Tag: Bears international

Bears to play international game in London in 2024

The Bears are headed back across the pond, where they’ll host an international game in London during the 2024 season.

The Chicago Bears are headed back across the pond.

The NFL announced the Bears will host a regular-season game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London during the 2024 season.

The opponent, date and kickoff will be announced when the 2024 schedule is released, likely in May.

“Every game the Chicago Bears play is rich in tradition, culture and passion,” said Bears Chairman George H. McCaskey, via ChicagoBears.com. “And every year, game after game, we look forward to welcoming fans to experience that richness. This year, we will take our storied franchise and tradition back to London and share internationally what our fans locally experience at every game. We are excited to join the many NFL teams who are expanding internationally to play a game in London during our 2024 season.”

London will feature games involving the Bears, Minnesota Vikings, and Jacksonville Jaguars while the Carolina Panthers will play in Munich.

Since this game will count as a home contest for Chicago, their possible opponents include the Panthers, Jaguars, New England Patriots, Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks, Tennessee Titans and their NFC North rivals.

But given the Vikings and Jaguars are already set to play in London, and the Panthers in Munich, we can cross them off the list.

This will mark the Bears’ fourth game in London. They previously played the Dallas Cowboys in a preseason game in 1986 and regular season games against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2011 and Las Vegas Raiders in 2019.

Why the Bears were the only team to vote against expanding NFL’s international slate

The Bears were the only team to vote against expanding the NFL’s international slate. Here’s why:

NFL owners voted to expand the international slate from four to eight games starting in 2025 during Wednesday’s league meeting. It passed by a vote of 31-1. And guess who had the lone dissenting vote: Chicago Bears chairman George McCaskey.

According to CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones, McCaskey’s reasoning didn’t have anything to do with leaving the country, rather the lack of control when it comes to protecting certain home games.

In the past, the NFL has allowed teams to protect four home games from being international. But with Wednesday’s vote, it was cut from four to just two games, which means some of those high-profile matchups could be selected to go international.

Per Jones, McCaskey spoke up during the meeting and told others that home fans want to see some of the league’s best quarterbacks and wanted to ensure those games were at Soldier Field. But McCaskey did draw laughs as he went through some of those names.

Here’s how it went down:

“We have generational talents coming in,” McCaskey said, according to a source in the room. “Fans want to see Patrick Mahomes coming in. They want to see Josh Allen coming in. They want to see Jalen Hurts coming in. They want to see Tommy DeVito coming in.”

The room burst into laughter.

“It was the best line of the entire meeting,” one source in the meeting said, adding it was a good-natured and well-received quip.

For what it’s worth, the Bears are set to host the Cowboys, Giants, Browns and Steelers (in addition to their NFC North rivals) in 2025. At this point, Dallas’ Dak Prescott feels like the only high-profile quarterback all but guaranteed to grace Soldier Field.

Next season, the NFL will have a game in Brazil, which will be hosted by an NFC team. London will host three games while Germany also gets a game for a third straight year.

In 2025, that number will increase to eight, including potentially in Spain, which happens to be an international market assigned to the Bears.

Bears could play an international game in Spain in 2025

The Bears could play an international game in Spain during the 2025 season.

The Chicago Bears could be gearing up for an international game during the 2025 season as part of the NFL’s international series.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the league could award a 2024 regular-season game to Brazil as soon as Wednesday. While that game likely wouldn’t be awarded to the Bears, it would certainly have implications about a potential international game in Spain in 2025.

Under the NFL’s global markets program, the Chicago Bears and Miami Dolphins have commercial rights in Spain. The Dolphins are the only team with rights in Brazil.

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The NFL also will continue to discuss Spain as a possible location for a regular-season game in 2025 at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, the home of legendary soccer club Real Madrid.

So, essentially, if both games are in play, it sounds like the Dolphins would play a game in Brazil in 2024, and the Bears would play a game in Spain in 2025 — if that moves forward.

Chicago has played three international games in London dating back to 1986, when they beat the Dallas Cowboys 17-6 in a preseason game at Wembley Stadium.

The Bears have played in London twice since then — back in 2011, when they beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24-18 at Wembley Stadium, and most recently in 2019, losing to the Las Vegas Raiders 24-21 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.