The NFL’s effort to take its game internationally has worked in London, but other sites have proved a bigger challenge.
The Seahawks and Patriots cancelled a preseason game in Beijing in 2007, and the Rams-Chiefs regular-season game was moved from Mexico City back to L.A. last November because of poor playing conditions.
On Thursday night, the Packers and Raiders played on an 80-yard field because of safety concerns.
The Packers decided to sit 33 starters, including Aaron Rodgers.
The premier of Manitoba says there’s a “lot of disappointment” with what transpired, according to the Associated Press.
"[It] didn’t work out the way they wanted,” Brian Pallister acknowledged during a campaign stop Friday, "[but] organizers tried to do something that hadn’t been done before, so let’s give them respect and credit for trying.”
Canada had not hosted an NFL game since 2013 when the Bills completed a series of games in Toronto. Only 21,992 showed up for Thursday’s game at 33,000-seat IG Field.
Canadian-based On Ice Entertainment Ltd. was the promoter.