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After increasing the NFL season from 16 video games to 17 video games in 2021, Roger Goodell is hoping to have extra video games within the close to future.
Goodell mentioned that “inside 5 years,” he’d just like the league to be enjoying 16 worldwide video games each season and acknowledged that extra worldwide video games would seemingly require an expanded schedule.
“We could possibly be doing extra common season than preseason, so we’re a change from the 17-and-three format to possibly 18 common season video games and two preseason video games,” Goodell mentioned, per Sports activities Enterprise Journal’s Ben Fischer. “And that can open up extra stock to permit us to play extra globally.”
The NFL performed 5 worldwide video games in 2024: one in Brazil, three in London and one in Germany. The matchup between the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers in Munich final week was the final worldwide recreation this season.
Professional Soccer Speak’s Mike Florio famous that the NFL might play 16 worldwide video games with its present 17-game schedule. Every workforce might play eight video games at house and eight on the highway per regular together with one neutral-site recreation, which might in idea be performed internationally.
Attending to an 18-game schedule throughout the subsequent 5 years could be a tough course of for Goodell. Fischer famous that the NFL and NFLPA’s Collective Bargaining Settlement settlement would not expire till after the 2030 season, which means Goodell must negotiate earlier than the same old bargaining schedule.
In June, Lloyd Howell, the manager director of the NFLPA, “left open the likelihood that an 18-game season might go into impact, if gamers are in favor of it” and the union will get what it desires in negotiations, per the Washington Submit’s Mark Maske.
Based on Fischer, the union declined to remark Thursday about the potential for an extended season.
Increasing the NFL season throughout the subsequent 5 years can be helpful to the league by way of tv offers, as the present broadcast contracts finish after the 2029 season. Extra video games would seemingly result in larger bids from networks trying to get the rights to air the NFL.
