The San Francisco 49ers could be China-bound in 2020. 49ers officials have made several trips to Beijing and Shanghai over the past year to scout facilities for a game overseas, according to Matt Barrows of The Athletic. NFL owners will discuss on Tuesday the potential of a China game, but no final decision will be made for several months.
Such a game could even kick off the regular season. Air quality in the areas might be a concern, and there have been early discussions about holding indoor practices in the areas leading to a game.
"As a football guy, you're usually pretty protective. Like, 'Hey, let's make sure this is good for our team,'" general manager John Lynch told Barrows on Monday. "I think one thing we feel comfortable with is that (CEO) Jed (York) and (team president) Al (Guido) always keep that in mind, so we're not going to do anything that's going to put us at a disadvantage. But if we can grow the game and also have a cool experience, we'll make it work."
As Barrows notes, opening the season in China would enable the two traveling teams to get acclimated to the time difference without it impacting the remainder of the season.
The 49ers hosting a regular-season game in Beijing would mean giving up a game at Levi's Stadium. There have been past discussions surrounding a division matchup in China between the 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams will be opening their new Southern California stadium in 2020, so taking a home game away from a new facility would be less desirable, thus the reason why the 49ers might play the role of the host team.
Barrows notes that there may be two additional benefits for the 49ers should they play host to a game in China. Levi's Stadium may be added to the list of candidates for a future Super Bowl. The stadium hosted Super Bowl 50 in February of 2016. A China game would also keep the team off of the HBO show, Hard Knocks.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked in December about his stance on Hard Knocks. Needless to say, he is not a fan of the prospect of his team being on the show.
"It's a hard, hard, bad stance on Hard Knocks," he responded. "You would see the worst entertainment possible by me."
Team president Al Guido further shared in January why Shanahan is so against being on Hard Knocks.
"There's a lot of things behind the scenes I think that Kyle feels like should not be shared," Guido said during an interview on 95.7 The Game. "I don't mind sharing this one. I think Kyle struggles with cutting guys on camera. He feels like that's very personal. These guys are fighting for their careers, and lives, and how much it means to be an NFL player. To commercialize that, he's never been a big fan of that."