The NFL announced Wednesday that it will play a game in São Paulo, Brazil in 2024 as part of its International Series. The game will mark the first time the NFL plays a game in South America as it continues to grow the game beyond the United States.
Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer reported Tuesday that the NFL was considering a game in a new country during its owners meetings this week, with São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Madrid, Spain the finalists. This year, the NFL had games played in the United Kingdom and Germany, and the league has previously sent regular-season games to Mexico City and Canada as well.
With today’s announcement of next season’s game in Brazil, the NFL will have played a regular or preseason game in 5 of the 7 continents. Africa and Antarctica got next pic.twitter.com/Gd3tQDOUvK
— Brian McCarthy (@NFLprguy) December 13, 2023
Neo Química Arena, the home of the Brazilian soccer team SC Corinthians that is also known as Arena Corinthians, will be the host, with an NFC team expected to sacrifice a home game to participate. According to Breer, the Cowboys are a strong possibility to serve as the home team in the game.
The venue for the NFL's 2024 International Series game in São Paulo will be Arena Corinthians—it was a World Cup site in 2014, and holds just under 50,000. The home team will be an NFC team. Some speculation here it could be the Cowboys, but that's not finalized yet. pic.twitter.com/yodIkPsNF0
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) December 13, 2023
The NFL has now committed to play at least five games in 2024 outside of the United States, with three games in London and one in Frankfurt along with this game in São Paulo.
NFL owners also approved a change to the International Series rules in which teams will be subject to lose a home game once every four years—rather than once every eight years—beginning in 2025.
In other words, the number of international games could jump from five to nine in 2025.
