Per reports, the National Football League is looking for ways to break into the Chinese market and could open the season there in 2019.
The National Football League is already expanding into several new markets these days. The Oakland Raiders will host the New England Patriots in Mexico City next season. The league will play several games in London and continues to do so every year. Now the NFL is looking at China and trying to figure out the best approach—which might include launching the regular season from there.
The NFL is postponing staging a game in China in '18 and targeting '19. It may in fact open that season, it's 100th anniversary, in China.
— Daniel Kaplan (@KaplanSportsBiz) June 29, 2017
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It should be assumed that, if the NFL did make the rumor into a reality, the league would likely give both teams considerable time to rest before making them play their second game. The jet lag from a trip to the U.K. is considerably easier to recover from than an Asian trip, but starting the season early is nothing new. Even this year, the Chiefs and Patriots will open the season on a Thursday and, in so doing, will have 10 days to get ready for Week 2.
It’s hard to tell just how popular American football would be in China at this point, but the games have found a foothold in London at least, with persistent rumors about the eventual goal of placing a team there full-time. Given the size of the untapped market, it’s certainly worth an attempt to break in, even if nothing results from the experiment.