NFL Planning to Cancel the Preseason Game Scheduled in China?

League is Concerned About Spreading Itself Too Thin

Word has leaked out from NFL sources that the game that was scheduled to be played in China this season will be cancelled by the NFL. The league had scheduled a preseason game between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots to be played in China this upcoming August, but has had second thoughts about the game. This will come as a significant dissapointment to a country with a populations of 1.3 billion people waiting to see the first National Football League game played in their home country, but the league did not feel they could organize it well enough for the magnitude of attention it would receive in China. This game was announced earlier in the year before the NFL announced that the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins would play a game in England. That game will actually be a regular season game held in October.

The league will have to hold off on it's return to China beyond this season if they do make this decision official. In 2008 China will be hosting the Summer Olympics so a game in 2008 would not work for the NFL as well. The good news for the league with this delay is that they will have the possibility of playing in Olympic Stadium in 2009. The stadium is currently under construction for the olympics, and many have commented that when finished it might be the best outdoor sports arena in the world. This would give the NFL the opportunity to show their product on a grand stage when they do schedule a game in the country. Preseason games usually draw small television viewer numbers and this game would have been no exception. Considering that with the time difference kickoff would have been at 8:30 am on the east coast, the game in China when scheduled will clearly be designed with the fans of it's host country in mind.