A 18-game season that satisfies all sides

[mgteich]

Do you really pay as much to see a preason game, are there as many in attendance, in hotels, do sponsers pay as much for TV spots, are there as many team stuff sold?

Do you think that the TV audience is the same for preseason games? Do you think that it really doesn't matter whether game count in the standings?

?????????????

For the record, I think that there would a large increase in revenue over the next five years if the season were 22 weeks long, with 2 preseason games, 18 regular season games, and 2 bye weeks (adding an extra week of TV), plus the playoffs, and the Pro Bowl the week before the Super Bowl.

4 pre-season + 16 reg season = 2 pre-season + 18 reg season
I don't see the revenue difference

 

[aurakilla]

we should just have the coaches play 18 games of madden..........thatll solve the problems

 

[Pats726]

we should just have the coaches play 18 games of madden..........thatll solve the problems

Madden >>>>>>>>trash....

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Unless every team plays a game every season at a neutral field. The league wants to expand globally. They could have London, Mexico, Toronto, etc. host multiple games a season. That way every team plays one international game a year and doesn't have to give up a home regular season game to do so. They could also play in in cities locally that don't have teams but the league might want to get into like Los Angeles (a good compromise until they finally get a team there) and San Antonio.

In the grand scheme of things, I don't think this is a really big issue if it balances out over, say, a two-year period (e.g., 9 home/8 away one year automatically means 8 home/9 away the next). A lot of the revenue is pooled anyways.

That said, my biggest issue with 17 games is fairness. The one thing this schedule has going for it is that it is about as fair a schedule as you can possibly get given that you can't do, say, a full round-robin.

If you go to 18 games, you can probably get things to balance out (teams would play, say, an extra game against a #1 team and a #4 team, or a #2 team and a #3 team); there's no way to balance out a 17-game schedule.

Your basic premise is to add two regular season games, but to play those games without the most important players on the field. I'm sorry, but that's a bad idea. It's artificial, and it makes no sense.

If they want 18 games, they should just play 18 games, with normal rules. I suppose inflating the rosters would help a bit. I think sprinkling in another bye week or two would also make sense. More liberal IR rules also may play a role. These and other minor modifications may work to ease the strain of a longer season without the need to resort to dramatic and senseless proposals like yours.

Heh. I know it would never happen, but I had a dream once where the rosters were 106 players, and teams had to play two games each week (almost an "A" squad and a "B" squad). . . .

 

[Pats726]

Heh. I know it would never happen, but I had a dream once where the rosters were 106 players, and teams had to play two games each week (almost an "A" squad and a "B" squad). . . .

But that's a dream...not thought out...dreams can be pretty weird...

 

[mgteich]

The B teams would be the NFL minor league.

In the grand scheme of things, I don't think this is a really big issue if it balances out over, say, a two-year period (e.g., 9 home/8 away one year automatically means 8 home/9 away the next). A lot of the revenue is pooled anyways.

That said, my biggest issue with 17 games is fairness. The one thing this schedule has going for it is that it is about as fair a schedule as you can possibly get given that you can't do, say, a full round-robin.

If you go to 18 games, you can probably get things to balance out (teams would play, say, an extra game against a #1 team and a #4 team, or a #2 team and a #3 team); there's no way to balance out a 17-game schedule.



Heh. I know it would never happen, but I had a dream once where the rosters were 106 players, and teams had to play two games each week (almost an "A" squad and a "B" squad). . . .

 

[TheGodInAGreyHoodie]

17 won't work, odd number of home and away games, it will be either 16 or 18.

Actually 17 would work 8 home, 8 away, 1 nuetral site (LA, London, Mexico City, Paris, Tokyo, etc.)

 

[TheGodInAGreyHoodie]

TV is more expensive via the network...preseason games only have local revenue....It's a difference..BUT I think less than the owners think...

Not only that. But in stadiums that have sold out season tickets, sellout pre-season, such as NE. In many other stadiums they don't have a season ticket waiting list and a lot of the tickets are sold per game. Those teams don't see much ticket revenue during pre-season. Plus even if the tickets sell out for pre-season the fans often do not show up, so although Kraft gets the same ticket revenue for a pre-season game, he gets a lot less beer, parking and hotdog revenue.