Shahid Khan Wants to Marry the NFL and EPL | Power Players

Summary

The script explores the ambitious vision of Shahid Khan, owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham Football Club, who aims to merge the best of American and English football to create a unified global football community. Khan invests in both teams and their infrastructure, leveraging real estate development to generate revenue beyond match days. His strategy involves cultivating international fan bases, enhancing the game day experience, and fostering a sustainable, community-focused business model that could potentially revolutionize football economics.

Takeaways

• 🏈 The NFL and EPL are both incredibly successful businesses, with the EPL having a massive global audience and the NFL having the most valuable teams in the world.
• 🌏 Shahid Khan, owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham Football Club, is in a unique position to bridge the gap between American and European football, aiming to create a unified football ecosystem.
• 💰 Khan is investing heavily in both teams to expand their international reach, facing financial and competitive challenges along the way.
• 🏟️ Craven Cottage, Fulham's home ground, is undergoing renovations and developments to improve the matchday experience and generate year-round revenue.
• 🏠 The development around Craven Cottage includes a hotel, high-end restaurants, a health center, and a rooftop pool, aiming to serve the community and attract visitors.
• 📈 Khan's strategy involves leveraging real estate and commercial developments around sports venues to add value to the franchises, similar to what's seen with the Atlanta Braves and other NFL teams.
• 🤝 The NFL's revenue sharing model contrasts with the Premier League's system where performance affects revenue through relegation and promotion, making the EPL more volatile for owners.
• 📊 The NFL has a global ambition, playing games in London and Germany, and planning further international expansion, while the EPL seeks to grow its US market presence.
• 💪 Khan's background in business, starting with cold calling and building an auto parts empire, has equipped him with the skills to tackle challenges in sports ownership.
• 🌐 The potential for cross-pollination between football leagues is seen as a way to grow both entities, with the NFL and EPL aiming for significant revenue growth in the coming years.
• 🏗️ In Jacksonville, Khan is planning a 'stadium of the future' and downtown development, showing his commitment to reinvigorate the city center and create a new core for the community.

Q & A

What is the unique position that Shahid Khan holds in the football industry?

Shahid Khan is the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars in the NFL and Fulham Football Club in the English Premier League, allowing him to influence and potentially unite two major football empires.

What challenges does Shahid Khan face in his endeavor to unite the NFL and EPL?

Shahid Khan faces financial and competitive challenges, as well as a learning curve, in his efforts to expand the international reach of both his teams and create a unified football ecosystem.

How has Shahid Khan been upgrading Fulham's home pitch at Craven Cottage?

Shahid Khan has been mixing modern sports business with centuries of tradition by renovating the home pitch, adding a new grandstand, and creating a premium ecosystem around Craven Cottage, including a rooftop pool.

What is the significance of the Riverside Stand at Craven Cottage?

The Riverside Stand is a renovated grandstand designed to add seating capacity to Fulham's matches and create a larger walkable, premium ecosystem around Craven Cottage, enhancing the fan experience.

How does Shahid Khan plan to leverage the development around Craven Cottage?

Shahid Khan aims to generate revenue not just on match days but 365 days a year by creating a community-focused development with a hotel, high-end restaurants, a health center, and a rooftop pool to attract both residents and tourists.

What is the impact of relegation on a Premier League team's financial situation?

Relegation can significantly reduce a team's ability to earn money in attendance, sponsorship deals, and broadcast revenue, affecting the team's valuation and competitiveness.

How does the NFL's revenue sharing model differ from the Premier League's?

In the NFL, all 32 teams share revenue regardless of performance, ensuring financial stability. In contrast, the Premier League operates with the threat of relegation, where poor performance can lead to financial repercussions and reduced revenue opportunities.

What is Shahid Khan's vision for the future of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham FC?

Shahid Khan envisions a virtuous circle where cross-pollination between the NFL and the Premier League benefits both entities, leading to exponential financial growth and a truly international football community.

