Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has pledged to bring the Super Bowl to the capital of the United Kingdom if he is re-elected next month.
Khan, 53, has held the position of London’s mayor since 2016 and is seeking a third term in the upcoming election on May 2.
Speaking on Thursday, he promised to strengthen the city’s reputation as “the sporting capital of the world” by bringing NFL’s ‘Big Game’ to England — plus NBA games and WWE’s showpiece event, Wrestlemania.
The Labour party candidate added he would look to form a fresh bid to bring the Olympics back to London — having previously hosted the Games in 2012.
“London is already the sporting capital of the world,” he said in a post on X — formerly Twitter.
“If I’m re-elected next Thursday – we’ll go even further. We’ll look to bring WrestleMania, Super Bowl and the NBA to London, and put together another bid for the 2040 Olympics.”
The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Francisco 49ers to win last season’s Super Bowl in Las Vegas (Perry Knotts / Getty Images)
London has hosted NFL regular season games every year since 2007, but the Super Bowl has never been staged outside the United States.
All 54 editions of the game have been held on American soil since its inception in 1967. The Kansas City Chiefs are the reigning world champions having beat the San Francisco 49ers at Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in February he hoped to make the league “global” in the next decade.
“I think you’re going to see a very global NFL, not necessarily with franchises, but maybe like have one playing games on a global basis,” he said. “And I see that happening in the next five to 10 years.”
The NFL announced earlier this year that the regular-season game between the Green Bay Packers and 2018 Super Bowl champions Philadelphia Eagles in September would take place in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
London won the vote to host the 2012 Olympics in 2005 under then-London mayor Ken Livingstone, while the NBA has staged games in London as far back as 1993, when the Orlando Magic faced the Atlanta Hawks.
2019 was the last time a game was staged in London, with the New York Knicks taking on the Washington Wizards at the O2 Arena.
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This is an ambitious proposal, and you can never say never, but…
Analysis by National NFL writer Mike Jones
The NFL’s quest for a strong global audience is ever expanding.
With regular season games either having taken place in or slated for the UK, Mexico, Germany, Brazil and Spain, pro football certainly is growing in popularity, and officials do dream of a day where the NFL does have a consistent international following that rivals that of the Premier League.
However, the idea of London hosting a Super Bowl feels rather far-fetched. Time differences that would suit an international live audience would prove undesirable for the U.S. television market, and that means less domestic add revenue.
And there are plenty of other financial obstacles — loss in revenue by U.S. cities (the NFL’s priority market) would miss out on by not hosting a stateside Super Bowl, prior commitments to owners who have partnerships with the governments and localities that host their teams — that the NFL and host city would have to account for when weighing the benefits of a UK Super Bowl.
It’s hard to envision the NFL willingly making such sacrifices. So, for now, this seems highly unlikely.
A UK Pro Bowl makes much more sense for Khan to set his sights on.
(Lauren Leigh Bacho / Getty Images)