With the NFL lockout appearing to be in the final days, the NFL is looking ahead to the 2011 season. Ending the lockout before August 1 would ensure that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers would be hosting the Chicago Bears in London's Wembley Stadium on Oct. 23. If the lockout stretched into August the game would be moved back to Tampa Bay. A report on ProFootballTalk.com has published a letter from the NFL plugging the game to local fans. The letter says:

“Negotiating teams from the NFL owners and players will resume talks aimed at getting a new Collective Bargaining Agreement agreed, which would end the four-month labour dispute and guarantee a fifth consecutive International Series game at Wembley Stadium,” said the e-mail, which was forwarded to PFT by a UK reader. “NFL General Counsel Jeff Pash says: ‘The principals have done their jobs, the commissioner [Roger Goodell] and Mr [DeMaurice] Smith, and the owners and players have done their work. Now it’s up to us to get things properly documented, identify any remaining points that need to be cleared up and keep driving this process toward a conclusion.”

The good news for Bucs fans is the lockout looks to be coming to an end.