How does Shahid Khan's approach to stadium and neighborhood development reflect his business philosophy?

Shahid Khan's approach involves creating self-sustaining, community-focused developments that serve both the local residents and the broader fan base, while also generating revenue on non-match days.

What is the potential impact of the World Cup coming to the US in 2026 on Shahid Khan's football ventures?

The World Cup in the US in 2026 could provide a massive opportunity for Shahid Khan to expand his fan base and further internationalize both the Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham FC.

How does Shahid Khan's strategy for Fulham FC differ from traditional English football club ownership?

Shahid Khan's strategy focuses on commercial development and leveraging real estate opportunities around the stadium, as opposed to the more traditional focus on football performance and community pride.

Outlines

00:00

🏈 Uniting Football Empires: The Vision of Shahid Khan

This paragraph introduces the concept of merging the best practices of the National Football League (NFL) and the English Premier League (EPL) to create a unified football ecosystem. It highlights Shahid Khan, owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham Football Club, who is in a unique position to bridge the gap between American and European football. Khan's ambition is to expand the international reach of both teams, investing heavily in their growth and facing financial and competitive challenges along the way.

05:03

🏟️ Craven Cottage: A Blend of Tradition and Innovation

The narrative shifts to Craven Cottage, Fulham's home ground, and its transformation under Khan's ownership. The focus is on the stadium's modernization while preserving its historical significance. The paragraph discusses the construction of the Riverside Stand, set to open in 2024, which aims to increase seating capacity and create a premium ecosystem around the stadium. It also mentions the rooftop pool, a unique feature in London, and the broader vision of integrating the stadium into the community, making it a year-round destination.

10:06

🌐 Global Ambitions and the NFL's International Strategy

This section delves into the NFL's global outreach, with the Jacksonville Jaguars playing back-to-back games in London, a first for an NFL team. It touches on the financial and fan base growth potential of playing overseas games and the importance of having a local presence in international markets. The paragraph also explores the idea of a more international NFL, with the potential for teams in various global locations, and Khan's role as a 'chief architect' in this expansion.

15:06

💼 The Business of Sports: Risks and Rewards

The focus here is on the business side of sports ownership, emphasizing the risks and rewards associated with large-scale stadium and neighborhood development. Khan discusses the importance of real estate and development in sports ownership, the potential for predictable value through commercial and residential properties, and the unique advantages of owning property in prime locations. The paragraph also contrasts the revenue-sharing model of the NFL with the relegation threat in the Premier League, highlighting the financial volatility and the need for adaptability in the football business.

20:07

🛠️ Building a Football Community: Cross-Pollination and Growth

The final paragraph discusses Khan's vision for creating an international football community that benefits both American football and soccer. It examines the potential for cross-pollination between the NFL and the Premier League, the financial goals of both leagues, and the philosophical differences in ownership approaches. The paragraph also addresses the challenges of expanding economic opportunities while preserving sport traditions, the impact of the proposed European Super League, and Khan's ongoing efforts to innovate within the Premier League through stadium and community development.

Keywords

💡National Football League (NFL)

The NFL is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). It is the most popular sports league in the United States and one of the most influential sports organizations globally. In the video, the NFL is highlighted as a successful business model that has created the most valuable teams in the world and is expanding its international reach, particularly in London, through the Jacksonville Jaguars.

💡English Premier League (EPL)

The EPL is the top level of the English football league system and is the most-watched sports league in the world. It consists of 20 clubs and operates on a promotion and relegation system with the English Football League (EFL). The video discusses the EPL's massive global audience and its competitive challenges, as well as the potential for growth and international expansion, exemplified by Fulham FC's efforts.

💡Shahid Khan

Shahid Khan is the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars (NFL) and Fulham Football Club (EPL). He is portrayed in the video as a key figure in the potential unification and expansion of football businesses across different markets. His unique position allows him to bring together the best practices from both American and English football to create a more unified and globally competitive football industry.

