Roger Goodell & The NFL Make Big Moves, Aim To Go From Being Just Another American League To A Truly Global Phenomenon

A lot of fascinating changes are supposed to happen in the NFL. There are talks about the permanent expansion of NFL to Europe to generate more revenue and NFL fanbase outside of America. Did you know that NFL is so popular in Europe that in a city of 750k people, there were about 1.4 million people who wanted to buy the tickets? While the NBA has successfully managed to set its feet in places like India, Africa, and China, the NFL is still in the process of making that jump and reach an even wider audience of millions, not to mention the revenues the new fans bring in.

Joe Pompliano did an in-depth analysis of this possibility on his podcast, the Joe Pomp Show. While some teams are already playing in places like London, the NFL sees an opportunity worth billions that would take the league to different heights of recognition. Pompliano delves into the logistics of such a set-up and the pros and cons of it. The NFL was losing about $30 million each year and they decided to do something about it.

NFL: A trip overseas

The NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has had his eyes on the European market for quite a while. Since 1926, there have been more than 50 games that were played as international exhibitions in countries like the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Ireland and even Japan. The NFL wants to step it up a notch and since 2007, there have been about 40 regular season games in the said countries. An average SNF or MNF game has more views than an NBA Finals game; a viewership of 25-30 million is guaranteed for these NFL games. Considering this, the NFL has increased the projected revenue ceiling to $20 billion this year.

Though there are some preconditions for this to happen, the NFL is now planning to host 4 regular season each year for 8 years overseas. This means that each of the 32 teams will get a chance of hosting a game in some part of Europe. This rotation makes it easier to manage time and resources and might result in more money coming in. Five things that are absolutely needed to do this are: A passionate fanbase, a stadium, support from local government, football logistics and an owner who is willing to move his team around.

There are two ways to approach the issue of expanding the NFL to Europe. One option is to send a team permanently to cities like London, where the Ravens and Titans recently played. The other option is to create European divisions with teams based in Europe. However, this option might result in lower game quality, similar to how European Leagues compare to the XFL. It’s uncertain whether the European divisions will be able to generate the same excitement as the NFL. The Jaguars are willing to take this risk if all NFL owners approve it, but that’s a different story.

The pros and cons of the Euro trip

Pompliano talks about this in depth. While the idea of playing overseas seems fascinating, in reality, it’s all helter-skelter. First of all, having just one team play overseas is an unfair competition, because they would have to travel a lot. The fatigue will wear them out, the unforgiving jet lag might make it difficult for the overseas team to win games in the USA. Secondly, the players would have to be compensated more as they would be uprooting their families to move to Europe. The NFL has a fixed salary cap which does not allow for flexibility and there are some government restrictions that might also come into play considering how vast amounts of money are changing hands overseas.

At this point, the idea of forming a couple of divisions in Europe doesn’t look bad. But the idea of paying about 200 XFL level players comes with a hefty price tag, which the owners might not agree to. The pay disparity will result in players negotiating for less practice time and less time in facility in general, hence the justification of low-quality games in Europe, which the NFL doesn’t want.

If everything fails, the NFL might follow the European Soccer league model like those of Premier League and Bundesliga and play preseason games in Europe. They will host full-blown quality games as compared to the soccer league, who don’t take their summer games all that serious. This will help other countries to get a piece of NFLs bread while the NFL gains more publicity in Europe through ticket sales, merchandise sales, sponsorships and, of course, media deals with giants like CBS and FOX. All this seems like a far-fetched idea as of now.

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The NFLs target for the regular season is to generate an annual revenue of $1 billion. Will they succeed?

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