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 The National Football League will play three regular season games in
London next season and Goodell said he expects that number to rise
in the future as the league continues to build a solid British fan
base.
The NFL played only one game in Wembley Stadium for six seasons
before raising it to two games in 2013 and then to three in 2014 and
2015.
NFL owners had voted last October to extend the league's commitment
to play international regular-season games through 2025, including
the option to play outside the United Kingdom beginning with the
2016 season.
"Every time we give our UK fans, and I think this is true on a
global basis, an opportunity to engage in football they want more,"
said Goodell. "Every year I go back to London and I see the fans are
more sophisticated, they understand the game more, they are
following it more.
"We expect a big audience in the UK watching the Super Bowl on
Sunday. That's exciting for us.
"I believe in the future we will see more games in the UK. As for a
franchise, let's continue to grow, lets continue to see that
excitement, enthusiasm, passion and support continue to develop.
"If it does I think it is a realistic possibility."
Building on the success of its international series of
regular-season games in London, the NFL will return to Mexico for
the first time since 2005 when the Oakland Raiders play the Houston
Texans on Nov. 21 at Azteca Stadium in the first Monday Night
Football game to be staged outside of the United States.
The largest crowd to watch any NFL game was 112,376 in a preseason
matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Oilers that was also
in Mexico City in 1994.
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"We are coming back to Mexico next season. We're very excited about
being back, we have a tremendous following down in Mexico," said
Goodell during his state-of-the-league address ahead of Super Bowl
50 on Sunday between the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers. "We
believe it will be a tremendous success."
The NFL also confirmed on Friday that the league was seriously
looking at taking the Pro Bowl to Australia and marked out a small
number of markets as priorities including Canada, Britain, China,
Brazil and Germany.
"We have looked at a very specific proposal and it’s not blue sky
reporting," said Mark Waller, the NFL executive vice president of
International when asked about staging the Pro Bowl in Sydney or
Melbourne.
"A regular season game is not going to be feasible at least in the
present because of travel and logistics.
"But something like the Pro Bowl that is at the end of our season
and is a celebration for our players ... is something we did feel is
attractive, particularly in the southern hemisphere at that time of
year. Whether that’s Rio or Australia it's definitely something
we’re looking at."
(Editing by Larry Fine)
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