💡Jacksonville Jaguars

The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida, and are a member of the NFL's AFC South division. The team is owned by Shahid Khan, who is actively involved in growing the team's international presence, particularly through playing games in London, as mentioned in the script.

💡Fulham Football Club

Fulham FC is a professional football club based in London that competes in the EPL. Owned by Shahid Khan, the club is undergoing significant redevelopment and expansion efforts, both on and off the pitch, as part of a broader strategy to increase its international reach and establish a year-round revenue stream.

💡Craven Cottage

Craven Cottage is the home stadium of Fulham FC, located in London. It is steeped in history and tradition, with the script mentioning its connection to Anne Boleyn's hunting grounds. The video discusses the redevelopment of Craven Cottage, including the addition of modern amenities like a rooftop pool, to enhance the fan experience and create a year-round attraction.

💡Relegation

Relegation is the process by which a team is moved to a lower division at the end of a season, typically due to poor performance. In the context of the EPL, as highlighted in the video, relegation can have significant financial implications for a club, affecting its ability to generate revenue through attendance, sponsorships, and broadcast deals.

💡International Expansion

The term refers to the strategy of extending a sports league or club's operations, games, and fan base beyond its domestic market. The NFL and Fulham FC, under Shahid Khan's leadership, are actively pursuing international expansion, as evidenced by the Jaguars playing games in London and Fulham FC's efforts to grow its international audience.

💡Revenue Sharing

Revenue sharing is the distribution of income among all member teams in a sports league, regardless of individual team performance. The NFL is noted for its revenue-sharing model, which contrasts with the EPL's system where revenue is more variable and can be significantly affected by factors like relegation.

💡Stadium Development

Stadium development involves the construction, renovation, or expansion of sports venues to improve the fan experience, increase seating capacity, and add commercial and entertainment facilities. In the video, Shahid Khan's plans for Craven Cottage and the Jacksonville Jaguars' stadium are highlighted as examples of strategic stadium development aimed at creating new revenue streams and community hubs.

💡Cross-Pollination

In the context of the video, cross-pollination refers to the exchange of ideas, strategies, and practices between different football leagues or clubs to mutual benefit. Shahid Khan is positioned to facilitate this exchange between the NFL and the EPL, leveraging his ownership of both Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham FC to drive innovation and growth in both leagues.

Highlights

Football is at a crossroads with the NFL and EPL as major businesses.

EPL has a massive global audience, while NFL teams are the most valuable worldwide.

Shahid Khan, owner of Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham FC, aims to unite American and English football.

Khan is investing in both teams to expand their international reach.

Fulham FC is London's oldest team and is undergoing significant rebuilding.

Jacksonville Jaguars played back-to-back London games, a first for an NFL team.

Khan's vision includes leveraging development around Craven Cottage for year-round revenue.

Craven Cottage's Riverside Stand renovation aims to enhance the stadium and its surroundings.

The development includes a unique outdoor rooftop pool in London.

Khan's strategy is to create a financial ecosystem around Fulham FC.

The project aims to serve the community and become a destination in London.

Khan sees real estate development as key to sports ownership and franchise value.

Fulham's relegation and promotion impact the club's financial stability and revenue generation.

Khan's experience with the NFL contrasts with the Premier League's economic model.

The NFL's global expansion and international games are part of its growth strategy.

Khan's background in business and auto parts has shaped his approach to sports ownership.

The 'Stadium of the future' project in Jacksonville aims to transform downtown with a $1.4 billion investment.

Khan's cross-pollination strategy seeks to grow both football leagues and create an international community.

The potential of the World Cup 2026 in the US presents an opportunity for further expansion.

Khan's developments aim to reinvigorate communities and create self-sustaining environments.

Transcripts

Football is at a crossroads

on both sides of the Atlantic.

The National Football League

and the English Premier League are undeniably

incredible businesses

and they sit alone atop their respective sports.

