NFL could be in Oklahoma City soon!

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

If the NFL wanted to scrap the NFC/AFC split and just go to 6 geographically compact divisions of 6, it could try something like this.

Say the Jaguars move to one of these 5, and the other 4 are expansion teams: Los Angeles, Toronto, Mexico City, San Antonio, London

I'm not particularly enthused at the thought of going to 36 teams, but even less so by placing three of the five new cities outside the U.S.  London causes way too many hassles with scheduling.  (To accommodate TV, they'd have to have all their home games as night games there and they'd never be able to play night games when over here.)  While Mexico does have a small gridiron fan base, it's not strong enough to support an NFL franchise through a whole season.  Maybe Toronto, but between Canadians wanting to support the CFL and that those Canucks who want to support the NFL can do so via Seattle, Detroit, and especially Buffalo, I doubt it. If there were a team in Toronto, Buffalo would probably need to relocate.

If they absolutely must expand to 36 teams, then three of the four new teams would be best located in Los Angeles (AFC), Los Angeles (NFC), and San Antonio.  Once you get past those obvious three, there really aren't markets obviously better than already struggling Jacksonville.  SLC, OKC, Birmingham, Richmond, and Long Island might be equivalently good, but not necessarily better than Jacksonville.

All the NFL needs is to convince one or two teams to move to Los Angeles.  It does not need to expand beyond 32 cities and divide the TV pot of gold into smaller slices.

[© tweed]

Maybe Toronto, but between Canadians wanting to support the CFL and that those Canucks who want to support the NFL can do so via Seattle, Detroit, and especially Buffalo, I doubt it. If there were a team in Toronto, Buffalo would probably need to relocate.

Toronto is actually very likely to have an NFL team soon.  two factors are in play here: the CFL Argonauts lease ends in 2018, and they've said they will not renew at the Rogers Centre (the only place in Toronto that could conceivably hold them) and their owner says he will sell them by then.  the stars are alligning for a Buffalo (or Jacksonville) move to Toronto by the end of the decade.

[Paul Kemp]

If anything, the NFL should have less teams.

[Joe Biden 2020]

That would be a horrible idea. Isn't OK City basically in the Dallas market anyway? Dallas would dwarf a pro team in OK City so bad it wouldn't be funny. Plus, if a team can't make it in Jacksonville or Oakland, why OK City? I just think that would be a bad move.

That's what they said about the Mavericks dwarfing the Thunder.  We all see now that generally the Thunder is better than the Mavs, at least the past few seasons.

[Joe Biden 2020]

Boo!  OKC isn't big enough to have any pro sports team, even the Thunder.  I want the Jaguars to move to LA instead.

If OKC is too small (which a metro of 1.25 million and an anchor city of 600,000 is not too small), then Salt Lake City is too small for the Jazz and Memphis is too small for the Grizzlies, among other places.

[Paul Kemp]

The only people that care about OKC are those who live there.

[traininthedistance]

Boo!  OKC isn't big enough to have any pro sports team, even the Thunder.  I want the Jaguars to move to LA instead.

If OKC is too small (which a metro of 1.25 million and an anchor city of 600,000 is not too small), then Salt Lake City is too small for the Jazz and Memphis is too small for the Grizzlies, among other places.

OKC is fine for basketball, marginal for football, and impossible for baseball and hockey.  Baseball and football generally want larger metros, but since OK is football country that might compensate.  Obviously it is outside the hockey zone, and basketball is okay because the NBA has done well with a deliberate strategy of being the only game in town in smaller cities (OKC, Memphis, SLC, Sacramento, San Antonio).

I do wonder if an NFL team in Oklahoma might sink the Thunder, keeping that in mind.

[traininthedistance]

If anything, the NFL should have less teams.

I think 32 is actually the perfect number.  I'd have the San Antonio Jaguars and Los Angeles Raiders, and would tolerate the Toronto Bills, and besides that just call it a day.

30 would also be acceptable but I don't think contraction is necessary in the NFL.  Might want to remove four or so NHL teams though.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Maybe Toronto, but between Canadians wanting to support the CFL and that those Canucks who want to support the NFL can do so via Seattle, Detroit, and especially Buffalo, I doubt it. If there were a team in Toronto, Buffalo would probably need to relocate.

Toronto is actually very likely to have an NFL team soon.  two factors are in play here: the CFL Argonauts lease ends in 2018, and they've said they will not renew at the Rogers Centre (the only place in Toronto that could conceivably hold them) and their owner says he will sell them by then.  the stars are aligning for a Buffalo (or Jacksonville) move to Toronto by the end of the decade.

The Rogers Centre is not really large enough to be the principal home stadium of an NFL team.  Not only that, the stated reason for the Argos leaving Rogers Centre is that they are going to make some improvements in the field that would effectively make Rogers Centre baseball only during the MLB season.

Given that the Argos, despite winning the Grey Cup still couldn't fill Rogers, I don't see Toronto having the necessary fan base for a full time NFL team, especially if a new owner has to shell out a billion or so for expansion rights.

Assuming that the Rogers Centre is still capable of a post baseball season conversion to football after the changes have been made, the Bills might continue playing one home game a year there, but that's it for the NFL in Canada for now.