Roger Goodell, commissioner of American football’s NFL, has played down the prospect of staging the league’s season-ending Super Bowl finale abroad, citing the economic benefits for home franchises hosting the event.
Speaking at the 2025 edition of the annual Leaders in Sports conference in London, attended by Sportcal, Goodell said, despite the NFL’s success in staging regular-season games overseas, the league would keep staging its flagship event in the US for now.
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He commented: “I think that is a very strong signal of the value of the Super Bowl, but also how far the sport has come, ultimately. And listen, it's hard for me to look down the path, but I would say our major focus for us is to play the Super Bowl in markets where we have franchises.
“It's a huge economic impact. Last year's Super Bowl in New Orleans had over a billion-dollar economic impact, and that's not including all of the additional exposure and all the other things that I would say are non-quantifiable.
“That's a significant investment that we feel our communities, where we're playing, deserve that.”
The prospect of an abroad Super Bowl comes in response to the success of the NFL’s international games, which secures high matchday attendance and TV figures in the host markets and domestically.
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By GlobalDataSince the first regular-season NFL game was held internationally – in Mexico City in October 2005 – 55 games have taken place outside the US, with the league keen to eventually stage 16 matches abroad per season.
During the conference, Goodell also confirmed the league will return to Mexico City next year, as it continues to expand its internationalization project, adding: “We played in Sao Paulo, and now we're going to Rio, and Mexico City.
“We've looked at other markets. We'll be back in Mexico City next year, which will grow them.”
Along with a return to Mexico City, a game in Australia featuring the LA Rams has already been announced by the league, which will be held at Melbourne's MCG stadium.
The comments come in the middle of the NFL’s 2025 International Series, which began last month with the league’s return to Sao Paulo, Brazil, with a match between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers (September 5, Arena Corinthians).
Meanwhile, the NFL’s debut game in Dublin, Ireland, last weekend (September 28) between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Minnesota Vikings, drew an average of 7.9 million US viewers to become the second most-watched international game on its NFL Network.
The UK’s London is set to host three matches: Vikings vs. Cleveland Browns (October 5, Tottenham Stadium), Denver Broncos vs. New York Jets (October 12, Tottenham Stadium), and Los Angeles Rams vs. Jacksonville Jaguars (October 19, Wembley Stadium).
Asked whether other cities in the UK would be considered for hosting an NFL game, Goodell said: “There are cities that express an interest, and I think we’ll probably consider that at some point.”
Germany’s Berlin, meanwhile, will host its first NFL game between the Indianapolis Colts and Atlanta Falcons (November 9, Olympiastadion), while Spain’s Madrid will also debut as an NFL host by staging a match between the Miami Dolphins and Washington Commanders (November 16, Estadio Santiago Bernabeu).
Goodell also revealed the NFL’s plans to launch women’s and men’s professional flag football leagues “in the next couple of years” ahead of the sport’s debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
He said demand for the sport has been rising and will be used by the league to attract younger fans, adding: “We’re committed to creating a women’s professional league, and a men’s professional flag league. We’ve had a great deal of interest in that, and I expect that we’ll be able to do that, launch that, in the next couple of years.
“The demand is there. We’re seeing colleges in the states and universities internationally that want to make it a part of their program,” Goodell said.
“If you set that structure up where there’s youth leagues, going into high school, into college, and then professional, I think you can develop a system of scale. That’s an important infrastructure that we need to create.”
