A fan asked NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell about a London Super Bowl during this season’s International Games.
Global pandemic aside, London has hosted an NFL game in every season since 2007. And the series has been successful enough to see a gradual increase in games played abroad. Between England and Germany, the NFL will play five total games in Europe in 2023, including the massive Kansas City Chiefs vs. Miami Dolphins Frankfurt, Germany matchup in Week 8.
But what about each season’s biggest game? Could London ever host a Super Bowl? At a fan forum prior to the Week 6 London contest (Ravens vs. Titans), here was Goodell’s response to the question:
It is not impossible, and it is something that has been discussed before… I think that is not out of the question. But at the end of the day, I think right now our formula will stay the same about playing in cities that have franchises…. I think being able to play it in one of our cities – it’s a huge economic boost to those cities. Our fans live in those cities also. I think that is important. Not that we do not have great fans here [in London]; we do. So as the international series develops, maybe that is a possibility as we play more games here.
Aside from London needing an NFL team, another major logistical hurdle to a Big Game near Big Ben is time zones. There are a couple ways the NFL could deal with this.
Would the NFL start the game at a time familiar to its overwhelmingly American audience i.e. late afternoon/early-evening? A 6:30pm Eastern Time kickoff would mean 11:30pm in London. That seems tough on players’ internal clocks. While I couldn’t find stats on the latest ever start time for an NFL game, even those Monday Night Football doubleheaders that kept east coast fans up late had 7:20pm PT start times.
A more player-friendly kickoff time means timing difficulties for America’s western half. Pacific Time is eight hours behind Greenwich Mean Time. Do folks on the west coast want a Big Game Brunch? The big time difference likely locks a London Super Bowl into an 8:30pm GMT kickoff, meaning 12:30pm Pacific (and 2:30pm for Kansas Citians). What the heck do we do with the rest of the day? And what if the game is a snoozefest or a blowout?
Would be nice not to be dead tired for work on Monday morning, though.
