Going into the 2023 NFL season, the Cincinnati Bengals aren’t one of the teams entering the international fray through the league’s Global Markets Program.
This week, the NFL revealed that 21 teams across 14 markets out of the 32 teams in the league will take part and provided a graphic to detail those happenings.
The program is roughly one year old and removes restrictions for teams in certain spots internationally, as explained by The Athletic’s Daniel Kaplan:
Teams are allowed to sell sponsorships, set up fan clubs, create alliances with local sports teams, and do almost anything they do in the U.S. The NFL still controls and manages the staging of international games, other than for the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium.
Prior to the 2022 implementation of the program, teams were prohibited from marketing overseas.
Absent are the Bengals, which is pretty surprising for fans who hop on social platforms such as Twitter often and see large international support for the team.
It stands to reason, though, that the program will only keep expanding after the initial successes.
Announcing the expansion of the NFL’s Global Markets Program!
21 teams across 14 markets now have access to grow their fan bases around the world in long-term strategic effort to enable clubs to build their brands globally. pic.twitter.com/8GNbM0Ph7B
— NFL (@NFL) May 23, 2023
