LONDON — The NFL could stage a game in yet another international location “as early as next year,” commissioner Roger Goodell said Saturday.
Goodell spoke at a fan forum in London, which is hosting three games this season before the international slate switches to Germany for two games in November.
The NFL recently confirmed that cities in Spain and Brazil are under review as potential hosts.
“We actually have three or four markets that are here this weekend and next weekend that are interested in hosting a game,” Goodell said.
The NFL declined to comment beyond Goodell’s answers at the fan event.
The league has made an aggressive push internationally by adding a 17th game to the schedule to facilitate games abroad and give teams marketing rights in various countries.
NFL officials have made site visits to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo in Brazil and Madrid in Spain where they were “building relationships, looking at the stadia there, looking at the operations partners, the infrastructure,” Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s executive vice president for club business, and international and league events, said in a recent media call.
Twenty-one teams are participating in the NFL’s global markets program in 2023 across 14 countries. The league has expressed interest in bringing games to several of those markets and hasn’t ruled out putting a franchise overseas in the future.
Under the global markets program, the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins have commercial rights in Spain. The Dolphins are the only team with rights in Brazil.
Under the expanded schedule, NFC teams get nine home games in 2024, which at least opens the door for the possibility of the Bears playing in Spain.
The first regular-season game in Germany last year was considered a success. Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Seattle Seahawks 21-16 in Munich.
The German city of Frankfurt hosts two games this season, the first being the Kansas City Chiefs against the Dolphins on Nov. 5.
Source: www.espn.com