Roger Goodell’s tenure as commissioner of the National Football League, which began in 2006, has seen its share of highs and lows. One of his key promises was to take the NFL to fans across the globe, extending the league’s reach far beyond its traditional markets.

In this regard, Goodell has achieved significant success, introducing regular-season games in new countries and increasing the NFL’s global fandom. Now, another city is set to host its first NFL game in 2025, marking another milestone in this ongoing initiative.

NFL announces new host city for the 2025 International Series

When Roger Goodell began his role as NFL commissioner, he identified a major issue: the league’s international audience was declining despite the high quality of games.

To address this, Goodell looked beyond broadcasting rights and sought new ways to re-engage global fans. His solution was simple but impactful—bringing NFL games directly to international audiences.

The first regular-season game outside the United States was held in 2005 in Mexico City. The game, played at the Azteca Stadium between the 49ers and the Cardinals, drew a record-breaking crowd of 103,467 fans, a turnout that exceeded all expectations.

This overwhelming success spurred Goodell to formalize the NFL International Series, leading to regular games being hosted in countries like the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Mexico.

Now, another milestone will be reached as a new city is set to host its first-ever NFL regular-season game. The league announced that a 2025 matchup will take place at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, although the participating teams have yet to be revealed.

Germany has been a key focus for the NFL’s international expansion, hosting four games since 2022 in cities like Munich and Frankfurt. In the 2024 season, the Carolina Panthers defeated the New York Giants at Allianz Arena in Munich, with 70,132 fans in attendance.

Will the NFL return to Mexico in 2025?

Mexico remains one of the NFL’s most important international markets, boasting the largest fanbase outside the United States. However, the country has not hosted a regular-season game since 2022.

The Azteca Stadium, currently undergoing extensive renovations in preparation for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, is expected to be ready by 2025. If completed on schedule, the NFL is likely to return to Mexico next season, continuing its long-standing relationship with the country.

Then, when the NFL International Series were a reality, Mexico appeared constantly in the schedule. The Texans faced the Raiders in 2016, the Raiders came back to play against the Patriots and Tom Brady in 2017, the Chiefs clashed with the Chargers in 2019 and for 2022 it was again the 49ers and Cardinals.

There were only two reasons why Mexico ended out of the NFL schedule. In 2018, the Chiefsand Rams had to play in the Memorial Coliseum atLos Angeles because the grass at Azteca Stadium was in terrible conditions. Then, in 2020 and 2021, the main problem was the pandemic. Now, when everything seemed back to normal, Mexico is out of the calendar for 2023 and these are the important reasons.

Why Mexico will not have NFL in 2023?

In June of 2022, FIFA confimed that Mexico City will be host of the 2026 World Cup. In order to meet all the requirements for the soccer tournament, Azteca Stadium needs an enormous refurbishment.

So, as a consequence of this unavoidable procedure, the NFL has decided to leave out Mexico of the 2023 schedule. In a very important detail, Guadalajara and Monterrey aren’t yet considered as options to replace Mexico City. It’s still not certain if the NFL will come back in 2024.

The winner of this situation might be Germany. Considering Mexico City is out of the rotation, that country couldget two regular season games for 2023. This year, the NFL played a regular season game for the first time in Munich and the plan was to alternate with Frankfurt.