Excerpts:
Of all teams that might play here, Vancouver would no doubt get a Seahawks game if this comes to pass, but by the time it comes around their current window of competitiveness will likely have closed so perhaps it might not be quite the attraction that it would be right now.NEW YORK – Canada is on the shortlist of countries the NFL is considering for one-off regular-season games.
But it wouldn’t happen any time soon. Canada has to take a number and wait in line, behind Mexico and Germany at least.
Mark Waller, the NFL’s executive vice-president of international, told Postmedia on Tuesday morning that Toronto and maybe Vancouver would be Canadian host-city candidates.
...
...Canada probably wouldn’t get a chance to host a regular-season game until late this decade at the earliest. More likely in the 2020s.
My recollection is that at one point Braley had first right of refusal on NFL hosting rights here but this may no longer be the case and with the expected arrival of this game several years from now — by which point Braley will be pushing 80 and the Lions will almost certainly have long since been bought by another owner — it may become a moot point anyway.
I suspect if and when it does come to pass, whoever pulls it off will probably learn from the mistakes of Rogers' Bills in Toronto series and make it a more attractive product for the ticket-buying fan, notwithstanding the aforementioned likely window closure.