ESPN’s Monday Night Football will televise the National Football League’s return to Mexico City when the Houston Texans face the Oakland Raiders during the 2016 NFL season. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced the 2016 NFL International Series game Friday during his Super Bowl 50 press conference in San Francisco.
The Texans-Raiders matchup will be played at famed Estadio Azteca in Mexico City on Monday, November 21 (week 11) of the 2016 NFL season. It will be the first NFL regular season game in Mexico in 11 years. On October 2, 2005, the San Francisco 49ers played the Arizona Cardinals in front of 103,467 fans – at the time, the largest crowd in NFL regular season history. ESPN televised that game as part of its previous Sunday Night Football package.
This year’s NFL International Series matchup will also be the first Monday Night Football game played outside the U.S. in the 46-year history of the iconic sports series.
“Expanding our International Series of regular-season games to Mexico marks an important step in our continued international growth,” said Commissioner Goodell. “We have a tremendous, passionate fan base in Mexico and we know the atmosphere on game day will be outstanding.”
Added ESPN President John Skipper: “The NFL’s return to Mexico will be a signature game during the 2016 NFL season and ESPN’s Monday Night Football and our NFL studio shows will properly showcase this event both in the U.S. and in Mexico. The opportunity to televise this game is particularly exciting for ESPN as part of our commitment to the NFL’s growing Hispanic fan base and with the launch of our new production studios and daily NFL Live show in Mexico City.”
ESPN Deportes – which will televise Super Bowl 50 this weekend as part of an agreement with CBS and the NFL – will also offer the Spanish-language production of the Texans-Raiders game as part of its weekly MNF telecasts. Outside of the United States, ESPN will televise the game in Mexico and distribute the game to other parts of Spanish-speaking Latin America, among other countries and territories.
In December, ESPN Deportes debuted a new state-of-the-art four-studio production facility in Mexico City. As part of the launch, ESPN debuted a new weekday NFL Live news and information show.