London game is on, but maybe not for Rams

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says he will stage a regular- season game in London for the sixth year in a row next October, but the St. Louis Rams might not be going to England as planned.

Goodell said on Friday in his traditional media session ahead of the Super Bowl that talks are ongoing between the Rams and stadium officials in St. Louis, who do not want to lose a home game for each of the next three years.

The league announced last month a plan to send the Rams to Wembley Stadium for three seasons in a row starting on October 28, when they would play New England, which will face the New York Giants in Sunday’s Super Bowl 46.

But officials in St. Louis want the Rams to play all eight home games in their domed stadium, where they were second-to-last in attendance in the 32-team NFL with an average of 56,394 a game—barely 86 percent of capacity.

“We’re going to play the London game. We hope it will be the St. Louis Rams and New England Patriots. We’re planning for that,” Goodell said.

“We know there is discussion going on. Once that has been determined, we will proceed from there. But we will be playing in London next year.”

The Rams, who were 2- 14 last season, have a lease in St. Louis that expires in 2014.

The NFL Players Association, which signed a 10-year deal with the league last year after a four-and-ahalf- month lockout, also raised health issues about the Rams playing three years in a row in London, saying league officials never talked to them about the Rams-london deal.

One team anxious to play games outside the United States is the Jacksonville Jaguars, which is also in the bottom quarter of NFL attendance.

New Jaguars owner Shahid Khan, a US automotive businessman who was born in Pakistan, wants to push NFL growth in Asia and Middle East markets, Goodell said.

“Shahid Khan is very interested in our international growth,” Goodell said.

“He has indicated an interest in playing international games, including in London, and we are going to take advantage of that.”

The NFL is also exploring staging a regular- season game in Mexico City and looking at Brazil as it prepares for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics.

“There is a great deal of interest in Latin America,” Goodell said, noting that a return to Mexico City with a regular- season game is “something we would like to get done sooner rather than later”.

“We’ve got interest in Brazil. We want to do this strategically, though. This is about a collective strategy to make our game more successful on a global basis.”

It is the same philosophy being tested now with London games, Goodell said.

“If it’s successful, we will expand throughout Europe,” he added.

A mainstay in international games, the Buffalo Bills are in the last year of a deal that has seen them stage one game a season in Toronto’s domed stadium in a bid to broaden regional support for the team in Canada.

“I know there is interest and willingness to extend that deal,” Goodell said.