Roger Goodell on rumors about 2025 NFL game in Berlin: ‘Believe them’
As the New York Giants face the Carolina Panthers in Munich this weekend, local fans are wondering if American football will ever kick off in the nation’s capital after commissioner Roger Goodell said last November that Berlin has “a lot of interest” in organizing an NFL game.
And Goodell replied, referring to a match to be played in Berlin next season.
“I usually say: don’t believe the rumors,” Goodell said at a fan event in Munich on Saturday. “In this case I say: believe them.”
While the possibility is high, nothing has been finalized yet for 2025, Goodell said.
Two German cities previously hosted NFL games, with two games to be played at Frankfurt Stadium in 2023. The league’s first match in Germany – a November 2022 meeting between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks at the Allianz Arena in Munich – was a huge success, generating 70.2 games. million euros for the city of Munich, according to the NFL.
This year, almost 70,000 fans will visit the sold-out Allianz Arena on Sunday.
Goodell said again on Saturday that the aim is to expand the international schedule even further beyond the eight matches played abroad annually from 2025. Once the NFL settles on an 18-game schedule, Goodell plans to play 16 international games per season. The league increased the number of regular season games from 14 to 16 in 1978 and limited it there until 2021, when it increased the number to 17 games.
Goodell has been vocal about expanding the schedule again as part of the league’s long-term plan. That big increase in both domestic and international competitions could occur within “three to five years,” Goodell said Saturday.
The international schedule for 2024 has been set! 🏈🗺️@NFLBrasil | @NFLUKIRE | @NFLDeutschland
📺: NFL Schedule Release — Tonight 8:00 PM ET on NFLN/ESPN2
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/HMwi7SLZ8h—NFL (@NFL) May 15, 2024
The NFL held five games abroad this season as part of the International Series, with the Giants-Panthers game serving as the intercontinental final. The Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles opened the overseas slate with the league’s first trip to the Corinthians Arena in São Paulo in September.
The Minnesota Vikings then defeated the New York Jets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the first of three games in London in October. The Jacksonville Jaguars fell to the Chicago Bears at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium the following week before reigning victorious against the New England Patriots at Wembley Stadium on October 20.
The NFL has now played regular season games in international stadiums for almost two decadessince the Arizona Cardinals swept the San Francisco 49ers at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City in 2005. It has plans to play in a new city next year – at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid.
“A lot of teams want to go to Spain,” Goodell said on Saturday. “The Dolphins are one that wants to go there.”
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(Photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
