Updated at 12:39 p.m., Tuesday, January 16, 2007
London will host NFL regular-season game
By Paul Logothetis
Associated Press
"There's great history of NFL football in London, and British fans have been great fans of football over the years," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Tuesday. "We're confident that this game is going be a great success in London and will be a great foundation to play more games there going forward."
The opponents for the 2007 contest have yet to be announced, but the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants are reported among the top possibilities.
"They are two of the teams that have expressed an interest and we'll narrow it down to which two teams will generate the most enthusiasm for the fans in London and the broader U.K.," Goodell said.
The most likely venue is the new 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium, which will open this spring after years of delays. The other candidate is 82,000-seat Twickenham, home of English rugby.
"We're looking at both venues in terms of their readiness," said Marc Waller, vice president of NFL International. "It's important that we understand terms of readiness of both stadiums and then a financial bidding process will also ensue."
The game will be held somewhere between late September to mid-October.
Goodell will announce the teams, venue and date before the Feb. 4 Super Bowl in Miami.
NFL owners voted in October to play up to two games outside the United States every season for the next five years. The London game will be the only overseas contest in 2007.
Germany, Canada and Mexico have been identified as the other top markets for NFL games outside the United States.
"We eliminated Toronto after agreeing with the Canadian Football League that we wouldn't go there because it was already hosting the Grey Cup," Goodell said. "Mexico was discussed, as well as Duesseldorf and Hamburg."
The NFL staged its first regular-season game outside the United States in 2005. The Arizona Cardinals played the San Francisco 49ers before a crowd of 103,467 in Mexico City.
London hosted several NFL American Bowl preseason games in the 1980s and 1990s. The city also had the London Monarchs in the World Football League — now NFL Europe — but the team folded.
Goodell said fans have reacted positively to the league's overseas plan, even though it means some teams will lose a scheduled home game.
"There are fans here that we think will like the idea and respond to it because it puts your city on a global stage and the city will be showed as a world class city itself," he said.
