The NFL has aggressively been expanding its International Series. In 2024, there will be five regular season games played overseas in three different countries.
With more and more international games getting added to the schedule every year, it raises the question of whether this will continue in the future. One NFL Insider is predicting a massive expansion to the International Series.
Adam Schefter Predicts Every Team Will Play International Games Annually
Recently, Adam Schefter discussed the future of International Series games on his podcast. During that discussion, he revealed where he thinks this is heading in the near future. The main conclusion he drew was he believes every NFL team will have to play in at least one international game every year.
“I think we’re going to eventually have one international game for every team per year.”
-Adam Schefter
Recent Expansion
The NFL has not been shy about sending several teams overseas annually to increase its international presence. The league has had five games per year overseas as far back as 2019. However, before the pandemic, this was mostly limited to games in London and a game in Mexico City.
Now, the NFL has allowed more cities and countries to join in on the fun. Germany has been a massive success since the NFL decided to allow that country to host an annual game in 2022. Frankfurt and Munich have split time as host cities and will continue to do so for the next couple of years at least.
New Countries Joining In
Another big sign that Schefter may be right about international expansion is the number of new countries continuing to get awarded NFL games. This season, Brazil will host a game in São Paulo for the first time ever. However, the NFL is not done expanding to new countries.
In 2025, it has been confirmed that Madrid, Spain will host a regular season game. However, Spain may not be the only country to host a game for the first time next season.
There have been strong rumors that Australia may have a chance to join in on the fun. This is still not confirmed yet, but NFL executives have admitted that there has been discussion about it.
For Australia to get awarded a regular season game, certain logistical challenges would have to be worked out. These include flight time to get there along with the huge time zone difference. Still, all of these designations and discussions point towards Schefter’s prediction becoming reality soon.
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