The 49ers just announced they will play the Jacksonville Jaguars in London, England at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, October 27th, 2013.
The Jaguars will serve as the home team, which means the 49ers still will play eight regular season games at Candlestick in 2013.
The 49ers played the Denver Broncos in London two year ago and won 24-16.
Here’s what 49ers’ CEO Jed York said about the 49ers return to London: “The 49ers are excited and privileged to once again serve as ambassadors for the NFL and the game of football internationally. Our 2010 experience in London was tremendous. The atmosphere at Wembley Stadium on game day was electric. The ability for us to share 49ers football with our Faithful fans internationally is a treat for everyone in our organization.”
And here’s what general manager Trent Baalke said: “Competing on an international stage is a great opportunity for our football team. Our coaches, players and staff take great pride in representing the 49ers organization, as well as the National Football League. The support we received from fans in the UK during our 2010 trip was truly special, and the team looks forward to once again playing at Wembley Stadium next October.”
FOX will broadcast the game beginning at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time.
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Thanks for the info grant should be a easy win lol
I really don’t like sending the team abroad just to play a game, makes me nervous and frankly I just don’t see the point. One game a year isn’t going to make people crave for an entire league especially when you consider they already had a European league that failed. Let’s face the facts here, if you live across the pond the only football you really care about is in the form of a harlequin round ball.
cfc,
I disagree. There is actually a pretty large fan base for American football in the Uk. The European league failed because it was not good quality football. It was a league for scrubs.
These games are sold out months in advance and the league is very interested in growing the game globally. This is not going away and in fact, will most likely increase.
Remember the “home” team loses a home game that year also. What if the 49ers were listed as the home team and instead of the Jags we were playing the Giants. If you were a season ticket holder or if you really wanted to attend that game how happy would you be that it was being played in London instead? Do those anonymous UK fans deserve to watch the game more then the home team fans? Ask anyone who is going to the game this weekend how’d they feel if it was being played in London and they were going to miss out on seeing it live.
Also, just because this special event one game a year sells out doesn’t mean that 8 games a year will continue to be so popular once the novelty wears off.
No argument that it sucks for the fans of the team that loses a home game, but the teams have agreed to it for the greater good which is trying to grow the game internationally. I also don’t see teams giving away prime games like the one you mentioned. It is usually one good team one bad team or a couple of middling teams.
I don’t know how a team would do in London full time, but I do know the league is intent on exploring it. The revenue streams are pretty much maxed out in North America. The only way to grow the pie at a higher rate is to explore other countries around the world.
>>The revenue streams are pretty much maxed out in North America.
Football fans in Los Angeles would disagree ;)
>>I don’t know how a team would do in London full time, but I do know the league is intent on exploring it.
I think that would really put the teams in the “london division” (NFC/AFC east?) at a disadvantage. Having to travel for London games once a season every year? Not to mention the globetrotting the London team would have to endur. I’m just not seeing it.
I’m seeing 50 states and 32 teams and a couple states with multiple teams, I think we still have plenty of room to grow domestically without the negatives of the travel and loss of home games,
I have no problem with a European NFL but make it it’s own separate entity. If we want to have a World Super Bowl where the winners of the US and EU super bowls play each other then that sounds pretty cool but otherwise lets keep our teams where they belong.
Ribico,
It’s a 6 hour flight from the East Coast. 9 from the west. It would be tough but not impossible.
I’m not advocating the league doing this, I actually think the league is just fine the way it is; I’m just pointing out what the long term goal is. Bob Kraft has stated numerous times that the league intends to expand globally. CFC’s point of a European NFL is probably what they hope to accomplish eventually, but they would have to award a single team first.
I don’t know when or if this will actually transpire, but the writing is on the wall in regards to revenue. If they want to keep building the pot, the next logical step is to expand to Europe.
An extra 3 hours can be a lifetime if you’re old and have joint/knee issues. Players have the knee issue.
London’s actually 11 hours from SFO.
Rib,
I lived in LA for a long time and they are indifferent to the NFL. There is not going to be a long term jump in revenue bringing a team back to LA. To generate the kind of money the league wants they have to find another market that will bring in millions of new fans.
As I said, this is not something I dreamed up or advocate. It is something the owners want and plan to pursue.
BT,
You are right I stand corrected. I added the time change between east and west instead of the actual flight time. I’ve actually made the flight a couple of times so I should know better.
Way back when I traveled to London for a Niners-Dolphins exhibition game. I think this was before they started the regular season games there. It was like a mini-Olympics. The team hotels had gigantic displays in team colors, Old Wembley Stadium was sold out, local NFL fans showed up in just about every NFL team’s jersey. There was a definite air of excitement all around. And this for an exhibition game. What I remember most (beyond the Niners thrashing the Dolphins) was all the camera flashes every kickoff, extra-point and FG attempt. Brits still related to that aspect of football ;)
Rib
Thx for sharing that memory; well told. Yeah, the geography (travel) issue seems overwhelming. Even a team from Honolulu or Anchorage would be disadvantaged. It seems to me there would need to be a Euro Division: Shannon/Glasgow/Manchester/London/Berlin/Munich. I don’t think the Spaniards or Italians would care much, and the French wouldn’t go along with anything they didn’t bring up first!
Other possibilities for expansion could be if there were any local acceptance to the idea of Canadians and Aussies adopting NFL rules and opening divisions there by mutual agreements. At least then the fan base is already in place.
“French wouldn’t go along with anything they didn’t bring up first!”
/chuckle Reminds me of one of my favorite Simpsons quotes:
Hank: By the way, Homer, what’s your least favorite country: Italy or France?
Homer: France.
Hank: [chuckles] Nobody ever says Italy. [sets the coordinates of a giant laser gun]
London games are now useless! No team can ever be in London & playing in the NFL. If the NFL ever did try to move the Superbowl over seas fans would riot! All this does is wear out a team! Not a big fan of this.
I agree with that, the Jet lag must be killer flying across the ocean, especially with less than a week to adjust.
This is one of the options the NFL has of exploring increased profits, and if there’s ANY way to accomplish that, I guarantee you they’ll explore/exploit it.
Great news. Twill be good to be back in London with its large 49er fan base. It’s also a wonderful time of year to be there…crisp weather requiring hot tea and chippers. Will definitely be there.
I hate to be a wet blanket, but I don’t like the Int’l games; London-Tokyo-Mexico City. Tiring & distracting for the teams. Perhaps if it were Week#1 and they got over there a little early…..mehph. Two of the Niners’ previous overseas trips it was a “home” game; now that’s some bull right there!
Likewise, I’m OK with Jerry Jones’ new stadium never getting a chance to host The World Cup, Cricket Championships, or the International Curling Tournament. Yeah, I know, done deal.
I was initially thinking that if I were the owner, I wouldn’t like the expense or hassle, but Jed got a lot of help from the League in various ways for the stadium deal, so maybe he thinks he should be a good soldier.
Why do they never have good games overseas. They want to expand football but have have bad games there.
@ Adam707
Due to circus atmosphere? Many distractions, perhaps hard to get that 101% focus necessary to succeed at the NFL level. Maybe I’m making too much of it; maybe it’ll be like Youngstown for Harbs.
@ Rocket It was a long flight over cuz I didn’t sleep, so I remember. Then I was behind on sleep for the trip. So tired that I slept 10 hours of the flight back! Oh, and my later question to Crab was just to get a local’s perspective. Rams left for a stadium deal and the Raiders, well, you know.
Anyone else tempted to take the Browns this weekend?
I wondered about that one too. The rookie qb was saying the right things this week about not forcing the ball. undecided at this moment.