The EPL has attracted a massive global audience,

measured in the billions,

while the NFL has created the most valuable teams

of any league in the world.

So what if you took the best of each business

with the ambition of creating a new sort of, well,

unified football verse?

Meet Shahid Khan.

He's the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars

and Fulham Football Club

and he stands in the unique position

to solve for both sides of the equation.

The thing about the sports owner,

the highs are the greatest highs

and the lows are the greatest lows.

Shad Khan is trying to unite

two dueling football empires,

along with their influence and audience,

pouring tons of money into both his Jaguars

and Fulham FC

to expand their international reach in parallel.

Bottom line, I mean, they're challenges.

So financial challenges

and obviously it's competitive challenge,

it's a learning curve.

Is Shahid Khan the one to crack the code

and bring these two disparate football empires together

for even greater gain?

This is "Power Players."

Well it's an overcast Monday evening here in London.

We're here at Craven Cottage.

That's where Fulham plays its home matches.

It's also a big day for Shahid Khan.

Shad is here for Fulham FC

to host their just down the road rival, Chelsea.

While Chelsea may be more of an international name,

Fulham is actually London's oldest team

and Shad has been steadily rebuilding it

from the ground up.

This is ridiculous.

I think innovation at its finest.

In the years since acquiring the team,

Shad has been working to upgrade its home pitch.

Mixing modern sports business with centuries of tradition.

I was probably here seven, eight years ago.

I mean, it's hard to even imagine what was there before.

At the same time that Fulham takes the pitch,

his other football team, the Jacksonville Jaguars,

are in the middle of back to back London games,

a first for an NFL team.

And while the players have made the trip to London,

so too have some of those most invested

in their performance on the field, his actual investors.

And we're rooted in Jacksonville

and yet, you know, we're committed

and invested in London, just like you are.

What's the score gonna be? Score's gonna be one-nil.

Oh! That's, wow.

You watch.

[Commentator] Here to Palmer.

Trying for two!

Calamity, might even be a no goal, doesn't matter.

Fulham would end up losing that night

to Chelsea two-nil.

Lucky for Shahid, though,

game day prognosticating isn't his focus.

The future of success of the franchise rests on his ability

to leverage an expanding development around Craven Cottage

and generate revenue not just on match days

but 365 days a year.

So tell me where we're sitting right now.

This is the literal cottage, right?

Craven Cottage, yes.

So the history, a lot of the mythology,

Anne Boleyn's hunting grounds.

The cottage has been built into the stadium since 1894.

It's located along the winding Thames,

next to a site filled riverfront with Fulham Palace,

the Putney Bridge,

and some of the most attractive real estate in the city.

Situate me in London here,

so we're obviously on the Thames.

[Shahid] That's where the boat race starts.

[Jason] The famous boat race. [Shadi] Yeah.

[Commentator] We are underway,

the 2024 lightweight men's boat race.

And as we approach that new grand stand at Craven Cottage,

Cambridge certainly with the lead.

[Jason] The Riverside Stand is the name

for the renovated grandstand

that's been under construction since 2019.

Set to finally open at the end of 2024,

it's designed to both add seating capacity

to Fulham's matches as well as add a larger walkable

and premium ecosystem around Craven Cottage.

And yes, there is a pool.

This will be the outdoor rooftop pool.

Very, very unique in London.

Obviously heated.

Now this isn't the first time Shad has built

a pool into a stadium.

But the play here isn't just

to improve the game day experience,

but to turn Fulham FC into the anchor

for a financial ecosystem that Shad is working to nourish.

What is this meant to do

for you from a business perspective?

Well, I think what it does is generate revenue

on non match days.

You see all these houses all around us

and average house price, probably four million pounds.

There is really no place for them to go.

The closest grocery store or restaurant would be a mile.

[Jason] Wow. [Shahid] Okay?

So for them to get to it, and here we are.

