NFL looking into hosting regular season games in: Australia, Brazil, Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan & the Middle East

[soxhop411]

Executives are weighing where to expand internationally. The league outlined destinations for future regular season games, three people with knowledge of the meeting told DealBook. They include: Australia, Brazil, Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan and the Middle East (probably Abu Dhabi). The N.F.L. is conducting due diligence on those locations, some of which already host games.

The hope is that more international games will increase overseas interest in the N.F.L. when the future of the league’s primary source of revenue — media rights deals — looks increasingly uncertain as the television landscape fractures.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/business/dealbook/nvidia-earnings-artificial-intelligence.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb


Hosting an NFL game in the Middle East will be interesting for a variety of reasons (especially the weather)

 

[Kliq]

They'll easily be able to get money from the Middle East if they can stomach it (and NFL owners certainly can).

 

[Philip Jeff Frye]

I just don't understand the logistics of how an NFL game can take place in Australia or Japan. The time it takes to fly there and back is going to be a huge tax on teams ability to practice, not to mention the jet lag/lack of sleep issues. Presumably they will work such games around bye weeks, but it still seems like it would be a big disadvantage relative to teams that don't have to suffer through such a trip.

And these places are literally on the other side of the world - what time are games going to be played locally such that the actual fans of these teams in the US can watch them?

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/business/dealbook/nvidia-earnings-artificial-intelligence.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb


Hosting an NFL game in the Middle East will be interesting for a variety of reasons (especially the weather)

Haven't they already done "Britain"?

And if they can have the other football in Qatar, they can have this football there. Looking forward to cheerleaders in full Burkas

 

[Jake Peavy's Demons]

I just don't understand the logistics of how an NFL game can take place in Australia or Japan. The time it takes to fly there and back is going to be a huge tax on teams ability to practice, not to mention the jet lag/lack of sleep issues. Presumably they will work such games around bye weeks, but it still seems like it would be a big disadvantage relative to teams that don't have to suffer through such a trip.

And these places are literally on the other side of the world - what time are games going to be played locally such that the actual fans of these teams in the US can watch them?

As someone who has been following AFL, NRL (yes, I like both), & BBL, start times in Australia are brutal. Time difference where I live (Central Time Zone) is 15 hours with the eastern part of Australia, 14 from Adelaide, & 13 from Perth. So subtract an hour for Eastern Time Zone.

A noon game in Sydney or Melbourne would be on at 10:00pm Eastern Time Zone. Seems the best option would be to play at 10:00am AET for a 08:00pm start time. Not as bad on second thought.

To add: anything later than a noon start time would be begging for tape-delay. Then again, consumers will probably still eat it up.

 

[Zedia]

I wonder what the longest thread title in SoSH history is.

 

[axx]

As someone who has been following AFL, NRL (yes, I like both), & BBL, start times in Australia are brutal. Time difference where I live (Central Time Zone) is 15 hours with the eastern part of Australia, 14 from Adelaide, & 13 from Perth. So subtract an hour for Eastern Time Zone.

A noon game in Sydney or Melbourne would be on at 10:00pm Eastern Time Zone. Seems the best option would be to play at 10:00am AET for a 08:00pm start time. Not as bad on second thought.

To add: anything later than a noon start time would be begging for tape-delay. Then again, consumers will probably still eat it up.

Doesn't it get pretty warm during our Winter? It'd have to be a night game there.

 

[CoffeeNerdness]

(especially the weather)

Doesn't it get pretty warm during our Winter? It'd have to be a night game there.

I don't believe the US has exclusive rights to domed stadiums.

 

[OCST]

I just don't understand the logistics of how an NFL game can take place in Australia or Japan. The time it takes to fly there and back is going to be a huge tax on teams ability to practice, not to mention the jet lag/lack of sleep issues. Presumably they will work such games around bye weeks, but it still seems like it would be a big disadvantage relative to teams that don't have to suffer through such a trip.

And these places are literally on the other side of the world - what time are games going to be played locally such that the actual fans of these teams in the US can watch them?

Best do as MLB has done and put these games in Week1, with at least the guarantee of a home game to follow, if not a bye.

I could be persuaded to play in Tokyo Week 1 if it meant losing a meaningless preseason game.

 

[PC Drunken Friar]

Best do as MLB has done and put these games in Week1, with at least the guarantee of a home game to follow, if not a bye.

I could be persuaded to play in Tokyo Week 1 if it meant losing a meaningless preseason game.

