NFL Pushes Ahead With 82,000-Seat Paris Game as Riots Spur Extra Security
Updated
Updated · Yahoo Sports · Oct 21
NFL Pushes Ahead With 82,000-Seat Paris Game as Riots Spur Extra Security
3 articles · Updated · Yahoo Sports · Oct 21
Summary
Sunday’s Steelers-Saints game in Paris will go ahead despite unrest, with the NFL adding security measures and coordinating with French authorities and the U.S. State Department.
Cam Heyward said players have been told to avoid traveling alone and stay in groups, adding bluntly that cancellation was never likely because “the NFL likes money.”
The league has strong commercial reasons to proceed: Stade de France holds about 82,000, 70% of tickets were bought in France and another 10% elsewhere in Europe.
Those plans also fit a broader international push, with the NFL staging a record nine regular-season games this season across seven countries and four continents.
Safety concerns follow nationwide protests that drew about 550,000 people, including 110,000 in Paris, and led to nearly 2,400 arrests and almost 1,000 injured police and gendarmes.