LONDON — Among the commissioners and owners of professional American sports leagues and their respective clubs, the city of London is beginning to look a lot like Los Angeles did to the owners of the St. Louis Browns in 1940. With the wherewithal to support this country’s pro franchises, London could prove to be a gold mine for sports revenue.

But there is a drawback: Its distance from North American shores would render London a stand-alone city, and unless another handful of European cities also entered the fray, the lack of competitive rivals would make counterproductive the presence of the National Football League or the National Basketball Association, for instance, in the region. There are currently no other European cities that could provide London with a natural challenger.

In the 1940s, major league baseball teams sustained themselves on revenue earned from ticket sales. The owners of the St. Louis Browns set their sights on moving the team to a growing market that they thought could shore up the team immediately. But their fellow American League owners rejected the request by the Browns’ ownership to relocate the team to Los Angeles on the grounds that traveling to the West Coast city was just far too prohibitive for teams traveling to their games by train. Among the league’s clubs, the Chicago White Sox, who were more than 2,000 miles away, were the team closest to the proposed location. The Browns’ owners revisited the subject though, and in 1941, they managed to persuade American League owners to approve a move to Los Angeles the following year. But the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1942 forced America into World War II, effectively ending the Browns’ bid to go west. With the NFL’s Cleveland Rams move to Los Angeles in 1946, the city finally joined the major leagues. Even in an “industry” town, where Hollywood comprises the center about which business seems to revolve, Los Angeles has proved a significant financial success for its teams, including Major League Baseball’s Dodgers and Angels; the NBA’s Lakers are widely regarded as nothing short of royalty, and football has failed to take root there, but mainly because of stadium issues. All in all, Los Angeles became everything those owners in St. Louis predicted it could be.

If the organizers of the forthcoming October 28, London matchup between the NFL’s Giants and Dolphins are to be believed, London could also be a success: nearly 500,000 ticket requests were made for the contest. And although the jury is still out on the potential for basketball and hockey to thrive in Britain, two regular-season National Hockey League games have been scheduled for September, and both are sold out. The NBA, which will use the 2012 London Summer Olympics as a platform to showcase its sport, has similar expectations for the league abroad. Among major cities, London has demonstrated it is on par with New York as a global financial and entertainment capital. Moreover, it has shown it can produce bona fide sports stars. Soccer star David Beckham, who is newly arrived to the Los Angeles Galaxy, is better known internationally than 99% of North American professional athletes.

That Britain is pouring billions of pounds into the 2012 Summer Olympics is further evidence that government support is on hand — one of the three key components necessary to run a successful sports franchise. Wembley Stadium, where the Giants will meet the Dolphins, also offers an NFL-worthy venue. Similarly, the 02 Arena, owned by Philip Anschutz (who counts the Los Angeles Galaxy among his holdings), is the site of the upcoming contest between the Stanley Cup champions, the Anaheim Ducks, and the Los Angeles Kings. The arena, opened this past June, features all of the amenities and bells and whistles favored by the NHL and NBA.

In terms of television revenue, the founder of News Corp., Rupert Murdoch, is at the helm of a company that includes the Fox network, along with various regional cable outlets that generate significant revenue for American sports franchises. Murdoch is also the biggest player in the satellite television business in Britian, and his BSkyB and Sky Sports already carry both NFL and NBA games. There is no shortage of corporate support available for North American sports teams either. Anschutz has invested an awful lot of money in helping to construct some of the venues that will house London’s 2012 Summer Olympic games.

Of course, London is mad for soccer, and American sports owners have even gotten into the game: Tom Hicks (the NHL’s Dallas Stars and MLB’s Texas Rangers) and George Gillett (NHL’s Montreal Canadiens) own the Liverpool soccer club; Malcolm Glazier (NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers) has the most prized team, Manchester United, and Stan Kroenke (NBA’s Denver Nuggets, NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, and NFL’s St. Louis Rams) has a stake in Arsenal. The Walt Disney Company has entered into a marketing agreement with Chelsea, another popular London soccer club, to broaden the team’s global identity.

While the big boys plot to conquer the London sports scene, local fans are beginning to ask whether the Americans are in fact doing England a service. During a lecture given by this columnist during a tour of Europe, a woman from Liverpool questioned the future of sports in England and expressed deep reservations about what Hicks and Gillett were accomplishing. Liverpool is slated to get a new stadium that will cater to a corporate base, not the rank-and-file Liverpool fans, a fact that some worry will detract from the appeal of the country’s beloved “football.”

Still, American leagues including the NFL, which is promoting regular season games in London, remain focused on exporting our national pastimes. The NFL could add a 17th game to its schedule, which could be the catalyst for multiple games to be played in London and other European cities.

The NFL is actually in the best position to put a team in London, with an existing weekly play schedule that would ease the burden of air travel. The NHL will partner with the International Ice Hockey Federation in support of a new European League starting in 2008. The goal is to have the NHL Stanley Cup champions face-off against the European League champions. The commissioner of the NBA, David Stern, has proposed the opening of a European Division of the league, even if London is currently the only European city that boasts a state-of-the-art, NBA-style arena.

There has perhaps never been a better time to market American sports to British fans, from the lure of stadium games to our weakness for paraphernalia. With its devotion to soccer, rugby, cricket, Formula One racing, and tennis, London is a big sports city. For savvy North American sports entrepreneurs, it should prove to be the next frontier.