International Series

[River Dog]

The 2nd game of the international series kicks off in about an hour as the Steelers will be hosting the Vikings in Dublin, Ireland, the first NFL game to be played in Ireland. It follows a game on Friday of Week 1 played in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the first NFL game to be played in South America. There are several other international cities hosting their first regular season games this year, including Berlin, Germany and Madrid, Spain, along with 3 games in London, England.

I've been to one game outside of the US, in 2018 when the Raiders played host to the Hawks. It was an awesome experience as the fans were very curious about the sport. Many of them had never seen an American football game live. We met two young ladies, relative novices to the sport, who had flown in from Germany for the game. It is extremely popular in Europe.

The other thing that the international series goes, at least for those held in Europe, is that it gives the league a 4th time slot. It's an early bird game for us on the west coast as kickoff is at 6:30am, but for those 3 hours ahead of us on the east coast, it's a 9:30am kickoff.

I love the international series, and my idea of the 17th regular season game is that it be used for an international game or an out of market domestic game, say like Salt Lake City Utah or Montgomery Alabama, so that teams aren't required to sacrifice a home game as they are now. That would make for 16 games played internationally or at a neutral location in the US.

Thoughts?

[Aseahawkfan]

I don't much care one way or the other. If people are having fun watching NFL football in other nations, cool. If it gives fans like yourself a reason to travel to other nations, then cool. Win-win-win.

[River Dog]

Yeah, I'll have to admit that I have a personal interest in the international series. But I also like the fact that it gives us a game at 6:30am. I'm an early riser, and it's nice having a game on when I get up.

In 2026, the Rams will be hosting a game in Melbourne, Australia. I spent a couple weeks touring Australia last winter, including several days in Melbourne, and would love to make a return trip if the Hawks are chosen as the opponent. The problem is getting game tickets. They're in such demand that they are extremely hard to get.

[jshawaii22]

"The NFL wants to get 16 a year outside the US" That's what Commish said a few days ago. They'll argue for it in the next CBA so each team travels to one game outside US a year. For me, I was up around halftime to see Pitts on Sunday, and as long as they're on TV I don't care. For the players, that 18 hour plane ride that Seahawks would have to Sydney would suck, but, Rio is only 16 hours away.

[4XPIPS]

Well if the Seahawks ever travel to Australia, I would certainly be attending that game.

[River Dog]

Well if the Seahawks ever travel to Australia, I would certainly be attending that game.

Since the Rams are in our division, we probably won't get selected to play them next season in Melbourne. But it's not out of the question, either. Let's keep the thought on the backburner that maybe we could get together and get game tickets as that's going to be the biggest challenge.

A few years back when we played in Munich, I got up at 1:30am local time in order to get into the queue for 4 of the 40,000 tickets that were to go on sale. I read up on the procedure, clicked on the link at the second it struck 1:30am, and about 10 minutes later, I got my spot in the queue: #519,000.