It couldn’t happen until 2025 at the earliest, but the chances of the NFL potentially staging a Super Bowl in London someday increase with the coming advent of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. As the next edition is only a couple days away, it’s also time to look ahead.
The 62,062 capacity venue at White Hart Lane will open Sept 15, about a month or so after its target date, but its design includes facilities that directly support American football, in addition to English football (soccer).
From the locker rooms to the retractable field (among the many other new bells and whistles), Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was constructed to support both English Premier League and National Football League action, even on the same day, according to their stated plans.
The venue will replace Wembley Stadium as the London home for NFL games. That’s a major game-changer as Wembley, obviously, was not designed with American football in mind. If any NFL team were to relocate to London, the Tottenham Stadium would be its home venue.
The city has publicly declared ambitions to host a Super Bowl someday, and it’s an initiative that Tottenham Hotspur Football Club has been looking into; according to sources. There are some within the north London club who interested in making this happen.
Of course, it’s still a long shot as there are numerous logistical issues to resolve. The earliest it could even happen is seven years from now.
Here is a look at all six of the future Super Bowl dates that have been set.
| 2019 | Atlanta, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Super Bowl 53 |
| 2020 | South Florida, Hard Rock Stadium, Super Bowl 54 |
| 2021 | Tampa Bay, Raymond James Stadium, Super Bowl 55 |
| 2022 | Los Angeles, Los Angeles Stadium, Super Bowl 56 |
| 2023 | Glendale, University of Phoenix Stadium, Super Bowl 57 |
| 2024 | New Orleans, Mercedes-Benz Superdome, Super Bowl 58 |
Then you have the time zone difference/kickoff time quandary. The standard 6:30pm EST kickoff is 11:30 Greenwich Mean Time, but if you moved it to the traditional NFL Sunday kick times, 1 or 4:15 PM EST, it’s 6pm or 9:15 pm in the Great Britain capital. That’s very accommodating for all involved.
While it’s been pointed out numerous times that the NFL doesn’t want to give up a prime time television slot for its marquee event, having a traditional regular season Sunday kickoff time could be appealing, especially so to a league that seems to consistently be tweaking its product and revamping its policies (which often yield results that are against the league’s interests, but that’s another story).
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (who visited the stadium construction site in October) seems hell bent on micro-managing his league in an effort to consistently have some new facet being implemented, even when previous results have shown he should not try and fix what’s not broken.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now, while writing for the International Baseball Writers Association of America. You can follow the website on Twitter.