On Tuesday, NFL owners voted to drop the policy allowing them to protect their two most lucrative home games from being scheduled overseas, which figures to increase the quality of international games. It was a great illustration of how the league has gradually but persistently twisted arms to turn the international program from a novelty into the league’s biggest growth strategy.
As recently as the 2021 season, international games depended on volunteers and the hosts of Super Bowls, who were required to give up a home game under a 2014 rule. That system tended to incentivize bad teams or teams with small fan bases, because they had less to lose by experimenting. It also gave great weight to the wishes of owners who simply didn’t want to participate.
But once the schedule expanded to 17 games, owners changed a policy to require teams to give up one home game at least every eight years, and dropped the practice of reimbursing teams for their lost gate. This created the mindset that international growth is a shared effort, a cost that’s simply part of being in the NFL. At the same time, the league started to let teams pursue their own commercial revenue in certain countries.
Two years later, the league doubled the requirement, requiring one home game to be shipped overseas every four years for every team. And now, this week, owners agreed to give up a valuable guardrail on which home games they lose.
This pattern has continued with little (public) complaint from teams. I still hear the occasional squabble from team executives who worry most about their annual P+L, but their long-term-minded bosses must be widely supportive. This wasn’t guaranteed to be the case a decade ago. While the ownership fraternity has become somewhat more growth-minded and risk-tolerant since then through sales and generational change, this is another example of how well Goodell and the best owner powerbrokers manage the delicate internal politics.
Also, international policy is a dark horse for a flash point in eventual negotiations with the NFLPA. Of course, the big negotiation will be around the 18th game, which would facilitate more international games. But watch the details too — the league wants as few restrictions as possible on when and how it schedules its overseas slate, but the union has suggested it will seek a bevy of new protections for players who have to travel such far distances.
