International Super Bowl Could Anchor Multibillion-Dollar NFL Rights Deal

The NFL could use the first Big Game outside American soil as the cherry on top of a new international-rights package that could fetch billions, multiple sources told Front Office Sports on Monday. This follows the news that the British ambassador to the U.S. has made a “big pitch” to host the event.

“I want that Super Bowl in Britain,” Ambassador Lord Peter Mandelson told the Chicago Council on Global Affairs last Thursday. “I don’t care when it takes place, but I want it announced while I’m ambassador. We love it, we love it.”

At first glance, moving the Super Bowl across the pond seems far-fetched. The Super Bowl is a quintessentially American event. London is five hours ahead of Eastern Time, and eight hours ahead of Pacific Time. That would almost certainly necessitate a major change in the game’s kickoff time. The Big Game reportedly generates an economic impact of $500 million to $1 billion for host cities such as New Orleans and Las Vegas. It would be tough for an American sports league to take that away. Plus, the NFL likes to grant Super Bowls to franchises that build new multibillion-dollar stadiums for their teams. 

But the stars could align for the NFL to finally take America’s biggest sporting event to another country. Commissioner Roger Goodell has launched an aggressive international growth plan to reach his stated goal of $25 billion in revenue by 2027. The commissioner even floated the idea of an international Super Bowl during a fan forum in London last fall.

“We’ve always traditionally tried to play a Super Bowl in an NFL city—that was always sort of a reward for the cities that have NFL franchises,” said Goodell. “But things change. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if that happens one day.”

If the NFL expands to an 18-game season, the league could carve out a lucrative new rights package of 16 international games per season. Media consultant John Kosner told FOS the NFL could launch a weekly, 9:30 a.m. ET game package in the U.S. TV market that would take place in the late afternoons in Europe. Toss in a Super Bowl and the package becomes extremely valuable. But the NFL and millions of TV viewers would have to adjust to an earlier game time in the U.S., where the Big Game typically kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET.

“London is as good a bet as any to host that first game,” Kosner tells FOS. “It would be a 7 p.m. local kickoff. The NFL would have to be O.K. with an afternoon ET Super Bowl.”

This isn’t new territory for Kosner. Back in December 2023, he predicted the league would eventually create a Sunday package of international games. That would effectively create a fourth TV window on Sunday, with games airing from early morning to almost midnight ET.

This season, the NFL will play seven international games, including three in London, and one apiece in Berlin, Madrid, Dublin, and São Paulo. The league’s always been the smartest when it comes to conjuring new media rights out of thin air. If and when the NFL shops an international-rights package, it’s sure to draw interest from existing rights partners ESPN, NBC, Fox, CBS, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Google/YouTube. The added lure of breaking into the lucrative Super Bowl rotation could also spur a global tech giant like Apple to splurge on its first NFL game package. 

Meanwhile, sports TV executives believe it’s a virtual lock that the NFL will opt out early from its current 11-year cycle of rights deals worth $110 billion in 2029 and 2030—especially after the NFL watched the rival NBA score a $77 billion windfall for its long-term rights from ESPN, NBC, and Prime.

The NFL declined to comment for this story, pointing to Goodell’s previous comments about international expansion.