The NFL Is Becoming the League With No Borders

For the richest, most powerful league in the world, there truly are no limits.

The final international game of the 2024 NFL season will take place Sunday in Germany, when the Giants and Panthers face off at Allianz Arena in Munich. For the third straight year, the league will complete a record-tying five matchups outside the U.S., following three games in London last month and the debut Brazil game in Week 1.

But that record is set to be broken, as the NFL’s international ambitions—and list of host cities—continue to grow. NFL owners have approved playing up to eight regular-season games in foreign countries beginning next year, and there’s a push to double that number in the not-too-distant future, which would create a nearly season-long presence abroad.

With so many countries under consideration, it’s no surprise. “I think we’ll end up going to 16 games at some point in time,” Goodell said during an appearance on NFL Network ahead of this season’s first London game.

And, as the NFL’s global footprint grows, the media dollars should follow—possibly in the form of a separate international package that creates an entirely new viewing window.  

So, where will the NFL go next? The race to land America’s most popular sport is on.

The NFL plans to keep playing in the U.K., Germany, and likely Brazil, but even more new locations are on tap, as its international strategy continues to evolve.

Two things are certain: The NFL will play its first game in Spain in 2025, and it will eventually return to Mexico City once renovations at Estadio Azteca (where the league has played previously) are complete ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. 

Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, the home of LaLiga powerhouse Real Madrid, is set to host one international matchup next season. Teams are yet to be selected, but both the Bears and Dolphins have international marketing rights in Spain, as part of the NFL’s Global Markets Program, which launched in 2022 and allows franchises to grow their brands in foreign countries. Ten teams—nearly a third of the NFL—have marketing rights in Mexico. AFC teams will likely be “hosting” most international games (giving up a traditional home game) in 2025, as they have the extra ninth home game during odd years.

Ireland, where college football has left a mark, seems to be atop the NFL’s short list for other fresh locales. Significant momentum is building around the now-annual Aer Lingus College Football Classic at the 50,000-seat Aviva Stadium. Major Week 0 matchups have been played there the past three seasons, and two more Power 4 contests are on the slate in 2025 and 2026.

Last month, commissioner Roger Goodell said he had “no doubt” that Ireland—likely Dublin—will host an NFL game soon. “I know the Steelers really want to go there,” he said at a fan event in London ahead of the Jaguars-Bears game. Pittsburgh, along with the Jaguars and Jets, has marketing rights in the country. Playing in Ireland would complement the NFL’s long-standing and successful strategy in the neighboring U.K., where the league began playing regular-season games in 2007. 

France and Italy have been floated as other European locations for the NFL to enter, but no country—or continent—seems to be off limits.

This spring, NFL EVP of club business, international and league events Peter O’Reilly  confirmed that conversations had taken place about a regular-season game in Australia, where the Eagles and Rams have marketing rights. Despite the vast time difference with the U.S., “Australia is among a set—and it’s not a small set—of markets that we are looking at,” O’Reilly said at owners meetings in Nashville. 

Even the Middle East is under consideration, with Abu Dhabi being mentioned as an option in a New York Times report from May. Although, no team has marketing rights in a Middle Eastern country.

As the league continues to plant its flag abroad, more teams could explore taking up part-time residence in a foreign country, like the Jaguars, who have played two London games in each of the past two seasons.

The two-time defending champion Chiefs, who played the NFL’s first game in Frankfurt last season, could be the most likely to follow suit. Kansas City spent roughly $3 million on international marketing activities, and wants to return to Germany as soon as possible.

“One of the challenges with playing again in Germany is a lot of teams have seen the success that we and other franchises have had, and everybody’s getting in line to play,” Chiefs president Mark Donovan told Front Office Sports in September. Kansas City has five German companies as team sponsors, including Wagner Pizza, which just signed a multiyear contract—the team’s largest international deal—and Strauss, which is supporting several ChiefsHaus fan events in Munich this weekend.

Ten franchises share marketing rights in the country, including the Panthers and Giants, who are playing there Sunday, as well as the Buccaneers and Seahawks, who played in Munich in 2022, and the Patriots and Colts, who also faced off in Frankfurt in 2023. (Many of those teams also have rights in neighboring Austria and Switzerland.)

The viewing experience for fans could be changing as more franchises trade their own friendly confines for the likes of London, Munich, and Madrid. 

Goodell has hinted that a reality with 16 international games might be tied to expanding the overall regular season to 18 games, which may have to wait until the next collective bargaining agreement at the end of this decade.

But in that scenario, more games would mean more media inventory. 

Last month, a source familiar with the league’s expansion strategy confirmed to FOS that a separate package of international games is a definite possibility. The league could create a weekly 9:30 a.m. ET game broadcast window for at least a portion of the season, if not the majority of it—which could fetch more than $1 billion from a global streamer, sources told FOS.

From there, the next natural question revolves around the league’s biggest game. Last month, Goodell said it “wouldn’t surprise” him if the league held a future Super Bowl in London.

John Kosner, a former ESPN and NBA executive, told FOS an international Super Bowl “could become a potential carrot for bidders.”