Jones-Drew has previously played at Wembley with the Jaguars.
Oakland Raiders running back Maurice Jones-Drew believes that London, as a city and with the fans, have proven that they deserve an NFL team in the future.
The former Jacksonville Jaguars star was at Wembley last year for their regular season game against the San Francisco 49ers, and he will look forward to returning to the stadium in September when the Raiders take on the Miami Dolphins.
With the NFL International Series now moving up to three games in the upcoming season, the talk surrounding the potential of having a franchise based in London has grown, and Jones-Drew is without doubt a supporter of the idea.
“You know what? I think they deserve one.” Jones-Drew said, via Neil Reynolds of BritViewNFL.com.
“I think the fans deserve it and London deserves it because it is a great city.”
In addition to the Raiders’ meeting with the Dolphins on September 28, the Detroit Lions will face the Atlanta Falcons on October 26 while the Dallas Cowboys will take on the Jaguars on November 9 to round off this year’s fixtures.
Jacksonville are already contracted to play games in 2015 and 2016 as the popularity of the game continues to grow in the UK, but ultimately Jones-Drew believes that the travel that teams would have to do would be the biggest issue in the basing a team in London.
Given that teams would have to arrive early in order to set up camp and stick to their pre-game schedules, it will undoubtedly be a stressful journey if teams are asked to do it on a regular basis, particularly those based on the West coast where the flight durations would be significant.
However, having now played eight games in London over the past seven years with each game drawing in at least a 75,000 attendance, the NFL will want to continue to tap into the revenue generated from their fans across the pond and make the most of a lucrative market that will likely be highly profitable moving forward.
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