Who are the next NFL expansion teams? The last time the league expanded with the Houston Texans in 2002, George W. Bush was a year into his presidency, and C. J. Stroud wasn’t even one yet.
Expanding the NFL beyond 32 teams will give the league a financial windfall. Some candidate cities on our list were abandoned in the past like a Detroit factory, and some have never seen the NFL. Here’s our top ten favorites:
10. Sacramento
Should the NFL expand into Sacramento they’d only be competing against the Kings for market share. A fourth team in California may be hard to support, but don’t forget the Raiders were in Oakland before relocation.
That same relocation left a void for football in Northern California that could be filled by Sacramento which is one of the larger media markets without an NFL team.
9. Columbus
Ohio is already home to the Browns and Bengals so can Columbus support an NFL expansion team? The city has the biggest population in the state, and the Browns, Bengals, Steelers and Colts are all within a 185-mile radius for rivalry games.
During the 1920s the Columbus Panhandles/Tigers did play in the NFL for seven seasons. Even the National Football League headquarters was based in Columbus for over a decade before a move to Dayton in 1939.
8. Toronto
Why isn’t there a Toronto team in the NFL? There’s already the Argonauts in the Canadian Football League, and there’s no suitable stadium in the city to host one of the next NFL expansion teams.
Toronto is a massive market that the league could tap into but making a move doubtful is the failure of the Bills Toronto Series. Starting in 2008 the series flunked so badly it was terminated three years before it’s deal that expired in 2017.
7. Mexico City
Mexico City is a chance for an NBA expansion team and it’s no different in the NFL. American football is the second most popular sport in Mexico, and Mexico City’s 22 million people makes it bigger than New York City.
Two of the largest ever NFL crowds were set in Mexico City at Estadio Azteca during preseason games, with the outright record set in 1994 with 112,376 watching the Houston Oilers beat the Dallas Cowboys.
6. St. Louis
After 21 years in the NFL the St. Louis Rams relocated to Los Angeles in 2016 leaving football fans in Missouri bitter. It brought flashbacks of the Cardinals relocating in 1988 after 28 years in the city.
The Rams left St Louis because the city couldn’t finance a new stadium. With a market size big enough to support a team, St. Louis as one of the next NFL expansion teams is a real possibility.
5. Oakland
Like St. Louis, Oakland has been abandoned twice by the NFL. Fans in the city are arguably the most loyal of all with fans turning up to the Oakland Coliseum despite only four playoff appearances between 2000 and 2016.
Despite relocating to Las Vegas almost one in seven fans at Allegiant Stadium were from Northern California. I’m not sure though that we could ever get used to an Oakland team being known as anything other than the Raiders.
4. London
Rumors of international NFL expansion and a London franchise has been going on for years thanks to the 15 million American football fans in the UK.
Expanding the league with an international NFL team would make the NFL legitimately global but there’s the obvious logistical issues with having to travel back and forth between London and America.
3. San Diego
San Diego has proven in the past that they’re more than capable of hosting an NFL team. The Chargers were based in the city between 1961-2016 before relocating to Los Angeles as voters rejected funding for a new stadium.
The real question is does San Diego want a team? Relocation of the Chargers to Los Angeles was because of an overwhelming rejection by San Diego voters to help fund a new stadium in the city.
2. Portland
Second on our list of most likely NFL expansion teams is Portland, which would be an amazing addition for sport in the Pacific Northwest. It would create an intense rivalry against the Seattle Seahawks and would be competing only against the Trail Blazers for market share in the city.
Portland has a media market larger than half of teams in the NFL make it truly viable. Had it not been for Portland voters rejecting the Delta Dome being built in the 1960s, it’s very likely that we’d already have a Portland team and be talking about a Seattle expansion team.
1. San Antonio
San Antonio is the favorite city to be awarded an NFL expansion team. The city has a media market bigger than Kansas City, Cincinnati and Vegas, and with a population of over 2.5 million is the only American city in the top ten most populated cities not to have an NFL team.
The 64,000 capacity Alamodome could host a team but would need upgrades first. A rivalry against the Cowboys and Texans would be fierce especially considering both franchises continue to push back on a third Texan team.
