Along with the unveiling of the 2024 regular-season schedule last week, the NFL announced the full slate of games designated for the international stage.
The league had previously announced the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers would play the first NFL game in Brazil, in Week 1 at São Paulo’s Corinthians Arena. Also added last week:
• New York Jets at Minnesota Vikings in London (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium) in Week 5.
• Jacksonville Jaguars at Chicago Bears in London (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium) in Week 6.
• New England Patriots at Jaguars in London (Wembley Stadium) in Week 7.
• New York Giants at Carolina Panthers in Munich, Germany (Allianz Arena), in Week 10.
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It’s all part of the NFL’s ongoing effort to expand its global reach and grow its fan base. The NFL began playing regular-season games internationally in 2005. This year’s international series features five games, but the league’s owners voted to approve an expansion to up to eight regular-season games on foreign soil starting in 2025. Sites for the 2025 season will include London and Madrid, but other locations and participating teams are to be determined.
The 2024 International Schedule is set! 🏈🗺️@NFLBrasil | @NFLUKIRE | @NFLDeutschland
📺: NFL Schedule Release — Tonight 8pm ET on NFLN/ESPN2
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/HMwi7SLZ8h— NFL (@NFL) May 15, 2024
So how does the international series selection process work?
The United Kingdom has an ongoing partnership with the NFL and the Jaguars, who played in London once a year from 2013 to 2022 (excluding 2020) before expanding to two games there in 2023. The NFL global team’s research of other potential host cities begins three to four years before selections are made.
Obviously, a city must have a suitable venue. But considerations include far more than field conditions and seating capacity. A potential stadium must be able to accommodate all of the technological needs required to play and broadcast an NFL game. Mike North, NFL vice president of broadcast planning, called the IT department “the first line of defense — the first ones to kind of go into a site survey and try to figure out if the venue could actually handle it.”
Cities must have appropriate hotel, dining and practice facilities to support two NFL teams that may have as many as 250 people in their traveling parties, which includes players, coaches, support staff and team executives. Then, other considerations come into play.
“Are there NFL football fans already there? Have they shown a recent trend of more interest, whether it’s through social media or video downloads or hats and jersey sales, or fantasy football participation, or, maybe most importantly, flag football participation,” North said, noting that flag football will be an Olympic sport in 2028. “So it kind of all goes together and really figures out which of these markets have a hunger and an appetite and an interest in NFL football, and then how do those kind of align with the NFL global goals?”
GO DEEPERNFL hires Stephanie Kwok as flag football VPThe NFL also must ensure the international venues have room on their calendars for their games.
“There’s obviously other events going on besides NFL football,” North said. “Can we slot into our calendar in a way that fits with their other events and their venue availability? So, an awful lot goes into it, and that’s probably why it’s a good two- to three-year runway before we’re ready to play a game.”
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The AFC and NFC have nine-game home schedules on alternating years, so the NFL selects host teams for international games from clubs with an extra home game. The only exception is Jacksonville, which last year played one international game as the home team and one as the visiting team. And there are times when teams volunteer to play overseas, as the Giants did for this year’s game in Germany, where New York shares international marketing rights with a few other NFL teams.
The schedule-makers determine which games are most crucial to be played in the United States (for example, a divisional rivalry wouldn’t take place overseas), and which lend themselves to the flexibility of playing abroad.
GO DEEPEREvery NFL team’s 2024 regular-season schedule“Once we knew that Philadelphia, Chicago, Minnesota, Carolina, Jacksonville were going to be playing one of their home games internationally for the 2024 season, then … all of the opponents who are scheduled to visit those cities had to at least have a conversation with the league office,” North said, who added that teams might say, “‘Well, if we are selected, here’s how we’d like to play. We would like to be home the week before and we’ll take our bye the week after.’ Or, ‘We’re fine with a short road trip the week before, as long as we’re back in our facility that evening, because we’re not going to go over until Friday or Saturday.’”
Some West Coast teams prefer to play overseas after already playing on the East Coast to break up the travel time, North said.
“Every team looks at it a little bit differently. … So, you try to work with everybody. Make it as routine as we can,” he said. “But they all come with certain constraints and logistical challenges, not just for the teams, but also for the scheduling (NFL) team.”
The expansion of the NFL schedule to eight international games a year means every team will be playing abroad with more consistency. North projects that each team will play a “home” international game every four years. No team will play more than one international game in a season unless it chooses to add more.
The NFL continues to show a desire to reach untapped fan bases, as this year’s game in Brazil and next year’s contest in Spain reflect. North said cities in Australia and Asia could also eventually host games, though nothing has been finalized.
(Photo: Peter Nicholls / Getty Images)
Mike Jones joined The Athletic as a national NFL writer in 2022 after five years at USA Today, where he covered the NFL, and eight years at The Washington Post, where he covered the Washington Commanders. He previously covered the Washington Wizards for The Washington Times. Mike is a native of Warrenton, Va.
