Colts Going To London In 2016 For "Road" Game With Jaguars

INDIANAPOLIS – The 2016 NFL schedule won't be known for another few months, but the Colts know one date, at one very unique location.

In Week Four of the 2016 season, the Colts will travel to London to play a "road" game against the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium.

The game will fall on Sunday, October 2, meaning the Colts will likely have an early bye in the week following the trip to London.

This will be the Colts first game in London and the NFL's 15th International Series contest since games began being played over there in 2007.

From a Colts standpoint, the marketability of their brand in Europe is rather obvious with Andrew Luck spending a large chunk of his childhood across the pond.

"My father was working for NFL Europe so my family has a strong affinity for American Football on this continent and in this country," Luck said this past summer in a trip to London.

"I love to come back to (Europe) at least once a year during the offseason to catch up with old families. I still have a bunch of family friends, a bunch of family members that live in Germany, so I try to connect with them."

Luck has always been extremely fond of London and everything Europe offered him during his childhood growing up there.

He has also picked the brains of other NFL players who have had the chance to play a game in London.

"I know guys who as soon as they came back they called me and said, 'Got to go back. Got to go back.' By and large, I think it's been a very pleasant experience for a lot of guys," Luck says of the London experience for NFL players.

This will be the Colts fourth game overseas (first regular season game).

The Colts played in Toronto during the 2010 preseason. In 2005, they played a preseason game in Tokyo. In 2000, the Colts took part in another "American Bowl" series game, down in Mexico City.

Jacksonville has played in London the past three seasons and recently extended their commitment to one game per year in London through 2020.

Tickets for the game in London will go on sale in January. You can find more information on tickets here.

• The 2016 UK International Series schedule:

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At the conclusion of the 2016 season, either 23 or 24 teams will have played in London since the inception of the International Series in 2007. Since that time, the NFL has achieved accelerated growth in the UK. Sunday viewership of NFL games has more than doubled and the Super Bowl audience has increased more than 75 percent. The league also has developed new and stronger business partnerships and, according to internal research, has a UK fan base of more than 13 million.

Participation in amateur football in the UK has risen by approximately 15 percent per year since 2007, with the latest figures showing that 40,000 people age 16 or older play regularly.

A look at the 14 previous International Series games played at London's Wembley Stadium: