The NFL has done a great job of growing the product overseas in recent years as the International Series in London has been a major hit. The league continues to expand the number of games that take place in London and there is the ever-looming specter of a potential United Kingdom squad that could compete in the AFC East.
In addition to the London series, the NFL is expanding to feature another game in a different country in each of the upcoming seasons. In 2016, the Oakland Raiders will "host" the Houston Texans in Mexico City on Monday Night Football. It turns out that the gears are turning for other games in 2017 and 2018.
Per source, the NFL is also looking at putting a 2017 regular-season game in Germany. That's in addition to the idea of China in 2018.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) March 21, 2016
Games in Germany and China would be extremely interesting as major untapped markets.
Germany, the home country of Patriots right tackle Sebastian Vollmer, is a major NFL hotbed dating back to the NFL Europe days. When the defunct league was still in production, Germany was the only country that caught on with the sport in mass quantities and five of the final six active teams in the league were based in Germany.
China, on the other hand, is the largest country in the world so of course the NFL wants to break off a piece of that.
The International Series grows interest in the sport, even if just for the Super Bowl, as the league wants to become a larger player on the international stage. Per an NFL statement, the International Series has increased growth in the UK as "Sunday viewership of NFL games has more than doubled and the Super Bowl audience has increased more than 75 percent [since 2007]."
Personally, I'm all for this expansion. I had a host brother from Germany that stayed at my house when I was in college and we converted him into a huge Patriots fan- he deserves a home game. Flo, if the Patriots play in Germany in 2017, I'm there.