Carolina Panthers will travel to Munich, Germany, for 2024 NFL regular-season game

The last time the Carolina Panthers played somewhere outside of the U.S., it ended with a Panthers player gleefully exclaiming what he thought of the game’s atmosphere.

“It felt like the London Panthers out there!” safety Tre Boston boomed in 2019.

How about the Munich Panthers?

The NFL announced Thursday morning that the Panthers have been designated to play in Munich, Germany, in a regular-season game in the 2024 season. That means Carolina will play a game overseas for the second time in franchise history next season — five years after defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 37-26, in London in 2019.

The day, time, opponent and ticketing information for the game in Munich will be determined at a later date. The game will be played at Allianz Arena, home of FC Bayern Munich.

Sean Phaler, senior director of digital marketing and head of international expansion at Tepper Sports and Entertainment, told The Charlotte Observer that Thursday’s announcement is an important one that was years in the making.

“We’ve spent the last few years cultivating a fan base over there, and growing our fan base over there,” Phaler said. “So this is kind of the moment in time in which it all comes together.”

In December 2021, the NFL announced that the Carolina Panthers were awarded marketing rights in Germany as part of the Global Markets Program (originally called International Home Marketing Area rights). That allowed the Carolinas NFL franchise to access Germany for marketing, fan engagement and commercialization — all part of the NFL’s vision to make the league global.

The team has been busy in this department over the last few years. Phaler said he and various Panthers officials have made 12 trips to the European nation — not including the trip they made to celebrate Thursday’s announcement — over the past few years to “establish roots down in Germany.”

Among the community events they’ve hosted: a watch party with Panthers legend Steve Smith in Frankfurt, flag football clinics with Mike Rucker and Luke Kuechly and more.

Most recently, punter Johnny Hekker announced the selection of the team’s fourth-round pick in the 2023 NFL draft from Römerberg in April.

The Panthers, prior to Thursday’s announcement, were expected to have nine home opponents and eight road opponents. Now the Panthers will play eight games in Bank of America Stadium, eight games on the road and one neutral-site international game — and that neutral-site game will be against one of the team’s originally reported “home” opponents.

They are one of four teams designated to play games abroad in 2024. The Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars are all slated to play in London this fall.

The Panthers will certainly bring a few traditions over with them to Allianz Arena, including the team’s “Keep Pounding” battle cry. When asked if he expects any new chants or traditions to emerge — perhaps a colorful, German football club-inspired song — Phalen reiterated that NFL fandom in Germany is robust and passionate.

That’s good for the Panthers.

It’s also good for the sport at large.

“I just think it’s growing the overall game of football,” Phalen said. “Yes, we are the Carolina Panthers. We represent North and South Carolina. And any way we can kind of reach people outside our states to grow the game of football — through flag football clinics, through activations (community events) — it just kind of helps raise the whole ocean.”