The NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars will continue to play at London’s Wembley Stadium until at least 2024 as part of a new agreement.
At least one of the Jaguars’ home games will be held at the 90,000-seat venue each season for the next three years. The Jaguars have played in the UK since 2013, with all but one of the team’s games taking place at Wembley.
The Jaguars have built up a presence in the UK, making significant investment in community programmes and charitable initiatives. The team’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Wembley in 2018 also set a record for the highest crowd at a London International Series fixture, with 85,870 fans in attendance.
A commitment to the UK forms a key part of the vision of Jaguars owner Shahid Khan, who submitted a bid to buy Wembley back in 2018. The Jaguars have long been linked with a permanent move to London.
An agreement for the Jaguars to continue playing at Wembley until 2024 was approved yesterday (Monday) during a league meeting.
Khan said: “It’s a great pleasure to be able to announce that the Jacksonville Jaguars will be playing one home game per season at Wembley for three further seasons.
“It’s hard to believe it will have been three years since our last game at Wembley. But that changes this autumn, and we look forward to coming back to our London home. We have built a great fan base already in the UK and I look forward to that increasing as we reaffirm our commitment to playing one home game per season in the UK for the long term, as was always the ambition when we first played in 2013.”
The Jaguars played at Wembley every year between 2013 and 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic meant that no overseas games were held in 2020. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was the sole London host in 2021.
The Jaguars’ Wembley game later this year will be one of five overseas NFL games in 2022. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will host two games, Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca will host one, and Munich’s Allianz Arena will stage a game for the first time.
Image: Anders Krøgh Jørgensen on Unsplash
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