So it serves the community.

And with everything we're doing here,

this also is a destination.

If you come to London, you want to come here.

[Jason] Right. [Shahid] It should be, you know,

one of the 10 things you should do in London.

The idea is to redesign the neighborhood

and work to better connect Craven Cottage to it,

building a hotel, high-end restaurants, a health center,

and yes, even a rooftop pool to attract both residents

and tourists.

But no small amount of risk,

building something of this scale.

Of course there's risk.

[Jason] Yeah. [Shahid] Risk in everything.

One good thing is you didn't have

to worry about the property.

[Jason] Right. [Shahid] And it's unique

to have seven acres on the North Bank

of the Thames sitting between parks

and one of the richest areas of London.

[Jason] Right. [Shahid] And then,

when you build it, yes of course that's a risk.

But I think that it's rewarding.

Real estate and development has become a key element

and attraction to sports ownership.

While results on the pitch, court,

or field may vary, owning high performing commercial

and residential properties around a sports venue

can add massive predictable value to a franchise.

It reminds me of some

of the things we see back in the United States.

Even, you know, the Atlanta Braves in Atlanta.

Bringing the amenities around a stadium seems

to be something that people are thinking more about.

Exactly, except do you have people living there

[Shahid] 365, okay? [Jason] Right, right.

Or living there 24/7.

When you do that,

then you add a huge amount of connectivity.

Probably what I was thinking would be

like Real Madrid's stadium.

[Jason] Oh yeah. [Shahid] Okay?

The simple fact is that, you know,

London has a huge amount of vibrancy even today.

[Jason] Yeah. [Shahid] You look around,

you see all the cranes and everything that's going on

and it's truly a multicultural city,

has been for hundreds of years,

and will be so moving in the future.

So I mean, I'm really kind of bullish on London.

It is amazing to look at, especially to experience this,

and you look at some of the old pictures

that you have around the grounds,

'cause this, it's a really old club.

[Shahid] Yes. [Jason] You've been playing

[Jason] on this spot for a long time. [Shahid] Yeah, 1879.

So it's the oldest club in London.

Yeah, it's one of those things where you'd love

to be able to show somebody in 1879 what this would become,

[Jason] right? [Shahid] Yeah.

Shahid Khan bought Fulham FC

from Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed in 2013

for $300 million.

Once I got here it was like, okay,

we're gonna have some overhead

and English football, you know,

how does it make sense?

English football is different.

So we wanted someone, a club that was family,

and really had the values

that were consistent with the NFL.

What are the immediate lessons that you learned

or that you observed?

Well, I think the immediate lessons obviously is

there are a huge amount of differences.

In the NFL, you're always gonna share revenue

among all 32 teams no matter what happens.

When the Jaguars finished the NFL season

with a 1-15 record in 2020,

they still got the same TV revenue share as everyone else

and then also got to draft the best college quarterback.

In the Premier League however,

there's the ever present threat of relegation.

If you don't perform, you get sent down,

carrying massive repercussions for valuation

and the ability to generate revenue.

For Fulham, with just five wins and 20 losses

in 2020-'21 season,

they were relegated at the premiership

and into the championship league.

That reduced their ability to earn money in attendance,

sponsorship deals, and broadcast revenue.

Fulham would then win the championship division

and get promoted back into the Premier League the next year,

creating a way more volatile asset for its ownership.

Relegation obviously is huge.

How it affects you, affects the fan base,

affects the revenue.

That's a big difference.

You have to be prepared for it.

In a lot of ways, it feels like the opposite

of how you describe the NFL where you get in

and you're like, "Okay, I can perform poorly on the field,

but I still get all this national money.

I'm still gonna be around."

Here, it is, you're on a knife's edge

it feels like, all the time.

And you have experienced that.

Yeah, absolutely.

We've been relegated, promoted three times.

[Jason] Yeah. [Shahid] You know, in 10 plus years.

