When the NFL started playing regular season games outside the United States, everyone was able to jump to the obvious conclusion that the end game was to get at least one franchise on foreign soil. While the NFL has conquered all other American sports to become king, there are countless other international markets to conquer.
The idea of global expansion has been gaining steam over the years as the international series has expanded in both number of games and into new countries. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has pushed the idea even further into the realm of reality with comments made to German broadcaster RTL/ntv.
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“At some point, there will be NFL teams outside the USA,” GoodelI said. “I have no doubt that this will happen one day.”
Once that inevitably happens, you can bet your mortgage on an international city getting Super Bowl down the line.
Goodell also addressed that.
“There are definitely international cities that could host something like that,” Goodell said of the Super Bowl. “But we would like to see an NFL team in such a city first.”
None of this should come as a surprise to anyone who has paying attention. Expanding and claiming new territories on which to establish an NFL footprint is far too attractive a proposition to not explore. There will be some obvious challenges that come with being the trailblazing team that has to travel back and forth to America to play games but that is not a big enough reason to deter the NFL from seeking all that sweet additional revenue.
Goodell’s comments should clarify where all the momentum is moving. But it remains to see how many years it will be until this vision becomes a reality.
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