Arizona Cardinals’ Michael Bidwill interested in team playing in London
Sep 29, 2014, 9:49 PM | Updated: 9:50 pm
On October 2, 2005, the Arizona Cardinals won a home game against the San Francisco 49ers by a score of 31-14.
It was a special win, however, not because Arizona beat a division rival, but because the game was played at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City in the first NFL contest held outside of the United States.
Since then, the NFL has made playing a regular season game on foreign soil a staple, though since 2007 each one has been held at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
Sunday, the first of three London games was held, as the Miami Dolphins beat the Oakland Raiders 38-14.
According to MMQB.com’s Jenny Vrentas, Cardinals president Michael Bidwill was in England to check out the game as well as the operation itself.
…with the Cardinals on a bye, Bidwill decided to come check out the overseas operation. So he called Mark Waller, the NFL’s executive vice president of international, last Monday, six days before the game. “I wanted to see the facilities, the new Wembley Stadium, the fan experience, and really, have new data points,” said Bidwill, whose family has owned the Cardinals for more than 80 years. “We are asked to consider lots of things about extending the series, and so I wanted to see what it was like.”
Vrentas noted that while Bidwill was excited about the possibility of his team being part of the series, he would like to do it on one condition: that the Cardinals serve as the visiting team and thus do not lose a home game.
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