ExtremeRavens Posted 9 hours ago Posted 9 hours ago The NFL announced on Monday its return to Spain with a multi-year agreement for regular-season games to be held at Madrid’s Bernabéu Stadium – home to Real Madrid Football Club – beginning this year. It’s one of eight International Series games already slated for next season. Other locales include one game each in Melbourne, where the Los Angeles Rams will be a host team; Paris, where the New Orleans Saints will be a host team; Rio de Janeiro; and Munich, with three games scheduled for London. Whether the Ravens will be one of the teams to play an international game has still yet to be announced. But with nine road games, including one against the Atlanta Falcons, who have already been designated as a host team for an international game, there is at least a chance Baltimore could be tapped. The reasons range from quarterback and two-time NFL Most Valuable Player Lamar Jackson being one of the most popular players in the league to the fact that the Ravens last year were awarded international marketing rights to the United Kingdom as part of the league’s Global Markets Program. “We have talked to the league,” team President Sashi Brown said during last year’s owners meetings. “We also know there’s a large demand for the Ravens, generally, and Lamar and the growth internationally is something that we embrace fully.” The last time the Ravens played overseas was in 2023, when the Tennessee Titans were a host team at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. Baltimore won, 24-16, on the strength of six Justin Tucker field goals. That marked just the second international game for the Ravens, who also played the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in 2017. The Jaguars won in a rout, 44-7. With Baltimore only playing eight games at newly renovated M&T Bank Stadium next season, it’s also unlikely they would lose one of those dates as a host team for an international game, meaning that one of its away opponents would almost certainly be a host team. The Ravens’ road opponents for 2026 include the Indianapolis Colts, Houston Texans, Carolina Panthers, Buffalo Bills and Dallas Cowboys. They will also have their usual AFC North road games against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals, though it’s rare for the league to have division foes play outside the United States given the high-stakes (and high-revenue) nature of those contests. Baltimore’s U.K. marketing rights deal also doesn’t necessarily guarantee a trip to London for 2026. Although there’s a long-established established U.K. Ravens fan group, the team has similar ones all over, from Germany to Spain to Mexico to Australia, among other corners of the globe. NFL Network also averaged 6.2 million viewers, per Nielsen, across six international games this past season, representing a 32% jump from 2024 to the highest average to date. Put another way, the league will only continue to expand its global footprint. The NFL’s full schedule will be announced in May. Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1. View the full article Quote
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