Trips to the Super Bowl could become even more expensive for NFL fans.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell expressed optimism about the sport’s growth overseas ahead of Sunday’s game in London, adding that future plans could potentially include having the big game held in another country.
“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,” he said in response to a question about moving the neutral-site game internationally. “But things change. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if that happens one day.”
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Nothing appears to be off the table as the league has steadily approached playing more international games in order to grow the game’s popularity.
Goodell outlined a plan that could include playing 16 international games every year if the regular season expands to 18 games. The process of determining host cities will be a detailed process, he added, one that will include a number of factors.
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“Brazil was a big step for us, because we had never played in South America,” he said, via The Athletic. “That was an important element for us. We’re looking at other continents and other markets that we’ve never played in or haven’t played the regular-season games, and we want to get to those.”
In order to up the number of international games, the regular season would need to expand by one game, and the number of preseason games would need to be reduced to two.
“A lot of that depends on — can we continue to make the game safer, can we continue to modify the way we conduct the offseason as well as the training camp and as well as the season, so that these guys feel comfortable being able to play that period of time,” Goodell said of the challenges.
There are five international games scheduled for this season.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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