The NFL made two big announcements regarding its future fixture lists this week, most notably detailing plans to make its South American debut via a match in the continent’s largest country.
Touchdown in Brazil
São Paulo will host South America’s first NFL game during 2024, although the league has not yet determined the exact date of the fixture or which teams will be involved.
Brazil’s most populous city was chosen over Spanish capital city Madrid to host the new NFL international fixture, with the market having been under the league’s spotlight for some time.
According to NFL.com, there are some 38 million followers of the league in the Portuguese-speaking country and the 49,000 seater Corinthians Arena – used by the football (soccer) team of the same time – would make an ideal NFL venue.
This does not mean that Madrid has been entirely ignored as a potential location, however. The city could become an NFL international host as soon as 2025 according to Peter O’Reilly, Executive Vice President of Club Business, International and League Events.
“The good news is both are really viable and interested in hosting games,” O’Reilly informed NFL.com. “Pending having the opportunity to play in Madrid and Brazil in the future, we would be excited to do that.
“The reason we went first with Brazil really ties to going to a new continent for the first time, into South America for the first time for the regular season.”
This is, of course, not the NFL’s first foray into international fixtures, with the league having held London games since 2007, Mexican games since 2016 and German games since 2022.
The regularity of these international fixtures as well as the league’s global reach has repeatedly fuelled discussion about a potential franchise expansion of the NFL into other countries, with a UK-based team touted as the most likely option.
This has yet to be seen, but the NFL has been active in building up a profile in the UK, such as expanding its NFL Foundation programme to Manchester and Birmingham earlier this year. This was highlighted by Henry Hodgson, NFL UK General Manager, as a key building block for the creation of a British franchise, in an interview with Insider Sport.
LA 2027
Closer to home, the NFL has confirmed that the Super Bowl LXI – the concluding game of the 2026-27 season – will take place in February 2027 at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
This marks the second time in five years that the Super Bowl has been held at the venue, which is the home to two of California’s three NFL franchises, the Los Angeles Chargers and Los Angeles Rams.
The choice of venue shows a continued focus on California for the league, with the last SoFi season final taking place just two years ago in 2021, whilst prior to that the last Super Bowl to take place in the Golden State was in 2016 at Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium.
NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, said: “We are very excited to bring the Super Bowl back to Los Angeles for the second time in five years. The city did an outstanding job hosting Super Bowl 56 in the incredible SoFi Stadium and we believe that Super Bowl LXI will be even more memorable.
“The Los Angeles Rams, the Los Angeles Host Committee and many other outstanding partners will help create an unforgettable week of events culminating in Super Bowl Sunday in 2027 that will celebrate the region as an epicentre of sports, entertainment and culture.”