But it's a very small club,

but the richest and most educated fan base,

English fan base.

So how do you leverage that, great geography

and great real estate.

Then you know, you can leverage some

of the sponsor money

and that would be an upside for the Jaguars and Fulham.

The NFL has gone global.

This past year, we played games in front

of amazing crowds in London and Germany

and we will be coming to more markets

on a global basis soon.

You may have caught some boos in there,

maybe directed at NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell,

or maybe from fans upset about losing more home games

to international markets.

But back in London, there's a lot of energy

from the 85,000 plus fans

who came out to Wembley Stadium,

including the mayor of London.

So this is the national soccer stadium.

Uh huh.

This is famous all around the world.

And what these guys do is they sell so many tickets,

they break records for the most tickets sold.

And are you gonna break a record today?

Yes, we're gonna break a record today.

Every time he comes, he breaks a record. It's remarkable.

Jaguars are in the midst of a road trip to London

to play back-to-back games overseas.

The atmosphere Shad has cultivated

is the definition of global ambition.

And to begin to fathom how Shad's pulled that off,

you have to consider his own origin story.

I was born in Pakistan and I played cricket,

which is like, you know, the game there

and then came to Illinois at 16.

Obviously, you have to assimilate,

and obviously football,

the first game I saw was the Bears.

[Commentator] This is Gale Sayers

getting away from one tackle, turning it on,

and going all the way for a touchdown.

I adopted the NFL as my sport.

When I finished school, how do you get a job?

You go door to door to door looking for a job.

The art of cold calling,

I mean it's kind of a lost art now.

That was very helpful, obviously, in the journey in the NFL.

As you track your career, there is this theme of,

you know, call it cold calling,

some might call it just pure moxie,

of being able to sort of seize an opportunity,

even when something presents itself

that is not great.

Well I think as a business person,

it was the art of survival.

For me, it was like, "Why would somebody wanna hire me?

I've gotta add value."

Shahid Khan certainly found his value

and pretty quickly.

In a few years he'd built out the auto parts giant,

Flex-N-Gate, to a multi-billion dollar

international business

and soon found himself ready to tackle his next leap

of faith into sports team ownership.

St. Louis Rams had come up for sale.

You do the work, two years of work, I believe.

So you're driving toward this

and then Kroenke swoops in

and snatches it right out from under you.

So I mean, it was,

obviously, it was surprising, disappointing,

but things turned out great for me.

[Shahid] Right. [Jason] Okay?

It's like football, you know,

that you're disappointed.

You're kind of knocked down

and you kind of get up and dust yourself

and say, "Okay, next play."

And the crazy part is, I had met Wayne Weaver

with the Jacksonville Jaguars way earlier.

I'll never forget I was in

Stuttgart selling auto parts when I heard from Wayne,

you know, in '11, okay.

You know, I think we're serious now

and I think we wanna get together.

He bought the team from owner Wayne Weaver in 2011

for $770 million.

That's a lot of money.

But notably, the Jaguars today are now valued at more

than $4 billion.

This ticket, you know,

to the Jaguars is gonna be the hottest ticket

in the business.

Probably the decade before,

for whatever reason, those fans had kind of been lost.

So how do you sell tickets? How do you sell sponsorships?

Because you gotta have the money,

the local revenue, to be competitive,

to spend, to invest in the stadium,

obviously do this full salary cap and so on.

So was it daunting?

I mean, what did it feel like

in the early days in terms of, you know,

as you said, now you've got it,

was this an experience that you had had at other points

in your business career?

What was the feel then?

Well, I've had that before

because how I grew the auto parts business,

most of the companies were distressed companies.

[Jason] Right. [Shahid] The first thing

I looked at was,

we weren't selling tickets,

our sponsorships, we can't sell 'em,

and the question was why?

And it was like, "Hey, we don't win football games.

That's why."

My mindset was that, okay,

we have to separate these.

We're not selling wins.

