Friday Filler: NFL is Talking of Expanding its International Presence
June 4, 2021
by Alex Zeese
We were desperate for a filler story for Friday, so I’m always happy to oblige. I also thought I’d take the opportunity to do one about a topic bigger than the Washington football team. Let’s discuss the NFL’s international game expansion. Why? Because this week it came out that they plan on adding another international game in Munich (click here to read the original story).
I always assumed that the 17 game expansion was step one of a grand plan by the NFL to eventually have 16 international games so that they could expand the market for the sport. It just doesn’t make sense that the league’s end game was to give one conference 8 home games and the other 9 and stay with that as the grand plan. Logically it’s always seemed reasonable that they would eventually want every team to end up with 8 home games, 8 away games, and 1 international game.
We know that in the past, the NFL has put games in London, Mexico City, and Toronto. We all remember when Washington played a pre-season game in Tokyo. Adding another city in Europe, such as Munich, makes a lot of sense. Twenty years ago when the NFL Europe was still a thing the German teams were the most well supported of that developmental league. In the final NFL Europe season (2007) 4 of the 6 teams were playing in Germany; Dusseldorf, Cologne, Berlin, and Hamburg. The league also had a team in Frankfurt at one point. I could eventually see the NFL putting a few games in different German cities each year.
If the NFL wants the international games to be a success they will need to look to expanding across the Pacific as well. Australia, Japan, and even China could all be viable options for hosting games, although it would be tricky with the time zones since Australia is 14 hours ahead of the East Coast of the US, Japan is 13, and China a full 12 hours. Therefore the league would have to make some really drastic schedule changes, like moving those games to Saturday night for those of us in the USA. For example, a game in Tokyo at 9 AM on a Sunday would be broadcast at 8 PM Saturday on the East Coast and 5 PM on the West Coast. It would seem odd at first, but I’m sure the NFL could make a total spectacle of things and get the fanbases into it.
In the end, I think this is a good thing – more international games will allow the league to expand without adding expansion teams, and may put an end to this crazy idea of a team in London full time. The only remaining question is, in what other countries and cities will the NFL try to test the waters? My guess is that eventually we end up with, 3 games in Asia/Australia, 2 in Canada and Mexico, 6 in Europe, and 3 in US cities.