2024 will see the NFL’s first game played in Brazil as the league continues to explore new foreign markets. A number of other host countries are also receiving consideration with notable expansion on that front potentially on the horizon. 
Dublin and Paris are on the league’s radar, Henry Hodgson recently confirmed. Hodgson serves as the general manager of the NFL’s UK office, one of the departments playing a key role in evaluating new venues and hosts for NFL games. France had previously been named as a potential host country in the near future, but the same was not true of Ireland.
“There’s a feasibility study, as we would call it, in a number of different European cities and Dublin is one of those,” Hodgson said (via Laura Colgan of The Irish Times). “Looking at the stadiums, taking local meetings… we’ll take away all of that information, digest it and determine what the next steps are.”
The league has followed a similar process in the past, and that led to agreements with Sao Paulo and Madrid to host regular season games. Croke Park and Aviva Stadium are the venues under consideration in Dublin at this time. The former was the venue for a preseason contest between the Steelers and Bears in 1997, and it has a capacity of over 82,000.
The Steelers – a team which has a formal partnership in place with the Gaelic Athletic Association – are among those in the NFL with international marketing rights in Ireland and Northern Ireland. That is also the case for the Jaguars, while the Jets added Ireland this offseason. At least one of those teams would likely take part in a game held there in the future.
As of now, the Saints are the only team with marketing rights in France. They would represent a logical candidate to play a game in Paris, one of several sites being considered in some capacity. Sweden and Australia have also been floated as possibilities, although logistics in the latter country in particular are a notable challenge which would need to be overcome relative to those of playing in South America or Europe.
“We continue to look at and have interest in all the major cities across Europe,” Hodgson added. “For now, Paris, Dublin – obviously we’re heading into Madrid in 2025 – those are the ones we’re most focused on in Europe.”
So much for the “National” Football League. Goodell is killing the greatest sport in the planet
Man, league’s blowing through all their stops n concerns bout player safety. Pretty soon gonna be 20 game season w/flights n international games in Australia, where teams will travel across time line n really lose another day of rest. What’s a lil CTE when the owners can make more $$$$$.
There’s enough work that can be done to fix the current game before we continue foisting it on every other country in the world.
I’d honesty prefer Goodell to set his sights on Dublin Texas and Paris Idaho.
Give it a rest, these are getting to be annoying. Nobody wants to watch their team play a game at 6am PT
At that hour on a Sunday the other viewing options are infomercials or religious evangelists…although I’ve discovered it’s not a bad time for doing the laundry.
It’s like a 5-hour difference. If they played a 4 PM game, you can watch it at 11 AM. It’s not that much different.
It’s actually an 8 hour difference between the UK and Pacific Time, and the overseas games never start at 4pm. For years now they have all started at 9:30am ET, which is 6:30am PT.
By 2040, the nfl will be called the IFL(International Football League) and 10-12 games being played overseas will be a normal occurrence. I also predict a handful of expansion teams(the London market has only been growing since they first played there) and Saturday night games competing against college football
I wonder if the NFL gave any thought to the legal implications of playing games in foreign countries. For example, Canada is now considering a law that would jail people for “hate speech” that they may have uttered decades ago. Ireland is considering similar non-free-speech laws that will result in jail time – even for foreigners that are just temporarily visiting. And of course those countries get to decide at any time just what constitutes “hate speech” in their view…