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The 49ers Will Not Play an International Game in 2025

If the 49ers were savvy, they would make Mexico City their home away from home.
Grant Cohn|
Dec 1, 2024; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Snow sits on top of the helmet of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) in the fourth quarter game against the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-Imagn Images
Dec 1, 2024; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Snow sits on top of the helmet of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy (13) in the fourth quarter game against the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark Konezny-Imagn Images | Mark Konezny-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers won't need their passports next season.

The NFL just announced seven international games for the 2025-26 season and the 49ers aren't playing in any of them. The last time they played an international game was in 2022 when they beat the Arizona Cardinals in Mexico City. This year, the international games will be played in London, Dublin, Berlin, Madrid and Sao Paolo.

The NFL is trying to expand its fanbase. So every year, they increase the number of international games. Last year, there were five. Eventually, there could be one every week, which could allow the 49ers to expand its fanbase, too.

49ers Enterprises currently owns Leeds United -- a soccer team in the English Premier League. Soon, they intend to renovate Leeds United's stadium and add thousands of seats. I wouldn't be surprised if the 49ers were to play an international game in Leeds one day once the stadium has been redone. Leeds could be the 49ers' home away from home. Who knows, eventually they might play there once a season.

But if the 49ers were savvy, they would make Mexico City their home away from home. Because the people in that city love the 49ers. They're more passionate about the 49ers than people in the Bay Area. That stadium was louder for a random regular season game against the Cardinals than Levi's Stadium ever has been.

Mexico loves football. The NFL in general and the 49ers in particular should embrace that country and play at least one game there every year.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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