The NFL has continued to do business in China, but it doesn’t appear there’s going to be a game there soon.
Via Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com, any hope of the league playing a regular season game in China appears to be on hold for now, according to the head of the league’s international efforts.
“I don’t think it’ll be ’18. I don’t think we’re ready,” said Mark Waller.
Waller has previously suggested the possibility of opening the 2019 season in China, but first, they need to build the market. He also suggested that a game in Germany doesn’t seem imminent.
With the time difference (games in America are on in the middle of the night there), it’s hard to build a television audience in China. But the league has reached deals for streaming content in China.
And as long as there’s a yuan the NFL isn’t making, they will continue to look to the world’s most populated country as a potential market.
