As the NFL continues to export pieces of its regular-season product to London every year, some folks in England are eyeing something far more substantial.
The Daily Mail recently reported that Tottenham is exploring a bid to host the Super Bowl to be played in 2026. That will be Super Bowl LX, or 60 for the Roman-numerals challenged.
They can explore it all they want. The chances of it happening in four years are remote to nonexistent.
First, the league no longer takes bids on the game. It approaches a city, submits the long list of things the NFL wants for the privilege of staging the game, and does a deal. Tottenham would never be in a position to compete with other cities for a specific game; it would need to be targeted by the league.
Second, American fans would never tolerate the playing of the quintessential American sporting event on foreign soil.
Third, the game would have to begin at 12:30 a.m. local time, unless the NFL is willing to abandon the usual 6:30 p.m. kickoff time.
Fourth, London has no NFL team. The Super Bowl never has been played in a city (or area) that didn’t have an NFL team. The NFL played five Super Bowls at the L.A.-adjacent Rose Bowl (where no NFL team played on a regular basis), one at Rice Stadium in Houston after the Oilers moved to the Astrodome, and one at Stanford Stadium, near San Francisco. The notion of a Super Bowl being played in a country/continent that doesn’t have a team would be very odd, to say the least.
It’s fun to talk about it, and the vague possibility may drive interest in the annual London games. Maybe it will help build momentum for an eventual London-based team. Still, it’s highly unlikely that Tottenham or Wembley or any city not in the United States would host a Super Bowl -- especially if it doesn’t already host a team.
