Patriots to Take Season to U.K. in ‘09

The New England Patriots will follow in the footsteps of this year’s New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers next year in traveling to Wembley Stadium in London to play a regular season game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs will “host” the Pats in the overseas game on October 25, 2009, giving up a home game in Tampa for a shot in the U.K.

Next year’s game will mark the third straight year the NFL will have a regular season game in Britain in an attempt to herd even more NFL fans overseas. This year, the Saints and the Chargers battled at Wembley Stadium before a sold-out crowd of 83,000 fans (and the Saints won 37-32), and last season it was the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins who performed before a sold-out arena at Wembley (the Giants won 13-10.) The NFL’s move to the U.K. comes as no surprise to the game’s analysts, as “American football” has seen a rise in fans in the U.K. over the past few years. This year’s Saints-Chargers matchup drew in more than a million and a half applications for tickets, and next year’s British showdown between the Patriots and the Bucs is expected to corral even more.

To get New England Patriots tickets, go to StubHub.com.

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