Domestic NFL Fans Should Say Good-"Bye" to One Game
Why sending one game per year overseas is a win for the league... with one caveat
by
Max Gross
Though many American fans view the idea as superfluous, it is clear that those in power within the league have a great desire to play NFL games abroad, thus increasing the image and popularity of the sport overseas. The reasons are fairly obvious, as the marketing and financial gurus have to see that domestically, the opportunity for continued economic growth of the league diminishes every year. The more successful the league becomes, the closer it gets to its market saturation point—a financial and popularity plateau. In order to prevent such an event, the NFL is constantly looking to open up new revenue streams, and the world’s vast population outside of the United States is the perfect place to begin.
The impact of foreign interest in sports can be seen in both baseball and basketball, as the NBA’s income from China sky-rocketed when Yao Ming entered the league. In baseball, it only took one or two star players from Japan to spike the ratings and marketing efforts among the Japanese. American-born sports leagues have become the place where the world's biggest stars go, drawing from an increased talent pool and taking the fans along with the stars.
While many question foreign interest in American football, the quick sell-out in London this year, coupled with overwhelmingly positive responses to previous foreign preseason games and the Mexico City game in 2005, there is little doubt that demand and enthusiasm for the product is there. Furthermore, the popularity of NFL Europa in Germany indicates a strong market in that country, as well. By exporting the highest level of American football, that popularity is only going to grow.
Past efforts to drum up foreign support for “American football” have failed because the product presented to those countries was inferior. NFL Europa primarily features players that can’t make an NFL roster. Preseason games played overseas have all the intensity of the ones played here—meaning next to none. The NFL is sending its ugly step children to be ambassadors to the world, and that approach just won’t work.
And so, in October 2006, the league owners voted to allow up to two regular season games to be played abroad each season. This followed the decision to give an Arizona Cardinals home game to Mexico City during the 2005 season. While it was easy to justify giving up the usually poor attendance in Arizona just once, it is a harder sell to convince two teams per year to give up valuable home games--even if each team is only required to make that sacrifice once every 16 years. Immediately, the inhabitants of the NFL offices on Park Avenue knew that the decision may prove problematic, and began working on alternate means of spreading the game to foreign markets without demanding sacrifice from team owners and fans.
Thus was born the most original, outside-the-box idea to spring from inside the league offices in recent memory. The NFL is considering cutting a preseason game, and in its place, adding a 17th regular-season game. This 17th game will be played abroad at a neutral site, so as not to disrupt the balance between home games and away games. The plan not only rapidly expands the foreign growth program, but also serves as a compromise on another hot button issue facing the league—that of preseason games.
Many players, fans and media members have been pushing for the reduction of the preseason schedule from four games to two. The lost revenue would be more than made up for by expanding the regular season to 18 games. However, coaches and many others within the league are satisfied with the status quo and value the preseason for roster evaluation and practice purposes. The plan for a regular season game to be played abroad at the cost of one preseason game creates a compromise previously hindered by the necessity for an even number of games each season.
Of course with any radical proposal, there are hurdles and logistical problems that must be overcome, and this is no exception. However, with a combination of the NFL’s proposal and my own ideas, I will lay out a plan under which the 17th game could make perfect sense. The root of this plan is based upon a precedent set in this year’s London game. The week following the game, both teams will enjoy their bye week. By granting a bye week after games on foreign soil, the competitive disadvantage disappears. However, the schematics of piecing together a schedule in which every team must pair together their one game abroad and their one bye week become very difficult. That is assuming, of course that each team has only one bye week.
By expanding the schedule to include two bye weeks, the task of assigning a bye week after each foreign game becomes entirely manageable, so long as the foreign schedule takes into account the fact that there are weeks during the course of the season with no teams on their bye week. Currently, the first three and last five weeks of the season have no bye weeks. With two bye weeks for each team, there would also have to be a bye week moratorium in the middle of the season in order to ensure that no teams have two bye weeks close together. Besides, with the season getting even longer, another week of rest will be greatly beneficial.
My proposed schedule would be a 19-week regular season in which no teams have bye weeks in weeks 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18 or 19. This gives the customary buffer at the beginning and end of the season, plus the additional moratorium on byes of three weeks at mid-season. No week would ever see more than six teams on their bye weeks, as is currently the case—which should keep television revenue close to par each week, but with two additional weeks added to the schedule.
In accordance with the NFL’s proposal, the 16 foreign games would be divided up among four foreign venues; each receiving a four game package spread over the course of the season, with the target being approximately one game per month. With 11 weeks available for foreign games, there could be no more than two foreign games in a given week between weeks 2 and 15.
While the extra bye week allows for an increase in revenue over the course of the season and makes the foreign game possible without the creation of a competitive disadvantage, it also creates some issues on its own. The first being that the schedule, from opening day through the Super Bowl would now be expanded to 24 weeks. While that sounds long, it would still remain the shortest major sports league from opening day to championships, with baseball, basketball and hockey all lasting at least 28 weeks.
Also, the timing of the longer schedule must be taken into account. The league has already chosen to abandon Labor Day weekend due to lower ratings, as it is a popular vacation week. Also, with heat exhaustion moving into the league’s consciousness, moving the schedule further into the summer is unlikely. By adding one week to the schedule as proposed, the league is likely looking to upset wives and girlfriends across the country by hosting the Super Bowl on Valentine’s Day weekend. However, with the additional bye week, the Super Bowl then gets pushed into the third weekend in February, averting the crisis—but still out of the way in time for NCAA basketball conference championships and March Madness.
The final question that must be addressed is where the 17th game will come from as far as scheduling goes. The NFL currently has a set system in place to determine the schedules as a 16-game season. Each team currently plays every team in its own division twice, the four teams from one other division within its conference, from one division in the opposite conference and then two games against teams in its own conference that finished in the same divisional seed (i.e. a third place NFC team plays two other third place NFC teams).
I would propose that a team with the same divisional seed from the opposite conference be added to the rotation, giving each team 6 divisional games, 6 other conference games and 5 non-conference games, but several other options could arise. The primary objective here, though, should be to incorporate the 17th game into a rotation so that the schedule formation can continue to run smoothly.
Overall, with a little additional planning, the NFL could grow several new markets for their product, expand television revenue with additional weeks of programming and give players and additional week off throughout the longer season all without creating competitive disadvantages for the simple cost of pushing the season two weeks deeper into February. It is forward thinking such as this that has driven the NFL to be the most dominant sports league in America. With continued forward thinking, the NFL might be looking to remove “in America” from that moniker.
