The Detroit Lions have mostly avoided playing international football. But that streak could be ending in during the 2024 season. In January it was reported that the NFL had chose it’s teams designated to play in London in 2024. The Lions will play three of the teams that are playing there next season. The Bears, Vikings and Jaguars.
While there’s a shot that the Lions could play in London in 2024, there’s an even bigger shot now that the Lions could be playing in other countries as the Lions have now expanded their global marketing reach to Canada, Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
The NFL is playing a game in Germany this year, but the Panthers have been designated as the Germany team and the Lions do not play them this year. But this could mean that the Lions could play in Germany in 2025.
The NFL is looking to play a game in Brazil in 2024 and they have designated the Eagles to be the Brazil team. For a long time though the expectation was that the Dolphins would get that spot since they’re the only NFL team with marketing rights in Brazil. The marketing rights can be important when choosing which teams to send there.
The Lions now have marketing rights in Germany and could be chosen to be a designated team to play there in the future. Either that or they could play the designated team in the future.
Don’t rule out Switzerland and Austria from hosting a game. Even if the Swiss don’t have a giant stadium, they could still make something happen there. Austria’s Ernst Happel stadium holds 50 thousand people, so there’s a chance that could happen too.
Canada is an interesting one. The Lions have a lot of fans over there. Especially in the Windsor area. Imagine them playing in Toronto or Vancouver. That would be a trip.
We don’t know when the Lions will be playing internationally, but the signs are pointing to it happening relatively soon. I’d get your passports ready and updated as a precaution. Lions fans traveled really well in 2023, let’s see how they do internationally.