Saints fans, put those Paris plans on hold.<\/p>\n
A first-ever NFL game in France featuring the Saints appears to be in jeopardy \u2014 at least for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n
Negotiations between the NFL and stadium officials in Paris are ongoing, but with the clock ticking on the league\u2019s plan to announce its international series for the 2026 season, it\u2019s looking more likely that the NFL\u2019s official debut in the French capital might have to wait until 2027 at the earliest.<\/p>\n
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has said the league hopes to expand its International Series to eight games next season and potentially double that total by 2030. International games in Munich, Rio de Janeiro and Melbourne, Australia, have been announced by the league, with London and Mexico City also expected to host games again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no agreement in place with any cities or countries beyond the ones that have been officially announced,\u201d NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said this week. \u201cWe have a process. There is no definitive timeline (for an announcement). It depends on discussions with local countries, cities and stadiums.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saints and NFL officials had hoped to stage a regular-season game at Stade de France in Paris as early as 2026, Saints president Dennis Lauscha said in November. The NFL never has held a game in Paris, but league officials have expressed interest in playing a game there in recent years.<\/p>\n
In 2023, the Saints were granted the international marketing rights in France \u2014 the first NFL club to select and be awarded the French market \u2014 as part of the league\u2019s global markets program.<\/p>\n
Last year, the Saints announced a strategic partnership with the Paris Musketeers, who play in the European League of Football, through which the team hopes to grow the American game while also increasing its own brand visibility in France.<\/p>\n
Saints owner Gayle Benson and linebacker Demario Davis led a Saints contingent that visited Paris in July to market and promote the team.<\/p>\n
When asked in November about the Saints eventually playing a game in France, Benson said, \u201cWe\u2019re working on it,\u201d adding, \u201cRoger (Goodell) would love to see us play there. But he told me, \u2018I don\u2019t know when. I can’t tell you if it’s \u201826 or \u201927 or \u201828.\u2019 We just don\u2019t know right now. Nothing has been decided yet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saints fans, put those Paris plans on hold. A first-ever NFL game in France featuring the Saints appears…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[7,4095,896,55,2572,2571,6,397,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-649600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-hardwall","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-saints","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanssaints","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-saints","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115828828579475591","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}