The NFL’s popularity in Germany is on the rise, and as a result, the NFL is very eager to start playing regular-season games there.
That report comes from Peter King in Monday’s edition of Football Morning in America, who writes that the league is targeting 2022 or 2023 for what it hopes will be a regular NFL game in Germany.
King writes:
The likely first venue would be nearly NFL-ready Allianz Stadium in Munich, home grounds for Bayern Munich. Frankfurt, Berlin and Cologne/Dusseldorf could also host.
This year, the NFL had 2.2 million people in Germany watching as an average-minute audience (that’s the way Nielsen rates NFL games here) at least part of the Super Bowl—and the game was on there in the early hours of Monday. Plus, subscriptions to the NFL’s big pay-TV model, NFL GamePass, were up 30 percent worldwide last year. That is a huge revenue stream.
Other countries under consideration for NFL international play are Japan and China. Though, playing in those countries would pose daunting travel and time-zone difficulties. Not to mention the political complications concerning China. That is if the NFL cares about those political complications.