First regular season game in Mexico City

[jjakq27]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/8313635

NFL to play first regular-season game abroad

(March 21, 2005) -- For the first time in its 86-year history, the NFL will play a regular-season game outside the United States on Oct. 2 when the Arizona Cardinals host the San Francisco 49ers in Mexico City, Mexico.

The Sunday night game at Estadio Azteca will be televised live at 8:30 p.m. ET in the U.S. on ESPN. Televisa will provide live television coverage throughout Mexico.

"Mexico is the country with the most NFL fans outside of the United States," said NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. "Our fans in Mexico are knowledgeable and passionate and they are ready for this next step. They have supported our American Bowl games in record numbers and NFL programming has been part of television in Mexico for many decades. The Cardinals and 49ers play in markets with large Hispanic communities, including many people of Mexican decent. This game will generate new excitement both in Mexico and in Hispanic communities throughout the United States, and it promises to become a milestone in the NFL's history as a global sport." The Cardinals will be the home team. The club will shift one of its eight regular-season home games from Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz., to Estadio Azteca -- site of the largest crowd in NFL history. On Aug. 15, 1994, 112,376 fans filled the stadium for an American Bowl game between the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Oilers.

Arizona has an in-state Hispanic population of more than 25 percent, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. The Cardinals have a rapidly growing fan base south of the border, fuelled by the club's aggressive outreach to the Hispanic community. Approximately 67 percent of U.S. Hispanics trace their origin to Mexico.

Cardinals ties to Mexico include offensive lineman Rolando Cantu, a native of Monterrey, Mexico, and former NFL kicker Luis Zendejas -- a native of Mexico City -- who is the club's director of community relations. "The Cardinals are honored to have been selected for this historic and unprecedented game," said Michael Bidwill, the team's vice president and general counsel. "When we learned of the league's interest in staging an international regular-season game we felt the Cardinals would be a natural fit this season for a number of reasons. Cultivating the Hispanic fan base has been a long-standing priority, and our final season at Sun Devil Stadium certainly provides the optimal timing to host the game this season. We couldn't be more excited about the direction in which our organization is headed. This game will provide a phenomenal opportunity to showcase the Cardinals to a national and international audience." The 49ers have been one of the NFL's most popular franchises worldwide.

San Francisco has played in eight international games as part of the NFL's American Bowl series of preseason games, the second most of any franchise (Dallas, nine).

The Cardinals took part in an NFL international milestone in 1976. On Aug. 16 of that year, they played in the league's first game outside North America -- a 20-10 preseason victory over San Diego in Tokyo, Japan.

The American Bowl series of preseason games, instituted in 1986 in response to growing worldwide interest in the NFL, has averaged 58,345 fans in 39 games with more than 2.2 million people worldwide experiencing the excitement of the NFL in person. The Indianapolis Colts and Atlanta Falcons will play in the 40th American Bowl on Aug. 6 in Tokyo.

[BengalszoneBilly]

Wow! So now the NFL is copying Nascar? Si Senor!

[Turi]

Come to England

[AGrizzlyBaer]

boy the cream of the crop right there, San Fran and Arizona. boy we are using these to teams to showcase the game?

[BengalszoneBilly]

boy the cream of the crop right there, San Fran and Arizona. boy we are using these to teams to showcase the game?

Whoa up there pilgrim! I live in Arizona, and as I watch this team and it's offseason moves, I'm beginning to truly believe Dennis Green and his Cardinals will win their division this season. Not only that...they will also advance in the playoffs to represent the (much weaker IMHO) NFC in the Super Bowl in 2005.

Sound Crazy? Hold on...I'm feel a roll coming on! If that first paragraph wasn't enough to start you thinking, then chew on this:

I truly believe Marvin Lewis and his Cincinnati Bengals will win their division this season. Not only that...they too will also advance in the playoffs and will represent the AFC in the Super Bowl in 2005 and face that very Arizona team I just spoke of.

This most improbable Super Bowl matchup will be forever known in the history books of the NFL as the most unlikely,unforseen, unpredicted (except by me of course!) and unbelievably greatest Super Bowl game of all time!

Just imagin' the impact this will have across mainsteam America as two of the most decidedly underdog teams in league history rise together as if on cue, each under the direction of their black head coaches, to meet in the leagues pinnacle game! Now that's one hell of a "Feel Good" story the whole country could get into.

I'm sure everyone thinks I'm drunk, fell and hit my head, or my scrip for Prosac has run out, but just look a little closer. It's so close in comparison of the team, it's almost frightening:

Cardinals: Except for the past couple years, they have been the "doormats" in the NFC with longevity and regularity.

Bengals: Except for the past couple years, they have been the "doormats" in the AFC with longevity and regularity.

Cardinals: Owner Bill Bidwell is not really percieved as a "winner", usually did the GM job himself, and has been prone to produce a losing product more often than not for the fans in Arizona since moving the team there in 1988.

