With a city full of lousy professional sports teams, it’s no wonder fans in Toronto, Canada were hoping the NFL would eventually expand north of the border. However, that certainly doesn’t look to be the case, at least not anytime in the near future.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell appeared on the Costas Tonight television show prior to the Super Bowl and said he’d rather see the league add two new franchises instead of one. He said 34 teams would work a lot better than 33 when asked about the NFL returning to Los Angeles. Of course, many Canadian fans figured if Los Angeles became the league’s 33rd franchise then Toronto would likely get the 34th, since the city hosts a Buffalo Bills regular-season game each year.
Goodell dashed those hopes the next day though during the Super Bowl’s annual question and answer period with the media. Goodell was asked about expanding to Los Angeles, but replied that the league hasn’t really thought about expanding and it’s not on its upcoming agenda in the foreseeable future. He added that he doesn’t want any franchises to relocate either as the league wants to keep the current teams where they are to keep it healthy in the long run.
However, later in the session Goodell warmed up to the idea of expanding the NFL elsewhere. He’s quite interested in breaking into several possible international markets including Brazil and Mexico, but Canada was never mentioned. Most Canadian football experts feel Canada definitely isn’t very high on the NFL’s list when it comes to global markets.
The commissioner said he definitely wants to stage another regular-season contest in Mexico and discussions have already been held with Mexican partners. The interest in Brazil may have surprised some people, but it’s the fifth-largest nation in the world and has a population of close to 200 million people. Brazil will also be the center of the sports world in 2014 when it hosts soccer’s World Cup and again two years later when the Olympic Summer Games are scheduled to be held in the Portuguese-speaking country
Currently, the NFL is playing its international games in Toronto and London, England. An exhibition game was held in Mexico City in 1994 and drew over 112,000 fans while a regular season game was played there in 2005 and drew 103,000. The league also has an office there. Regular-season games have been played once a year at London’s Wembley Stadium since 2007 and will continue until at least 2014. The lowest crowd in London has been about 77,000 with 84,254 being the high mark. In 2008, the Buffalo Bills agreed to play five regular-season and three exhibition games in Toronto over a five-year period.
Goodell sees London as the gateway to Europe with Mexico being Latin America’s gateway. Unfortunately, for Canadian fans, Canada doesn’t lead to anywhere other than the Arctic, and the nation’s population of just 30 million is already an established fan base for the NFL. The best that Canadian fans can really hope for is to see the Bills extend their agreement with Toronto and hold a few more games there.
Written by Ian Palmer via FeedCrossing
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