Notice of Relocation (Temporary, Recurring, Annual)

Jacksonville hosts again, across the Atlantic. The Desk examines how a league that grew from less than $1 billion to more than $22 billion a year keeps finding a new town—and why nobody will say what the trip earns.

Filed by the Poor Form Desk · Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026

This morning, the Desk received Chip Absolute’s formal complaint about the 9:30 a.m. ET kickoff. We said the full article would follow. Here it is, with footnotes, because one of us has to have them.

Today, the Jacksonville Jaguars played their second straight London home game. “Home” is carrying a lot in that sentence.

Last Sunday, the Jaguars hosted the Eagles at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Today, they hosted the Houston Texans—an AFC South rival—at Wembley, kicking off at 2:30 p.m. London time. By the league’s count, it was Jacksonville’s 16th game in London.

The Desk has no joke for that number. The number is the joke.

Jacksonville’s actual stadium, meanwhile, is mid-renovation and scheduled to reopen at full capacity in 2028. Capacity is reduced this season; most home games move to Orlando next year. The house is still standing. The mailing address is becoming theoretical.

Item 1: The schedule

The NFL scheduled a record nine international games this season: three in London, plus one each in Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Madrid, Munich and Mexico City.

In May, owners approved as many as 10 international games per season beginning in 2027—the maximum allowed under the players’ labor agreement. At the same meeting, they removed each club’s ability to protect two home games from being sent abroad. Commissioner Roger Goodell has said the eventual goal is 16.

“Our strategy is not one and done,” NFL executive Peter O’Reilly said at that meeting.

Jacksonville has noticed. This month, it’s two and done.

Put it all together and the league schedule now operates like a moving truck that never gets unloaded. Each season, the route gets longer and the boxes travel farther. The club whose name is painted on the side is whichever one got picked to “host” that week.

The league just keeps driving.

Item 2: The money

The Desk reviewed Poor Form Research’s figures. Unless marked otherwise, every dollar below is nominal, which is the most fun anyone will have with that sentence today.

In 1989, total NFL revenue was $943 million. By 2009, it had passed $8 billion.
In 2010, revenue was about $8.5 billion. That was the year Goodell announced a goal of $25 billion annually by 2027. That is a goal. The Desk will not report a goal as a result and asks the same courtesy in return.
By 2024, the league’s 32 teams generated an estimated $22.2 billion—roughly 23.5 times the 1989 figure, although revenue definitions are not perfectly identical across eras.

Desk policy requires fairness once per article, so here it is: inflation.

Using the Consumer Price Index, the league grew from approximately $2.45 billion in 1989 to $22.8 billion in 2024, measured in 2025 dollars. That is about 9.3 times larger, or roughly 6.6% annual real growth.

Most of that growth came early: approximately 8.3% a year through 2009 and 4.4% a year after that. A meaningful share of the recent nominal increase reflects the post-2021 inflation spike, not additional real growth.

The Desk accepts the adjustment in full.

Even adjusted, ninefold is still ninefold. Something nine times larger after inflation has, by our accounting, grown.

In 2025, each club received $453.2 million in national revenue, according to the publicly owned Green Bay Packers, whose annual report provides the clearest window into league finances. Across 32 clubs, that equals approximately $14.5 billion in shared national revenue. That is the equal-share check before most local ticketing, sponsorship, retail and event revenue.
What the league nets from international games: not disclosed. The Desk could not find a public accounting of international-game revenue, club compensation, expenses and profit.
The economics are not entirely one-sided. The league compensates designated home teams and covers much of the additional travel and lodging. Those payments and agreements are not public, either. Local supporters still lose an in-market game, clubs surrender the direct use of their stadium for a week, and host governments sometimes contribute public money.

Ireland authorized as much as €9.95 million, excluding VAT, to help stage its 2025 game. Most comparable host arrangements are not publicly itemized.

The league has found a remarkable accounting method: disclose the growth, announce the destination and leave the margin somewhere over the Atlantic.

Item 3: The question

None of this is a complaint about the fans.

Jaguars supporters were asked to redefine “home field” two Sundays in a row. They deserve a parade for patience. London keeps showing up for these games and deserves better than being treated as the league’s most dependable spare room.

The Desk’s complaint is with the office that looked at a ninefold real increase and decided the next step was a new town.

So the Desk files one question, formally, for the record:

Doesn’t the league already make enough?

We would ask the truck, but it is in Paris next Sunday.

— Poor Form Desk

Figures sourced below. Jokes unsourced.

Sources and calculation notes

Money

1989 revenue ($943 million) and 2009 revenue (just over $8 billion): Vrooman, The Economic Structure of the NFL, Table 2.4.
2010 revenue (about $8.5 billion) and Goodell's $25 billion-by-2027 goal: Sports Business Journal, Goodell sets revenue goal of $25B by 2027 (Apr. 5, 2010) and NFL halfway to $25B goal (Feb. 29, 2016).
2024 team revenue (about $22.2 billion, estimate): Sportico.
Inflation adjustment: Poor Form Research calculation using CPI-U annual averages (officialdata.org, republishing U.S. BLS data), in 2025 dollars. Approximate; CPI is not a sports-cost index.
2025 national revenue per club ($453.2 million): Green Bay Packers (July 24, 2026).
2025 shared national revenue (about $14.5 billion): Sportico.
Ireland's contribution to its 2025 game: Irish Times (Mar. 13, 2025).
League net from international games: no public source found.

Schedule and London

2026 international schedule, Jaguars' 16th London game, Paris on Oct. 25: NFL (May 13, 2026).
Owners' vote, two-game protection removed, Goodell's goal of 16, O'Reilly quote: AP via KSL.
Texans at Jaguars, Wembley: NFL.com.
Jaguars designated home games: Jaguars.com.
Stadium renovation and 2028 return: NFL.com/AP (Oct. 18, 2026).