What we're selling is a great game day experience.

Shahid upgraded the Jaguars facilities

and made renovations to the team's stadium

as well as constructed the Daily's Place Amphitheater,

practiced facilities,

and cultivated real estate developments around the stadium.

It's a familiar playbook to what he's doing now in Fulham.

Jacksonville, Florida is not the same as London.

His next move was to begin to grow his fan base

outside the Sunshine State.

And one of the most dramatic things you do

to sort of bring it to where we're sitting now is

you're on the forefront of saying, you know,

we're gonna take this game overseas.

You know, if we're gonna play games,

I think we would rather

play someplace where it's really fertile ground

and we have a chance to really grow the fan base.

Yes, playing overseas, we would get a financial

and really getting the league to support us.

[Commentator] And good morning from across the pond,

Wembley Stadium is the venue.

The Falcons and the Jags get set to get together

Duval chants in the crowd.

You have a smaller resident fan base.

[Shahid] Yep. [Jason] So there's more upside

for you, I mean, I just wanna make sure I understand this,

more upside for you to come here,

to aggressively come here, than maybe

the New York Giants or the Chicago Bears, right?

Is that fair?

Yeah, absolutely. Because they have history.

[Jason] Yeah. [Shahid] Okay?

Northeast Florida,

two out of three people there already have allegiance

to other teams.

We gotta go where really they have no allegiance to a team

and it's gonna take a multi-year effort.

And we've had full-time, year round people

in London representing the Jacksonville Jaguars.

What does that evolution look like?

Does that look like a more international NFL in terms

of teams all over the world?

Does it look like an American based

what we have now where you have

not just London, but you have Germany

and you have France and you have Mexico.

'Cause you've been a chief architect of this.

Yeah, I mean, I'm focused really on London.

For us, you've gotta have a sharp focus

so you can produce results.

Rooting himself in London laid the foundation

to connect the dots across the football verse.

Now, Shad isn't just aiming to grow the value of both teams

and respective football leagues at large,

but to truly world build,

to create an international football community

that will raise all ships.

When you also think about the growth of both

football and American football,

you have been critical in the cross pollination

and we've talked about that a little bit.

[Jason] What happens next for that? [Shahid] Well,

I think what happens next is, you know,

this is a virtuous circle, okay?

So I think what happens next is, you know,

both entities do better

and then the cross pollination

gets them to the next level.

If both leagues can truly cross-pollinate,

the results could be of exponential financial magnitude.

Roger Goodell set a target of $25 billion in annual revenue

for the NFL by 2027.

And by 2022, the league already reached $20 billion

of that stated goal.

And international expansion is a key factor

for continued growth.

Conversely, the Premier League's revenue hit $7 billion

in 2022, with similar goals for expansion

and economic growth in the US market.

And yet, a significant gap remains for the Premier League

to leverage the same financial gains as the NFL.

And a large part of that has to do

with the differences in ownership group philosophies.

Talking to NFL owners, there's nothing

that they haven't tried to sell.

[Shahid] Absolutely. [Jason] Training Camp one,

and they've, you know, really set an interesting example.

It feels like NFL owners are

more commercially minded,

[Jason] is that fair to say? [Shahid] Absolutely. Yes, it is.

It is because there is, I would say, a false sense

of pride that, okay, this is football,

money shouldn't be involved.

Well, football players want to get paid too.

[Jason] Right. [Shahid] You've gotta have

a business that's sustainable.

The only way it's sustainable, it's gotta make money.

NFL owners are also . . .

[Shahid] Your partners. [Jason] Right.

Yeah. Day in and day out.

So NFL, you're trying to grow the pie, okay?

And we know everyone's gonna get a piece of the pie.

English football, it's different.

In the NFL, everyone shares success.

The EPL was created in the '90s out

of economic envy of the NFL.

But while the NFL has created a club of owners, as it were,

with a shared vision for mutual success,

the EPL doesn't yet share that same collective vision.

