Welcome to The Signal, Box Score's Wednesday newsletter. This week, we are looking at NFL’s international ambitions and what a global game means for the business of football, the teams, the players and the fans.
As part of the NFL’s plan to grow global interest in football, nine games will be played across four continents and seven countries in the 2026 season. The San Francisco 49ers, who start their season on Thursday against the Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne, Australia, will travel a league-record 38,105 miles over their 17-game regular season schedule. The Niners will cross 58 time zones, topping the record of 42 set last season by the Los Angeles Chargers, according to Bookies.com.
With the shortest schedule of any major professional sports league, all NFL games are weekly spectacles that impact so much of our daily lives from what we eat on game day, to how goods and services are marketed to us, to how we use our disposable income on team merchandise, sports gambling and stadium tickets.
These weekly fall spectacles that have transformed communities like Chicago, Green Bay and New York for more than a century are now becoming traditions around the world. Since the NFL began its international series in 2007 with the Dolphins and the Giants at Wembley Stadium in London, the league has played games in Mexico City, Toronto, Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, São Paulo, Madrid and Dublin. This season, the NFL is bringing games to Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro and Paris for the first time.
“We believe that the next 50 million fans will not come from the United States,” said Gerrit Meier, Head of NFL International. “They will come from international markets.”
What is the NFL’s strategy to build international interest in football?
Projected to surpass $25 billion in revenue by 2027, the NFL is the biggest sports league in the world by revenue, dwarfing the NBA, MLB and Premier League soccer. And now it wants a bigger chunk of an international market that is responding to “American football.”
For example, the Jacksonville Jaguars have made London their second home, playing in London every year since 2013 (except for the 2020 pandemic season). This season, the team will play two back-to-back “home” games in the city. Controlling everything from merchandise to ticket sales, the Jaguars say their games in London account for between 11% and 15% of their local revenue.
The Jaguars benefit from a league-wide Global Markets program that gives owners like the Jaguars’ Shahid Khan the power to do their own deal-making for commercial and marketing programs with international cities and organizations. Khan is also the owner of Premier League soccer club Fulham FC.
Which international city is most likely to get an NFL franchise?
Hardly a New York or L.A. market-sized team, the Jaguars drew 86,152 fans to Wembley Stadium for their October 2025 game against the Rams, and NFL regularly fills Wembley and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium during its London visits.
That’s why league insiders believe that London will be the first international city to get a team, but there are skeptics.
“The attendance for one-off NFL games in London is impressive but that doesn’t prove there is a viable market for a permanent franchise,” says Neil Squires, a UK-based sportswriter. “The rarity factor is a major part of London’s appeal. Fans can, and do, travel in from across Britain and Europe for a big weekend, making the game an event rather than simply a fixture. A permanent team risks turning that excitement into routine — routine is a very different proposition.”
What is the impact of the NFL’s international games on the American fans and local businesses?
Both the Jaguars and the Niners are losing two home games this season due to their international schedules, and five additional teams will lose at least one home game. That’s a huge hit to the local economies where those games would have been held in the US. According to a Bank of America study, total debit and credit card spending rises by around 77% on NFL game days in ZIP codes where stadiums are located.
One study of the economic impact of the Steelers’ Acrisure Stadium found that over the last four years the stadium has contributed $3.4 billion in economic output in Pittsburgh and supported approximately 3,000 permanent jobs.
How does all this international travel affect the games and the players?
NFL players are creatures of habit. For away games, they are accustomed to flying into a city the day before the game and flying home immediately afterward. For the Australian game on Thursday night, the Niners arrived in Melbourne last Friday to adjust to the 17-hour time difference. (“Sunday in San Francisco, Monday in Manila,” as they say in the Navy.) The Rams are sticking to roughly the same schedule that they keep for domestic away games.
“We’re trying to keep things as normal for our players as we can,” Rams vice president of facilities and equipment Brendan Berger told SI. “Trying to make it feel like a normal game week.”
Could all this travel for the Niners and Rams be a disadvantage down the road in the NFC playoffs against a team such as the Carolina Panthers, who will travel just 8,740 miles this season, the fewest in the league? It’s uncertain. What’s for sure is that the NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell are aggressively moving toward making international games, and soon an international franchise, a mainstay of the game. And even the Super Bowl, which has been played every year in a US city since 1967, might one day be played at an international venue.
“At some point, there will be NFL teams outside the USA,” Goodell told German TV network RTL/ntv. “I have no doubt that this will happen one day.” 🏈
Help Spread the Word
If you enjoyed this edition of Box Score, please pass it along to a friend and encourage them to sign up at boxscoresports.com. We’ll see you again on Friday.
