http://www.si.com/nfl/2015/08/07/nfl-mexico-international-series

The National Football League will play five regular season games, one per season, in Mexico starting in 2017 or 2018, according to a report from AS.com.

The NFL has yet to confirm the report.

The NFL recently said it was looking to play more international games and looking at potential sites in Germany, Mexico and Brazil.

Were taking steps in the right direction so that eventually, this platform (of sponsors) which we have reconstructed will enable us to talk directly to the NFL in New York about the possibility of staging games in Mexico, NFL Mexico Director Arturo Olivé said.

It will be for five games, not three as originally proposed, Olivé said.

According to the report, it will cost $15 million to stage NFL games in the country, with Olivé saying that it was improbable that Mexico Citys Azteca stadium or Olympic Stadium would be used to stage NFL games. Officials in Mexico have reportedly secured the necessary sponsorship money to cover the $15 million in organizational costs.

The first regular season game ever to be held outside of the United States was played in 2005 at Azteca Stadium. The Arizona Cardinals beat the San Francisco 49ers 3114 in front of over 103,000 spectators.

This season, there will be three international games, all in London: the Miami Dolphins take on the New York Jets on Oct. 4, the Buffalo Bills play the Jacksonville Jaguars on Oct. 25 and the Detroit Lions face Kansas City Chiefs on Nov. 1.

Last month, the NFL and English Premier League squad Tottenham Hotspur agreed to a 10-year partnership allowing the NFL to play a minimum of two games each year at the teams new stadium.

@texasag1969 said:

Actually Mexico City would be an excellent choice. Cheap labor to build the stadium and it would fill every week. Could make a hell-of-a contract with Univision for here in the U.S. for all the illegals that would tune in to watch their home team games and sell a lot of advertisement in Spanish to hit that huge market. We just need to convince the wall builder that this would make better business sense than sending them all back. Been telling my kids since they were little to learn Spanish if they wanted to be a part of the long term future of this country and that was before NAFTA. There is a huge untapped market to our south and smart business guys are catching on to it.

I should send the Donald a copy of Doris Kearns Goodwin's "The Bully Pulpit". TR was way beyond his time on our neighbors to the south. He was just a bit heavy handed is all.

Everytime the have an NFL game in Mexico is packed solid even exceeding capacity seating with people sitting in the asiles....a 100% no-no in the states but nobody really seems to stop them.

Many Mexican fans are Cowboy fans but I think they can get around that, even many Arizona fans are old Cowboy fans.

Now any other restrictions the NFL might have I'm not really sure but there is a market there.

@opal312 said:

Roger Goodell really had nothing to do with it. It was the other owners, particularly Jones who salivated over the money they think they could make from the LA market. Goodell is only following orders basically.

As for Europe, I pity any team adjusting to time zones on a weekly basis. Europe watches Soccer, Cricket and Tennis!

@texasag1969 said:

Except network feeds of home games will get slapped with a 30% tariff...

Azteca soccer stadium seats 87k...

@londonbrown said:

The old LA Coliseum has apparently an 80,000 capacity for NFL games....but it has a 93,000+ capacity for USC games. Why did difference, I don't know.

The new stadium they are building will be 80,000....so I think they are artificially reducing the current capacity of the Coliseum to match what they will have with the new LA stadium.

@the-gipper said:

I dont think its misleading, if they cant fill the stadium for one team what % capacity will two teams fill?

@bob806 said:

Well, you talk about a market that Jerry Jones thinks he owns...it is Oklahoma City.

Besides, OKC isn't even in the top 40 Nielsen TV markets. Portland, Salt Lake City, West Palm Beach, Orlando, Greenville-Spartanburg are bigger. Austin alone is bigger...not including San Antonio. Raleigh alone is bigger not including Charlotte.

Columbus and Hartford are bigger.

OKC works as a one horse town for basketball.....but it would not bring the type of eyeballs the NFL would want.

They probably actually regret having placed a team in Jacksonville which is also not in the Top 40 markets.

@mark-o said:

Jerry may have influence....but he don't control shit. From my understanding (as my daughter lives there), a lot of people in SA had been fed up with Jerry Jones taking SA for granted and thinking he owns them......and a lot of people had shifted allegience to the Texans. (but that may all change now that the Cowboys are winning big....their mediocrity was another factor in driving people away.....winning could cause them to flock back).

IF a big enough fat cat were to come along and put money up for a new stadium.....they could go. In the interim, the Alamodome is probably as good a stadium for an NFL team to play in as the ones in both SD and Oakland....but a new stadium would be required.

Besides, the NFL owners may like the idea of playing a Super Bowl in SATX. It has good weather (much better than Dallas) that time of year.

@syd said:

True that....but still, what are they going to do about a stadium? Spanos has loyalty to SD....but it can only go so far.

@alkid3 said:

Capacity figures. Though perhaps that is misleading....as the Coliseum holds a ton of people. Still....as far as I am concerned, why don't we see if one team can make it in LA before they put another team there.

It is foolish to think that just because it is "LA" and some of the league owners are Hollywood star butthole sniffers (read: Jerry Jones) and because it is the second largest market in the nation that it is able to support two teams.

@mjp28 said:

Actually Mexico City would be an excellent choice. Cheap labor to build the stadium and it would fill every week. Could make a hell-of-a contract with Univision for here in the U.S. for all the illegals that would tune in to watch their home team games and sell a lot of advertisement in Spanish to hit that huge market. We just need to convince the wall builder that this would make better business sense than sending them all back. Been telling my kids since they were little to learn Spanish if they wanted to be a part of the long term future of this country and that was before NAFTA. There is a huge untapped market to our south and smart business guys are catching on to it.

I should send the Donald a copy of Doris Kearns Goodwin's "The Bully Pulpit". TR was way beyond his time on our neighbors to the south. He was just a bit heavy handed is all.

@syd said:

they'll make that back no matter where they go as long as its a new stadium that isn't crumbling down around them like Qualcomm.

@clevfan4life said:

It's vegas or LA. If the Raiders take Vegas than Chargers go to LA

Now that the NFL appears to be over the gambling hangup Las Vegas is getting a team, the Raiders are a better left coast fit but the Chargers would work.

They better hurry with both before the magic window closes for billion dollar stadiums in professional football.

The other city? Mexico City? A border Mexican city? (If president Trump will allow it. )

@londonbrown said:

That would be my understanding.

@mark-o said:

Some stadiums sell standing room only tickets.

So the capacity listed is actually how many seats are available?

@londonbrown said:

Some stadiums sell standing room only tickets.

@mark-o said:

If you go by percent to capacity, yes they are near the bottom, 28th to be exact. But if you look average per game, they are 2nd in the league to Dallas at 83,700 per game. The Rams are drawing just fine and while I don't think the Chargers should move, there's no way a stadium is getting built in San Diego. They wont go to San Antonio, Jerry J. won't ever allow another team to be moved into Texas. Raiders to Vegas, Chargers to LA as the tennant to the Rams.

I've seen this on ESPN how can a team have a percentage over 100%?? If the ground is full that's at 100% capacity no?

@roycerolls said:

And play where? In just as big of a dump as they have now in Qualcomm?