NFL to Play More Games in Britain Through 2016
NFL owners approved a league resolution on Tuesday that will continue to bring regular-season American football games to British soil through 2016.
As part of the resolution, the NFL will allow teams to volunteer to play at least one of their home games per year in Europe, for up to five years, potentially allowing teams to establish larger, more dedicated fan bases overseas, NFL.com reports.
"When the initial resolution was approved in 2006, the thinking at the time was that we would have two new teams every year," NFL Vice President of International Chris Parsons said. "As the series evolved, we felt as though having a team return to the UK on a regular basis would certainly increase the fan base for that particular team, which in turn would drive fan growth for the entire league. We think there is a tremendous benefit for a team to return to the U.K. on an annual basis."
The resolution passed Tuesday also enables the NFL to add "the appropriate number of UK games per season." The new measure provides for two or more NFL games per year to be played at venues like Wembley Stadium in London, which will host its fifth NFL regular-season game on Oct. 23 when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers face the Chicago Bears.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell indicated recently that he'd like to see an additional United Kingdom game per year added.
[Via NFL.com]