The NFL's northernmost team is looking further north.
The Seattle Seahawks are increasing their presence in Canada, and that could include a game north of the border. In an announcement released Dec. 16, the team says it's looking to further engage 12 North, the nickname for the team's Canadian fan base. The NFL has given them approval to do so, now.
As the team is based just south of B.C., many of those fans are in Vancouver and the surrounding communities. They note they also have fans in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. There are currently 3,300 Canadian season ticket holders, and the team usually sells 13,300 tickets to Canadian buyers over the last few years.
"Starting in 2022, the team will begin hosting regular fan engagement events in Canada, and also has plans to launch community initiatives, localized partnerships, and establish flagship media partnerships to carry Seahawks preseason TV broadcasts and regular season radio broadcasts for Canadian fans to catch all the game action," reads the press release.
While no games in Canada are planned as of now, they are looking into it.
"The Seahawks will also work with the NFL to explore future opportunities to play a regular season game in Canada as part of the NFL's new rotation of International Series games," they state.
Images shared with the announcement by the Seahawks depict Vancouver, as well as other locations in western Canada.
The International Series has seen regular season NFL games played in Mexico City (three games) and London, England (30 games); they're the only regular season games ever played outside of the US. Both cities have regularly seen attendance figures over 75,000, though the games in London this year had just over 60,000 fans.
The Seahawks home stadium, now called Lumen Field, holds 68,740 fans when set up for an NFL game. Vancouver's largest venue, BC Place, holds about 55,000; it's one of the largest venues in the country, though in western Canada Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium does hold more than 56,000 people. Alterations for the Winter Olympics allowed BC Place to hold more than 61,000.
