NEW YORK -- Americans always seem to want more pro football. Yet it's the folks abroad who might be getting an extra taste of the NFL in the future.
Although talks are extremely preliminary, the NFL is investigating adding a 17th regular-season game and playing it outside the United States. The extra game would take the place of one in the preseason, allowing every team to play once abroad without sacrificing a home game.
This year, the Dolphins gave up a home date in Miami to play the New York Giants at Wembley Stadium in London. Two years ago, the Arizona Cardinals played a home game in Mexico City against the San Francisco 49ers.
"It is preliminary, but we certainly are putting resources into pulling that together," said Mark Waller, NFL senior vice president, international. "For now, we have the one game per season or two per season outside of the U.S. But we know it can be tough on home fans since we're taking a game away.
"So we have asked how do we create more inventory without taking games away from fans? That idea came up in internal conversations and we now have an international committee of owners and we talked it through with them, and they asked us to do some groundwork."
While the 17th game won't get off the ground next season, for sure, it could become a staple of the NFL's schedule by 2009 or 2010. But it would present some significant logistical and scheduling challenges.
For one, if there is another week to the regular season, does that mean openers played on Labor Day weekend, something the NFL has avoided in recent years? Or does it mean pushing the Super Bowl back a week to the second Sunday in February? Or leaving the title game where it is and eliminating the week off between conference championships and the Super Bowl?
"I don't see a huge downside to a week later. The strength of the idea warrants bringing it up for discussion," Waller said.
And what about during a Winter Olympics year such as 2010?
"It might be an issue for the Olympics," he adds with a laugh.
Where would the "foreign games" be played? And how would they be divided?
Waller notes that there won't be 16 different venues for the 17th games. More likely would be a "mini-season ticket" of perhaps four games in one city or country.
"It is very early, but our thought is what we could end up with is every week there would be one international game," he said. "We won't have all of them on the same week. And what you would do is look at taking, for instance, four games to London. Play a game in Wembley each month, having eight different teams coming through. A game in September, one in October, one in November and one in December.
"It's a great opportunity from a fan perspective, because they get half of what a fan in the United States gets, four games to eight."
Aside from England, other prime areas to get games would be Germany, which has a half-dozen quality stadiums thanks to last year's World Cup; Mexico; and Canada. Waller doubts Asia or Australia would be targeted because of the travel concerns, but he doesn't dismiss anything. Or anywhere.
"It is a complex idea and it will take a lot of work on a number of sides," Waller said. "The beauty of it is it's competitively fair."
I do not like this idea at all. Players have a hard enough time getting through the season without injuries.
I could live with this... assuming all are interconference games.
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This is crap, you don't see a couple of Italy's soccer team coming over here to play, plus there is already NFL Europa for people who want to see it....
When they first came up with the idiotic idea of playing regualar season games "overseas" I said that adding one gameto the regualar season was the only fair way to do it.
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Being European I may get to see a coupkle of regular season games every year. I could then probably get to watch the Skins every other season or so. That would be awesome.
Go to 2 or 3 pre season games and get this on.
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Englands Team wrote:Go to 2 or 3 pre season games and get this on.
Going to 2 pre-season games and adding a 2nd bye week (the week after the overseas game) could work. Wouldn't make the season any longer and the players will get a extra game check. The countries that these games are played in should be limited to start with meaning Europe would get quite a few games the 1st few years along with Canada and Mexico. Later down the road they could look at Japan and other more distant places.
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Well, I'm glad to say that I got a ticket today for the Giants-Dolphins game at Wembley in October, so I'll be making it to my first NFL regular season game this autumn for sure.
UK Skins Fan wrote:Well, I'm glad to say that I got a ticket today for the Giants-Dolphins game at Wembley in October, so I'll be making it to my first NFL regular season game this autumn for sure.
Still hoping to get to a Redskins game too.
Awesome, you'll have to report back on the experience.
I'm actually as excited about going to the new Wembley Stadium for the first time as I am about getting to the game. Now that it's finished, this place is an awesome venue. I plan on posting a full report on the event, and might have to work out how to post photos on here too when the time comes.
Using Europe, and Canada for the 1st few years would work. Also doing away with 1 Preseason game, and having an extra regular season game. Pref Interconference. Also using cities that do not have NFL teams would also work for me.
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