Obviously knowing NFL

and some of the other American owners who are

in the sport now, you can talk to them about it

because our interests are aligned.

Very much like the NFL,

you want the Premier League to grow

and everyone to benefit.

You know, relegation and promotion is sacred,

but still the teams

that are there all need to be competitive.

One of the big dilemmas that remain for Shad

and the rest of his internationally minded EPL owners is

how do you expand and seize new economic opportunities

while still preserving the traditions foundational

to the sport?

Fulham FC played three games in the US in 2023

and the World Cup coming to the US

in 2026 could provide another massive opportunity

for Shad to expand his base.

[Reporter] England's six biggest sides

want to join with three from Spain

and another three from Italy

to create their own breakaway football super league.

What is the motivation?

Well, you know what the motivation is, it's greed.

You're a disgrace. You don't care about the fans.

You're a joke and I'm devastated.

Change comes incrementally

and Shad's stadium development at Craven Cottage

is maybe the best example of what innovation

within the Premier League can look like,

creating a community around sports by bridging both the new

and the old and his cross-pollination

of clubs is already coming back home to Jacksonville.

Another move to develop the shipyard property downtown

and bring in luxury hotels,

condominiums, and an office complex.

The city is now prepared

to sell Jaguar's owner Shad Khan even more park land

for development in the project.

I want Jacksonville to live up to its potential

and it's huge.

We haven't scratched the surface.

Interesting to think about,

you know, how you think of this facility versus the facility

back in Jacksonville.

Are there shared experiences?

Are there shared learnings that you're able

to kind of implement back and forth?

Well, I mean,

this is part of the neighborhood going back,

you know, 150 plus years. Yeah.

Over there, what we're doing is,

[Shahid] there is no neighborhood. [Jason] Right.

So over there, we're building a neighborhood,

you know, from the highest stand,

like the Four Seasons residence, hotel,

all the way to more modestly priced apartments.

In that case, keep me honest here,

my sense is that, you know, downtown Jacksonville has been,

for lack of a better term, sort of somewhat neglected,

like the growth has happened in the suburbs and outward

[Jason] versus in the core, right? [Shahid] Absolutely correct.

Absolutely. As a matter of fact, the core has deteriorated.

[Jason] Yeah. [Shahid] And you need

to reinvigorate that.

[Jason] Yeah. [Shahid] And what we're doing

is developing a new core.

And central to that core is a new stadium.

It's being called the stadium of the future.

If the project that the Jacksonville Jaguars

unveiled today is actually completed,

then it will completely transform this part

of downtown Jacksonville

Shahid recently announced an intended deal

with the city of Jacksonville to build a quote,

"Stadium of the future," end quote,

that will cost an estimated $1.4 billion

and comes with a 30 year lease

to keep the Jags in North Florida.

You look at photographs of Jacksonville 100 ago,

I mean, St. Johns River was clogged with ships.

So getting recreational use

and boating is a lot about going from, you know,

I want to go here, go someplace else, relax,

[Shahid] have lunch, have a drink. [Jason] Right.

Enjoy the day.

You open up that whole experience.

[Shahid] has developed a uniquely

self-sustaining circular approach,

constantly taking something he learns in one place

and applying it to the other.

This, as one business, in many ways,

where are you in that journey

and what's next in terms of taking it forward?

How you relate to the community is very important.

I hate to say it, but we make a huge difference

in the community.

And people know that.

And in a way, expectations are maybe too much,

that any problem the city would have,

whether it's homelessness or whatever, they look to us,

that, what are you doing to help?

[Jason] Interesting. [Shahid] And same thing

in a lot of different ways, different scale,

you know, in English football,

that you wanna make a difference in the community.

You go back to 1879, the community grows up.

There are parks around us.

People want a place to go,

whether to relax or an amenity.

And being able to develop that, it's gonna, yeah,

put money in the squad,

but more importantly, serve the community.