The NFL is making headlines for reasons other than players on the field this weekend as news leaked that the league is seriously considering plans to host a Super Bowl in London someday. With this news, fans became polarized over the topic, and football circles all across the internet launched into debate over whether this was a wise decision or a waste of time.
Plenty of fans across the NFL world were upset when they heard that the National Football League was thinking of hosting its championship game abroad in the future, with many wondering why it is called the NATIONAL Football League at all if the Super Bowl is not an American game anymore.
Others, however, were excited at the thought of America’s most popular sport becoming a worldwide game like baseball and basketball have grown to be. The sense of being together through sport with the rest of the world was welcomed by some.
The news came thanks to an Adam Schefter article posted on ESPN, in which he quoted Roger Goodell as saying, “It is not impossible, and it is something that has been discussed before,” when asked if the NFL may someday play its penultimate game in London someday.
Goodell continued later, saying, “I think that is not out of the question. But at the end of the day, I think right now our formula will stay the same about playing [Super Bowls] in cities that have franchises.”
For some, that quote offered even more reason to wonder about what the NFL was thinking about its future expansion plans. Was Goodell hinting at possible expansion to include a London-based team?
Goodell didn’t do anything to dispel those rumors during the press conference, although he also added, “I think being able to play it in one of our cities — it’s at a huge economic boost to those cities. Our fans live in those cities also. I think that is important. Not that we do not have great fans here [in London]; we do. So as the international series develops, maybe that is a possibility as we play more games here.”
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The NFL’s season includes five games in Europe this year as the league continues to grow its appeal to foreign countries. In many ways, this will be a major win for the league and its players, who will see even more viewership, leading to larger contracts both for players and teams. With that, play on the field should only continue to improve for the fans watching at home.
On the flip side, as Goodell alluded to, there is a certain disappointment that some fans feel when their team loses a home game to play in a foreign country instead of suiting up in front of their hometown fans. These fans bleed their team colors year-round and are forced to resort to watching the game through television instead of cheering in person.