Green Smoke

By John Bradley

I’m a Jets fan who’s not from London; I’m a proud Scotsman. But that doesn’t mean I don’t head south to the Big Smoke. I do and have done so many times, whether it be for the games in London, watch parties, or even one of the draft parties with my beloved Gang Green brothers and sisters.

London is the city where you’ll find the two main stadiums for the NFL in the UK, Wembley Stadium and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which are both situated in North London. But which one do I prefer?

First up is historical Wembley, where I first saw the Falcons versus Detroit in 2014, and even as a neutral, what a game it was! A walk-off field goal to seal the win was great to see, but let’s talk Gang Green now. My first experience of a Jets game in London was one year later, and it had everything: a Revis interception, touchdowns, and Fitzpatrick lighting up the arena. We had lots of fellow fans come over from the other side of the pond, and altogether, we created an excellent atmosphere for a game in which ‘we’ were the away (road) team against divisional rivals Miami. Overall, I loved the experience at Wembley with the ease of access and exit (despite the capacity of around 86,000), the fact that it’s easy to travel to, the familiarity, and not to mention the W we got that day.

Fast forward to 2021, and the Jets are back in town. This time, the Falcons were the hosts, and we were a much different team with a fresh injection of young blood. The whole weekend was totally different from ’15, with all the fan events going on in the city in the buildup to the game, which sadly didn’t go our way in the end. It felt like another home game for us, but unfortunately, many of our friends from the USA couldn’t make this one due to COVID restrictions, but the ones who were there made a lot of noise. We had fans representing Germany, Sweden, France, Spain, and even Ecuador! This, at the time, was a new stadium that opened in 2019 and is far superior to the old White Hart Lane one that the London Monarchs played in around 1995. It’s purposefully built for the NFL, as the grass soccer pitch retracts to reveal the artificial field, and it has a capacity of around 61,000.

Okay… So what’s my opinion on the stadiums?

Wembley has a bigger capacity and (at the time of writing this, there’s a lot of surrounding construction) more space to do tailgating. But it lacks the atmosphere of an NFL game at times as the front rows of seats are blocked off to allow easy viewing, and yet transport back to the city is so much better.

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is so loud due to its acoustic design and architecture, and it genuinely has the feel of a stateside stadium, which it was of course purpose-built to be. It has its own dedicated locker rooms for players, officials, and cheerleaders, as well as its own broadcast, media, and medical facilities.

The obvious downside is the capacity being around 20,000 less than Wembley, and getting out of the stadium and back into central London can be a real pain.

So who wins? Wembley or Spurs?

The former has a 100-year history and familiarity; it’s adored by Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan and has helped firmly establish the NFL in the UK, but my favourite is Tottenham, due to its atmosphere and set-up for the NFL, but it does lose a point due to nightmare transportation getting to and from it.

Recently, Tottenham announced the expansion of their partnership with the NFL through to the 2029–30 season, and as part of the agreement, the stadium will be given official status as the home of the NFL in the UK. Under the terms of the agreement, a minimum of two regular-season NFL games a year will continue to be played there. The Jags committed to their annual London game at Wembley for a further three years back in 2021 and will still be there in 2024.

The future of the London Games is safe, and I will be there again many times, I am sure, especially when Gang Green return for their home game, which is surely just around the corner. See you there!