From the "You gotta be kidding me" file:

It's a ways away (according to Tags), but you gotta be kidding me!

Updated: Oct. 3, 2005, 2:37 PM ET
Tagliabue: A Mexican franchise a generation awayAssociated Press


MEXICO CITY -- Expansion to Mexico still is a generation away despite the success of the NFL's first regular-season game staged outside the United States.

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said the Arizona Cardinals' 31-14 victory over the 49ers in Mexico's capital lent credibility to the league south of the border. A record 103,467 fans packed cavernous Azteca Stadium on Sunday night, the largest regular-season crowd in NFL history.

But Tagliabue said the size of the crowd wasn't the key factor.

"I think this game lets the fans here in Mexico, the athletes here in Mexico and businesses and everybody else know that we're for real," he said during a question and answer period Monday before the American chamber of commerce in Mexico City. "It was an element of legitimacy."

He said the key to the future will be scheduling additional regular-season games in Mexico, and developing players in this country who can make it to the NFL and cultivate a strong fan base back home.

"We will get there -- here and in other parts of the world -- more quickly than most people appreciate because the athletes are out there," Tagliabue said, adding that Rolando Cantu, a Mexico-born guard on Arizona's practice squad, will likely make an NFL roster in the future.

Tagliabue said before kickoff Sunday that things already had gone so well in Mexico City that he believed the game would be the first in an annual tradition on foreign soil. Toronto and London are top candidates for next season.

He reiterated that expansion of the 32-team league within the United States was unlikely anywhere but Los Angeles, and said there was no time frame for a Mexican franchise.

"I think it will happen, probably in our lifetime, but I'm hoping to live a long time," he said, adding that players who might be concerned about living and working in Mexico City could be a potential hurdle to expansion here.

The league generates just under $6 billion in revenue, with 1 percent of that coming from overseas sources such as NFL Europe. The approximately 1,800 players make $3.6 billion.

Tagliabue acknowledged that while the NFL successfully had become an international league, it could not compete with soccer's global appeal.

"Are we ever going to catch soccer?" he asked with a smile. "Not for 100 years."

He also acknowledged that soccer is the undisputed king of Mexican sports, as evidenced Sunday night when the loudest cheer came when the scoreboard flashed Mexico's under-17 national team's 3-0 victory over Brazil to capture the world championship in Lima, Peru.

Tagliabue said the roar from the crowd had to leave U.S. television viewers scratching their heads and wondering if the Mexicans in the stands understood what was happening on the field because "it came at a time when the Arizona quarterback threw one of the least artistic passes in the history of the National Football League."

 

heard Boomer Esiason wonder aloud how many tix the NFL gave away...can the Mexican economy support NFL game day tickets? 100K in fans, and if 50K bought tix, then half the joint in on a freebie is bad business....it won't happen in my lifetime, thats for sure.

 

That was what I was wondering as well -- how much did those tickets go for, and how many were given away as sheer promotion of the sport? What would the fan base of Mexico City support in ticket prices? What do they pay for soccer tickets?

 

50,000 paid is still better than Mexican soccer did in Charlotte by what, about 49,000?

 

Soccer sucks, but that's what the Mexicans love. They probably had no idea what the hell was going on last night

 

Those fans in Mexico who already know football tend to be Cowboy fans (proximity rule, I guess).

I don't like the whole "international league" idea. Canada has the CFL. Mexico has soccer. And the NFL already has 32 teams. That's enough on all counts.

 

they stayed until the end of the game, much more than I can say for Panther fans

 

They were probably bored to death
Stopping and starting every 2 minutes, drags on for hours

Not like its hard to follow at all, after all it's a US sport...and you guys aint exactly Einsteins.

 

classic