. “It was epic. There was singing at the beginning. There were planes flying overhead with red, white, and blue. It was such an experience. That started my love affair with the Jags.”

“They felt a bit like underdogs then. Everyone was going for bigger teams but I thought they’d made the effort to come over so I adopted them as my team. They felt like a local team.”

Smart hasn’t gone to every London Jaguars game but he did travel to Jacksonville to see them last year, which is the kind of quid pro quo Khan would no doubt point to as evidence of the success of having them play so regularly in London.

“It’s great to have games over here,” said Smart. “There’s loads of people with different jerseys. It doesn’t matter what team they support. They like to go for the experience.

“It’s a long way to travel for Americans but friends over there treat it as a little vacation. It’s a chance to see London, to visit Buckingham Palace, and see their side. I think it’s a bit of a win-win.”

The Jaguars’s presence in London is only set to increase, although the longheld rumours that they could become a fully London-based side have dissipated following the agreement to renovate the EverBank Stadium. That deal includes a 30-year lease for the Jaguars, seemingly tying their long-term future to the area. But with the project set to require them to play away from the ground in 2027, there is the possibility of them playing three games in London during that season. That would be the most games one side has ever played abroad in a single season.

Despite Khan’s best efforts, it is hard to trace any sense that the Jacksonville Jaguars have built up a more loyal British fan base as a result of playing here so regularly. Whilst undoubtedly there are people like Smart who have become fans thanks to going along to games, plenty of British fans go without any particular affinity or loyalty to a team. Yet the Jaguars clearly make money out of the decision, having been able to negotiate separately with Wembley meaning they get to run the whole game themselves, as opposed to it being hosted through the NFL like the games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium were the other week.

In the US, Jaguars fans appear to have accepted that this is now the reality for their team.

“Our London presence is just beginning to hit its stride,” said Khan last year. Whether true or not, it is certainly a presence that will not be going anywhere soon.

Photograph by AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásque