Sorry, Wembley. You might have hosted the first NFL regular-season game on foreign soil, but you won’t be the NFL’s official home in the UK.
The league announced on Thursday that Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has officially been named Home of the NFL in the UK. As part of the arrangement, the commitment to staging at least two regular-season games there every season through 2029.
A recent renovation of the venue resulted in two separate playing surfaces, one for soccer and one for football. The turf at Tottenham Hotspur has been criticized, however, for the presence of seams and other imperfections.
The NFL began playing regular-season games in London in 2007. The broader question continues to be whether one or two teams will ever move to London. The possibility gets mentioned from time to time (Commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged it last Thursday night in an interview with Mike Tirico), but tangible steps toward a relocation never have been taken.
Last October, Goodell hinted at, in time, a four-team European division. Still, it’s unclear when or if anything like that would ever happen.