The league wants to play a game in Germany in 2022.
There appears to be some interested parties with pockets filled with money in some German cities who want to host a National Football League game in 2022. In June, the NFL put out the word that it would like to hear from well-heeled promoters because the league is looking for a partner to host an NFL contest in Germany. Why Germany? The weekly NFL television viewership in the country has grown by more than 20 percent annually since 2017. The NFL claims millions of fans tuned in for last February’s Super Bowl, making it the third consecutive season of record German Super Bowl watching. According to the NFL, Germany is a leading market outside of North America for NFL Shop sales, fantasy football participation and sales of the Madden NFL video game. Munich has officially said it is in the bidding for an NFL game. Berlin is not. Hamburg is interested in hosting a game but not in 2022. Germany has had five NFL preseason games between 1990 and 1994, and there were five teams in NFL Europe. That European league folded in 2007.
The NFL is trying to expand its global reach. In February, the National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell said “we are planning for international games in 2021. That is the approach we are going to take.” The NFL does have two games on schedule for London, England in 2021. The Atlanta Falcons will host the New York Jets on Sunday, October 10th and the Jacksonville Jaguars will be the home team against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, October 17th. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic the 2021 London schedule has been reduced from four games to two games and the Mexico City game has been scratched. The NFL wants additional partners preferably in Germany. The NFL will do the research in Germany starting in September.
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