The Green Bay Packers will not have an international game on their 2023 schedule
Richard RymanGREEN BAY – The Green Bay Packers will not play an international game in 2023.
Only one team on the Packers' schedule, the Kansas City Chiefs, is tabbed to play an international game. Because the Packers will host the Chiefs this season, there is no chance for an overseas matchup. The NFL announced Thursday that the Buffalo Bills and Tennessee Titans will hold games at London's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the Jacksonville Jaguars will play at Wembley Stadium in London, and Kansas City and the New England Patriots will play in Germany. Games will be played in Frankfort and Munich, but which team will play where will be announced later.
The Packers were the final NFL team to play an international game when they met the New York Giants at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last October. The Packers lost the game 27-22, which began a mid-season slide that saw Green Bay go from 3-1 to 4-8 before mounting a late-season run and finishing 8-9, but missing the playoffs for the first time in four years.
The Packers have always declined to give up a home game to play an international game and opponents have not wanted to play the Packers overseas because how well Green Bay fans travel. They'd rather have all those fans, and their money, visit their own stadiums. A Packers home game has a more than $15 million impact on the local economy, which is a greater impact than in any other NFL city. Green Bay is the smallest market in the NFL by a lot.
When the NFL added a 17th game to the regular season in 2021, it mandated that every team would play an international game at least once every eight years. Each conference hosts nine games every other year and teams must use one of their nine games for the international series, which the Packers did last season.
Packers opponents this year include home games against the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings, Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Rams, New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Road opponents will include the Bears, Lions, Vikings, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos, Las Vegas Raiders, Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants.
Contact Richard Ryman at rryman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RichRymanPG, on Instagram at @rrymanPG or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RichardRymanPG/.