 The Detroit Lions and Atlanta Falcons will play on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. ET in London's Wembley Stadium, yet another sign of the NFL's effort to grow the league's popularity in the London market and in Europe overall. There has been a lot of talk lately about the possibility of bringing or moving a franchise to London, but I feel as though there are too many competitive disadvantages for a franchise to be located in London. The travel would certainly be an issue, although the Seattle Seahawks might argue that they already have to deal with that to a certain extent, and it's hard to argue with their recent success. But the biggest concern, to me, would be in free agency. It'd be really hard to get players to move to London, particularly ones with families, and the team would have to pay a premium as a result. There's a reason why European basketball clubs have to pay so much money to get American players to come play there -- it's not easy uprooting your family and moving them to a foreign country. If you're a player whose parents live in the Midwest and have seen every game of yours since high school, you'd probably be willing to take $5 million less to play for a U.S. team where they can attend every game, rather than have to fly all the way to London eight times a season. I believe that there is a better way to continue to grow the NFL in England and in Europe: By creating a season-ticket package that would allow NFL fans in London to see all 32 teams over the course of two seasons. I presented this plan on NFL Insiders a few weeks back, and had done the same in the NFL league office several months ago. Here's how it would work, and why I think it's a good alternative to a full-time team in London.
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