NFL eyed Canadian venues to hold future regular-season games

Canada might host an NFL regular-season game in the near future.

The NFL spent part of 2016 touring Canadian provinces and evaluating football stadiums, such as the Rogers Centre in Toronto, B.C. Place in Vancouver, Olympic Stadium in Montreal, and Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, wrote John Kryk of Postmedia.

NFL executive vice president of international Mark Waller spoke to Kryk about the possibility of a Canadian venue hosting a future international game. Part of the league's fact-finding mission was to determine if the possible sites own the technological requirements to host the NFL and if the locker rooms meet their standards.

"We also visited a number of German cities, just so you have that as context," Waller said. "And we do that all the time. We've looked at stadiums in Brazil, I've looked at stadiums in Australia and China. That's our job."

Waller wouldn't divulge which city or even which country is likely to get an international game next, but he spoke highly of Canada.

"We have a great fan base up there in Canada. It's a great market for us," Waller said.

"I would love to be back there, and obviously from a logistical standpoint, a scheduling standpoint, a broadcast standpoint, that's much easier for us than a game in Germany, and certainly a game in China. So I would have Canada high on the list."

Mexico hosted a Monday night game between the Oakland Raiders and Houston Texans this season and will host another game next season between the Raiders and New England Patriots.