Mexico seeks to extend its relationship with the NFL beyond the original three-year deal to host a regular-season annually, as reported NBCsports.
The Raiders played the Texans in the first-regular season game in Mexico since 2005, and the Raiders return this season to play the Patriots in Azteca on Nov. 19.
“We need to keep working hard to be as successful as last year in order to have a chance to continue with this project and that the game is here to stay,” Arturo Olive, the NFL Mexico office director, said, via The Canadian Press.
A league study estimated that the 2016 game generated $45 million for Mexico City’s economy as it drew 76,473, including 9,500 international tourists. An estimated crowd of 205,000 attended the NFL Fan Fest during the weekend.
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“We are giving everything, Olive said. “We set the bar high for last year’s game, and we were successful, but we’re trying to do even better this year.”
During the 2016 game, then-Texans quarterback Brock Osweiler complained of a laser light interfering with his vision, and paper planes sailed onto the field. Some fans also participated in a homophobic chant during kickoff.
Olive said Mexico would love to go beyond annually hosting a game to having a team hold training camp there. The summer heat is an obvious problem, though.
“We have not been able yet to find a way to make it comfortable for them to leave the places where they usually do it,” he said. “In the meantime we are happy that the league trusted us with three games and we hope to keep this going for the years to come.”
