In December, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers learned that they would play a home game in London during the 2019 regular season, the byproduct of Super Bowl LV being awarded to the Tampa Bay area. In January, the Buccaneers were informed that their opponent for that game across the Atlantic will be the division-rival Carolina Panthers. Finally, the Buccaneers now know the specific time and place for that contest.
In advance of the full schedule release, set for Wednesday evening, the NFL has announced the details of their five International Series games in 2019. The Buccaneers and Panthers will play at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday, October 13. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. local time in London, which means it will start at 9:30 a.m. US Eastern time.
Information regarding the purchase of tickets for the Tottenham game will be released at a later date.
The Buccaneers-Panthers contest will be just the second NFL game played at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, a multi-purpose facility constructed specifically to host soccer and American football contests, as well as other events. The stadium, which is home to the Tottenham Hotspur of the Premier League, features a soccer pitch that divides and retracts, revealing a synthetic turf underneath to be used for NFL games.
This marks the third time the Buccaneers will play a regular-season game in London, following a pair of contests at Wembley Stadium in 2009 and 2011. It will be their first intra-division game played abroad; the prior two contests were against the New England Patriots and Chicago Bears, respectively. The NFL has scheduled two games each at Tottenham and Wembley in 2019, as well as a fifth International Series match in Mexico City.
NFL owners passed a resolution in 2014 that requires teams that are part of a successful Super Bowl bid to play one home game abroad within the next five seasons. The resolution is part of an ongoing effort to grow the league's International Series, which this season included three games in London and a fourth that was originally slated for Mexico City before being moved to Los Angeles. Super Bowl LV will be held at Raymond James Stadium on February 7, 2021, following the 2020 NFL season.
As noted, the contest will count as a home game for the Buccaneers. The team will also play home games at Raymond James Stadium against the Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, New Orleans Saints, New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers.
