This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The NFL has gone all-in on staging games in London, with the possible goal of putting a team there permanently one day. So the globe-shaking news that voters in the United Kingdom have narrowly decided to detach themselves from the European Union is on the minds of league officials, for sure.
"We are monitoring and have been in contact with our UK office," league spokesman Brian McCarthy told Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio via email. "We head into the 2016 season in strong shape with the 3 UK games already nearing sell outs again - a testament to the strong and passionate fan base there - and all key media, sponsorship and licensing partnerships locked in."
There will be three NFL games in London this season, two at Wembley Stadium and one at Twickenham Stadium, primarily a rugby arena. By 2018, that number will grow to five when the league starts playing games at Tottenham Hotspur's new stadium. But one observer seems to think those games could be endangered in the post-Brexit world.
"The way the NFL view it is that London is a gateway to Europe," Maria Patsalos, who advises UK sports teams on immigration issues for the Mishcon de Reya law firm in London, told the Telegraph. "My view is that ⅛because⅜ we pull out of Europe then they will reconsider that deal."
It's obviously far too early to know whether Patsalos is right about that, and all the talk about a permanent team in London was just that: talk about a far-off pipe dream that had innumerable logistical hurdles to overcome. The Brexit vote probably adds another layer of uncertainty, because if the UK's economy tanks as some are predicting and people stop buying tickets for a sport that remains something of a foreign curiosity, the NFL obviously will have to reconsider its options. —