Pittsburgh Steelers hope to play a regular-season NFL game in Dublin in the coming years, but the club say it will ultimately be the league’s decision.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell recently said that Dublin was on their ‘watch-list’ as a prospective city for a future international game and the Steelers, who deepened their links to Croke Park and Dublin yesterday by hosting their second watch party at GAA HQ, would be the most logical choice to play here.
However, Daniel Rooney, director of Business Development & Strategy, hedged his bets yesterday.
Speaking in Croke Park, he said that the NFL will make the final decision, although the league is well aware that the Steelers have a preference for Dublin.
‘I think that question is best served for the NFL,’ Rooney said when asked for an update on a possible Steelers game at Croker.
‘I know the league continue to look at Dublin, and Ireland, seriously. You have heard the commissioner say that, coming out of the college football classic. Dublin is in a great position to one day host a game and as the Steelers, we are definitely hoping to be part of that.
‘With that global markets program, we have Mexico, Ireland and Germany. The markets we have the license to, our preference would be to play in those markets. The NFL knows that the Steelers are highly interested in playing a game here,’ Rooney said.
The Steelers’ second annual watch party was hosted in the Hogan Stand yesterday with over 500 fans there to see Mike Tomlin’s side bid to continue their excellent start to the season against the Indianapolis Colts.
Former Super Bowl winners James Farrior and Willie Parker were on hand to help with the festivities.