Bengals: Owner Mike Brown is not really percieved as a "winner", usually did the GM job himself, and has been prone to produce a losing product more often than not for the fans in Cincinnati since inheriting the team after Paul Browns death in 1991.

Cardinals: Owner Bill Bidwell had his "moment of clarity" in recent years, had a new stadium built, hired an experience and respected man as head coach, and also unbelievably agreed to giving full control as GM of the team to him as well! Dennis Green is the first black head coach in the Cardinals team history.

Bengals: Owner Mike Brown had his "moment of clarity" in recent years, had a new stadium built, hired an experience and respected man as head coach, and also unbelievably agreed to giving full control as GM of the team to him as well! Marvin Lewis is the first black head coach in the Bengals team history.

Cardinals: They're due and their fans deserve it!

Bengals: They're due and their fans deserve it!

Remember folks when Cincinnati and Arizona face off in the next Super Bowl that you heard it from this nutjob 1st!!

***now, the only thing left to do is ship jditty in Las Vegas a mere $200 money order, have him place it at a reputable Sports Book with the present odds on these two teams meeting in the 2005 Super Bowl as I look forward to my early retirement in slightly less than nine month from right now! Well that and possibly look into hiring a trustworthy investment banker....and you all probably thought I had some mighty long odds against that football matchup taking place!

[jditty47]

yes billy, you are a nutjob.

[BengalszoneBilly]

yes billy, you are a nutjob.

I'll be the rich nutjob living down the street from you when I retire in 'Vegas after you place my wager for me. You'll get a cut Too!

[jjakq27]

http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/8320504

Cards not as bothered as others about 'home' game in Mexico

March 23, 2005

By Clark Judge

SportsLine.com Senior Writer

KAPALUA, Hawaii -- The Arizona Cardinals will move one of their eight regular-season home games to Mexico City next year, playing the 49ers there on Oct. 2, and some NFL officials here for the annual owners meetings can't fathom why.

"Why would anyone give up the home-field advantage?" one AFC executive said.

Well, maybe it's because there really isn't much of a home-field advantage. Not in Arizona, where the Cardinals drew 35,069 for their Dec. 12 game last year with San Francisco -- a game, incidentally, they lost.

But they were 5-3 there, including defeats of two playoff teams, and their only 30-point performances were there. So maybe we should try this again: Why would they give up the home-field advantage?

"Somebody has to make that sacrifice," said coach Dennis Green, here for the meetings. "The league asked us if we would, and we said we would. It was an opportunity for us to become part of the whole global idea that the league is high on and also to be the first. I like that."

Besides, they could draw upwards of 100,000 spectators in Mexico City while they might have attracted a third of that number at Sun Devil Stadium.

I'm not kidding. Of the Cards' eight home games last year, one drew more than 50,000; two drew more than 40,000, and five drew fewer than 36,000 -- including an Oct. 3 date with New Orleans where they pulled in 28,109.

So the financial considerations are overwhelming. But that doesn't mean there aren't potential hazards, and Green -- who coached international preseason games when he was at Minnesota -- should talk to someone who knows.

"I think there will have to be an awful lot of attention spent to detail, different than a preseason game," said San Diego executive vice president Jim Steeg, who oversaw American Bowls while he worked in the NFL office. "You have to make sure all the infrastructure things come together -- from coaches' phones to instant replay to headsets to video to Polaroid systems -- and then make sure everything works out on game day just right.

"It's one thing to struggle the night before a game to get through the passports when you're going down there for a preseason game; it's another thing when you have meeting scheduled at eight o'clock to get ready for it. So there are an awful lot of details there.

"The good news is that they've played games in Mexico City and this stadium. So they know an awful lot about this stadium. But people are going to have to spend a few weeks down there making sure that, when they show up, it runs like clockwork.

"One of the differences you have when you play the American Bowl games is that those are team trips; this is a business trip. And that's different than taking along all the wives and all that stuff; this is two teams traveling on a business trip."

That doesn't seem to concern the two parties involved. Green said the Cardinals were interested to taking their team to a national Sunday night audience, something that wouldn't have been possible had the game stayed in Arizona; San Francisco owner John York said he thinks the game is so attractive that, had he been given the choice, he might have considered moving one of his home contests from Candlestick Park.

"I think it could've worked out," he said. "It would've been disappointing to our fans, but there is a real difference: We sell out every game. So there's a logistical reason why Arizona would have that as a home game.

"But Arizona is going to have their new stadium in another year, and my guess is that with the efforts they've been making they'll be sold out, and it will be hard to find somebody during the regular season to have that as a home game."

It wasn't this time, and while one NFL executive wondered aloud what it says about Arizona as an organization, the head coach doesn't seem bothered. In fact, Green made it clear he embraced the idea, which may answer that executive's question.

"I've coached 32 years, and I'm OK with whatever," said Green. "We see ourselves as a rapidly improving team. This is the kind of pressure that you like and look forward to. It was too good an opportunity for us to turn down."