City of Madrid
Madrid City Council negotiates with the NFL to hold a game in the capital during the 2024 season
The Madrid City Council has been negotiating for months with the National Football League (NFL) so that it can play at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium during the year 2024. This has been confirmed by municipal sources to OKDIARIO, which have revealed that the Sports and Tourism delegations of the Madrid City Council have received several officials from the NFL in Madrid so that they can see the possibilities that the capital of Spain has when it comes to celebrating this type of events.
Now, the same sources have confirmed that the deal is not yet closed, because for the Americans they exist «administrative obstacles» typical of Spanish regulations that can delay the agreement up to nine months. “The administrative process for a contract of this type takes more than nine months, because you need to go through legal advice, an intervention and a series of specifications are needed for the contract,” they have said while clarifying that it is not about a public contest, but the lines to be followed are practically the same.
Likewise, they have revealed that the liberal mentality of the American businessman requires “pedagogical” work so that they can understand the European and Spanish bureaucratic structure. “What we are making them understand is that, with all the letters of intent that exist, an agreement may already be possible despite all the bureaucratic obstacles,” they said. «There is a willingness on the part of both parties to reach an agreement. We have it at 90%,” they have assured.
In recent months there has been speculation about whether Madrid can host an NFL game at the Bernabéu or the Metropolitano in 2024. The vice mayor of Madrid, Inmaculada Sanz, stated on October 18 that the City hall I was talking to the National Football League so that the Spanish capital could celebrate an American football match. Sanz applauded that the American Football League was interested in the capital to be able to host a match in 2024 and defended that the city has “sports facilities that are perfectly prepared to host this type of spectacle.”
“I think that it’s good news “It is also for Madrid that the NFL has shown interest in our city for an international sporting event as important as an NFL game,” the vice mayor told reporters from the plot of the new Valdebebas cultural center.
Sanz reported at that time that they were still in talks and stressed that Madrid “is interested in having this type of leading international events». Furthermore, he claimed that this continues to demonstrate that Madrid is a city “that is fashionable in the world.”
The NFL is in a process of global expansion that is growing by leaps and bounds. For this, the largest league of USA It has already played regular season games in three different countries: Mexico, Germany and the United Kingdom. In Europe, the NFL has taken a regular season game to two different cities: London and Munich. And soon he will play in Frankfurt. This way, Madrid would be the fourth European city to host an NFL regular season game.
Mexico ruled out
The NFL already contemplates Spain or Brazil as possible new hosts. The same executive vice president of the NFL, Peter O’Reilly, confirmed during a press conference on October 17 that NFL technicians have visited the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, as well as Madrid, for their expansion plans. “We’re spending time in those markets, building relationships and looking at the stadiums there. Brazil and Spain are two strong markets and two important markets,” he stated. O’Reilly.
Likewise, he reported that Mexico will not be part of the games outside the United States in the 2024 NFL season. “Mexico is ruled out for 2024,” said the manager.
The Azteca Stadium Mexico Citywhich hosted regular season matches in 2005, 2016, 2017, 2019 and 2022, will enter the renovation process in the coming months ahead of the 2026 World Cup, which it will host, and will not It will be available until 2025.
The most recent regular season game in Mexico It was in November 2022. The San Francisco 49ers They beat the Arizona Cardinals 38-10 in a game that featured an inning of 78,427 spectators. The Azteca Stadium in the Mexican capital holds the attendance record for a regular season NFL game outside the United States, with 103,467 spectators. It happened on October 2 of the 2005 season, when the Cardinals defeated the 49ers 31-14.
2024-02-03 05:50:28
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