AN NFL DELEGATION will visit Croke Park on Friday but no negotiations have taken place about a regular season game in Dublin, according to a league spokesperson.
The league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell told Sports Illustrated’s Peter King this week that the Irish capital was very much on the NFL’s agenda.
London has hosted a game successfully for the past five seasons but the city’s hosting of the Summer Olympic Games might well afford another European city the chance to entertain American Football’s big show.
“The ownership has passed a resolution allowing us to do that. We may do that as early as 2012. We’re sort of contemplating that in the context of them hosting the Olympics next summer. We had a game in Dublin in the ’90s where Chicago and Pittsburgh played, and it was a great success,” Goodell said.
Peter McKenna, Croke Park chief, told the Irish Examiner‘s Colm O’Connor that a delegation would visit GAA HQ this week.
Today, an NFL spokesman has confirmed to TheScore that the meeting at Jones’s Rd would be one of several stop-offs.
“There are no negotiations taking place at this time with NFL teams or with officials in Dublin about playing a game there. Members of our international business staff are surveying a half dozen potential stadium sites this week in the London area, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
“I believe they will be looking over Croke Park on Friday.”
The move comes in the context of Goodell earning the scope from the franchise owners to add a second foreign date to the schedule in recent weeks.
Dan Rooney, the American ambassador to Ireland, owns the Pittsburgh Steelers – one of the league’s famous names. He has long wanted to bring his outfit to Ireland.
The Aviva Stadium, meanwhile, will host Navy versus Notre Dame game in Ballsbridge next September. They set about preparing for the college football game this week as they erected gridiron posts.
