The NFL wants to make this big change to the Super Bowl
The NFL is the most popular sport in America.
The Super Bowl is the most-watched television event of the year.
And now the NFL wants to make this big change to the Super Bowl.
The NFL looks to international markets to grow the league
Pro football long ago replaced baseball as America’s national pastime.
But the NFL is trying to expand as a global brand.
This year the league scheduled 8 international games.
These games began in the 2007 season with a matchup in London, England between the New York Giants and the Miami Dolphins.
Recently the league expanded the European slate of games to include contests in Germany.
This year the NFL played a game in Brazil.
There is a method to this madness.
The NFL currently plays a 17-game regular season schedule.
17 regular season games invite natural questions about moving to an even number of games at 18 which makes standardized schedules and playoff tiebreakers simpler.
The NFL can’t expand to 18 games without the agreement of the players association under the league’s collective bargaining agreement.
An extra game means the players take extra hits with the increased awareness of CTE and player safety, the players aren’t going to agree to put their bodies on the line without more money.
Leagues make their money off television rights fees.
The NFL’s current television contracts with Amazon, CBS, NBC, ESPN, and FOX run into the 2030s.
One way the NFL can create more television revenue to increase player pay in exchange for agreeing to an 18th regular season game is by increasing the number of international games from 8 to 16 and putting it up as a package to big networks and streaming platforms.
Some fans get frustrated at their team playing a game on foreign soil.
It means a 9:30 am kickoff and the loss of a home game.
But all the NFL cares about is squeezing every last dime out of the product.
NFL floats the idea of a Super Bowl played in a foreign country
That extends to the Super Bowl.
Playing 18 regular season games means the NFL would kick off Labor Day weekend and end with the Super Bowl on President’s Day weekend.
That schedule would give Americans the long sought-after off day following the Super Bowl when more than 120 million Americans gather at parties to watch the big game.
But what the NFL gives, the NFL also takes away.
As the NFL began the slate of international games in the 2024 season, Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters he could see sometime down the line playing the Super Bowl – America’s number one creation in the world of sports – abroad in a city like London.
“We’ve always traditionally tried to play a Super Bowl in an NFL city — that was always sort of a reward for the cities that have NFL franchises,” Goodell stated.
“But things change. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if that happens one day,” Goodell added.
