The NFL apparently is serious about expanding its product beyond the United States and the United Kingdom.
The league will play five regular season games in Mexico over a five-year span — one game per season — starting in either 2017 or 2018, an NFL official told Spanish news website AS.com. According to the report, the country now is in good enough financial condition to host the games.
“We’re taking steps in the right direction so that eventually, this platform (of sponsors) which we have reconstructed will enable us to talk directly to the NFL in New York about the possibility of staging games in Mexico,” NFL Mexico director Arturo Olivé told AS.com.
The NFL mentioned in May it hopes to host games outside of the U.S. and U.K. by 2017, with Mexico and Germany being the top candidates, so this development shouldn’t come as a surprise. Yet league spokesman Michael Signora refused to confirm AS.com’s report and was hesitant to get into specifics when reached for comment Friday.
“We have visited several stadiums in recent months, and are analyzing what needs to be done to bring games to Mexico,” Signora told NFL.com.
“It is premature to comment specifically as to when this will happen, let alone how many, if any, games might be played.”
The last time an NFL game was played in Mexico was in 2005, when the San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals played in front of a league-record 103,467 fans.
Thumbnail photo via Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports Images
