NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell made that clear, with good reason, during a Saturday morning appearance on Good Morning Football Weekend.
On @gmfb just now, Roger Goodell basically squashed the idea of a London Super Bowl. We discussed. pic.twitter.com/uSA2UH9oYp
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) October 27, 2018
How close might we be to establishing a team overseas?
“I’ve always said this in the last few years: I believe that the fan base is here for a team,” Goodell said. “Just in numbers and passion, I think the business community/commercial community is strong enough. The political support we have for this is extraordinary. I think all of those elements are here. The one I’m still not comfortable (with) yet is the competitive side. How do we do this to not only be fair to the team that’s playing here, but the teams that have to come over to play?
“Where it’s most challenging in my view is in the playoffs, because you can’t really plan for that. So we could probably work the schedule in a fair way during the season, but when you get to the postseason it could be unfair to a team — if Seattle had to come over here for a playoff game — that’s a tough one. So we’ve got to find an answer to that. But other than that, I’m perfectly comfortable with this market and the size and passion for football. We wouldn’t have a problem.”
The NFL will continue with to test the waters with the international games, both in London and Mexico City.
“That’s how we grow the game, right?” Goodell said about the importance of the NFL in the United Kingdom. “Sharing the game, playing the game is the best way to grow it because they get to experience what it’s like to be in the stadium, and you can feel it around town. I’ve only been here 24 hours and you can feel the level of excitement, the anticipation and these fans really understand the game.
“My observation over the last 20, almost 30 years coming over here to watch NFL football is they are so smart about football. They are great football fans. They’re responding at the right time and that’s fun for us. That means we’re making a tremendous amount of progress.”
The NFL will do whatever it can to increase revenue. This is why they’re exploring other markets. Any good Billion Dollar business would do the same thing.