Tea, I could see an NFL “opening weekend” with maybe 2 of these during week 3 of preseason.Those teams that play get 2 byes, one of which is week 1.

 

[glennhoffmania]

My lord, the thread title.

 

[the1andonly3003]

Tea, I could see an NFL “opening weekend” with maybe 2 of these during week 3 of preseason.Those teams that play get 2 byes, one of which is week 1.

Hold the international games in early August. Then three week bye.

 

[BigJimEd]

My lord, the thread title.

Very informative

 

[AB in DC]

Another soxhop special

 

[dynomite]

Hold the international games in early August. Then three week bye.

Hmmmmm there's a few issues I think that would make that hard. Off the top of my head:

1) Those teams' entire roster construction timeline would have to change, in that they'd have to do their full roster cutdowns / practice squad contracts 3 weeks before everyone else without knowing who other teams are releasing. I guess you could give those teams special allowance to play without actively cutting down their rosters, but...

2) You'd need them to start their training camps in early July to safely be ready to play a full-speed, regular season game in early August, right? I assume the NFLPA would have to address that, given that the players would then be signing up for a month of extra service time.

3) And I assume it would also mess up the NFL's TV contracts by broadcasting games in the dead of summer when ratings are traditionally low?

4) It would mess up the timeline of fantasy football leagues, which might not be as serious as the other concerns but is still an ~$18B industry with ~30 million Americans participating and driving a ton of revenue and eyeballs to the NFL.

The Packers and Eagles are playing Week 1 in Brazil this year, for example, but they're playing on the same weekend as every other team.

As someone who has been following AFL, NRL (yes, I like both), & BBL, start times in Australia are brutal. Time difference where I live (Central Time Zone) is 15 hours with the eastern part of Australia, 14 from Adelaide, & 13 from Perth. So subtract an hour for Eastern Time Zone.

A noon game in Sydney or Melbourne would be on at 10:00pm Eastern Time Zone. Seems the best option would be to play at 10:00am AET for a 08:00pm start time. Not as bad on second thought.

To add: anything later than a noon start time would be begging for tape-delay. Then again, consumers will probably still eat it up.

Yeah as you say, 10am in Sydney would be 8pm ET / 5pm PT in America. NFL is nothing if not creative. They broadcast those London games at 9:30am ET on some Sundays, even though that's 6:30am PT.

 

[Philip Jeff Frye]

Playing these games a couple of weeks early would also give teams something of an unfair advantage in terms of players recovering from the wear and tear of playing football. In the war of attrition that is the NFL these days, that would seem to be important.

 

[Old Fart Tree]

I recall that Dr. William Dement at Stanford took great pride in having "helped" Stanford football win a game against Arizona that was held in Tokyo in the 1980s. He gave the coach a very specific regimen to follow for the players' sleep, which I believe he claimed they followed.

Today I think you'd just take an ambien and be fine? That's how I took a redeye from Chicago to Paris every Friday for five weeks in law school, played 18 innings on Sunday, and flew home on Monday just to do it all again the following Friday.

 

[DJnVa]

My lord, the thread title.

We have a VP, who, when he sends a relatively short email, essentially types it all in the subject line, like "I need you to send me the TPS reports from last week, but also I have approved your vacation and the extra day off you requested."

 

[DJnVa]

Today I think you'd just take an ambien and be fine? That's how I took a redeye from Chicago to Paris every Friday for five weeks in law school, played 18 innings on Sunday, and flew home on Monday just to do it all again the following Friday.

Damn. You should write a book about this.

 

[j-man]

its dispointing i have talked to a lot of uk aus people online and they more in to soccer rugby outdoor sports and swimmeing

 

[OCST]

its dispointing i have talked to a lot of uk aus people online and they more in to soccer rugby outdoor sports and swimmeing

I’m active on an Everton board. There are plenty of UK NFL fans.

 

[j-man]

I’m active on an Everton board. There are plenty of UK NFL fans.

but the q is couild they deloping a team into like how green bay has a team or minnosta and wouild they show for 8 london home games let say they get the bengles and u cant have a home game then a road game u wouild need 2 or 3 home games in a row same with road games plus a east coast city wouild have to house the team for road games like NY BOS BALY PHILLY and they wouild need at least 3-5 ex draft picks because its gonna be harder than nomial to sign FA'S

 

[OCST]

It would be like when O’Malley moved the Dodgers to California- he convinced the Giants to go west also. Two teams in UK/Europe could give visiting Stateside teams a 2 game road trip.