Late last year, the NFL awarded international marketing rights to a number of its franchises. Eight different countries were split among 18 teams. They will have the right to market their biggest stars and games in those countries. For some, that will start with the NFL Draft.
This will be the first time many of these teams put their international part of their marketing plans into action. Ten NFL franchises will announce one of their picks from another country according to Sports Business Journal.
Some of the events will include the famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janiro being lit in Dolphins colors after the team's pick is announced from Brazil, former Jets center Nick Mangold announcing one of the team's pick from the observation deck at The Shard in London, and Najee Harris announcing a Steelers' pick in Mexico City.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will make one of their picks from Munich. It is likely that will also be used as an opportunity for the NFL to reveal details of the first regular season game played in Germany, which SBJ reported earlier this year would happen in the 2022 season.
England and Mexico have hosted NFL regular season games for years. Six other countries, including Canada, Germany, Ireland, Spain, and Sweden, have hosted exhibition games. An exhibition game was scheduled to be played in China in 2007, but was rescheduled and then ultimately canceled.
Live games are certainly the best way to market the league internationally. The next step is creating an international presence for the NFL Draft, which rarely features any international prospects.
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