The NFL has played games in London since 2007, and recently expanded to Germany. With so much success, it’s only right that they would think about expanding the product even further.
According to Ken Maguire of the Associated Press, Spain and France “sit atop the list of the league’s next potential destination.”
“We need to do our homework to make sure that there is the possibility of a place to land any games in those markets, gauge interest of the host stadia, gauge interest of the host city, even the government, as to their enthusiasm to help us bring a game,” Gosper said.
“When you know that there are teams operating in (the international rights program) you want to look at the prospect and the viability of potentially having games in those markets at some point,” Gosper said. “Certainly, in the next six months to 12 months we’ll be really testing the viability of our options from a stadium point of view — not just in Europe but elsewhere — and then at the same time in parallel seeing what the appetite is for clubs to potentially exploit those markets with a game.”
“[France and Spain are] two very healthy media markets, healthy sports markets, some strong indicators from our streaming platform as well as from our consumer sales,” Gosper added. “When you mine the data a little bit, they certainly are two markets with high potential.”
This year, the NFL will play five neutral-site international games. Four of the games were played at 9:30 a.m. ET on a Sunday. If the viewers continue to be there, the league will continue to put the product on television in other markets knowing fans will wake up early to watch football.
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NFL stories via Google! Follow Us
Like with London and Germany, both Spain and France have a few major soccer stadiums which could potentially accommodate an American football game.
However, it should be noted that Allianz Arena in Munich had some bad field conditions that will need to be addressed in the future so players don’t have theiur season turned upside down while abroad.
As of right now, Spain has a slight edge because the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins now have “home marketing” rights in the country.
