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The NFL will be “selective” about playing on non-traditional game days in future seasons, and putting a Super Bowl in a non-U.S. city could be “a little bit far” off, according to the league’s top broadcasting executive.
Hans Schroeder, the NFL’s executive vice president and chief media officer, also said onstage at the Front Office Sports Tuned In summit Tuesday in New York that the league’s 17-game season is working well but “our fans would love” an 18-game regular season if a deal is struck with the NFL Players Association on that issue.
The NFL will play games this season on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday in addition to the weekly Thursday, Sunday, and Monday games.
The season-opening Patriots-Seahawks game was played on a Wednesday—followed by the Rams-49ers game in Australia that Thursday night—because a quirk in Week 1 scheduling prohibited a Friday game this year under the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961. The NFL is playing a game on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving as well as on the Friday after Thanksgiving. There are Christmas Day games on a Friday and late-season Saturday games.
“We’re going to be selective,” Schroeder told Daniel Roberts, FOS editor-in-chief, of future scheduling. “I don’t think what you’re going to see is playing Wednesday football throughout the year. But if there’s opportunities to do something creative like we did on Wednesday and Thanksgiving eve or like Christmas became on those certain days, we’re going to look at it. We’re going to figure out whether we think it’s a smart thing to do. And then we’re going to look at the numbers and make sure that the numbers and the viewership validates what our instincts are.”
Super Bowl Abroad? Not Anytime Soon
The NFL has nine international games on this season’s schedule. League leaders and NFL team owners have spoken about the possibility of eventually playing 16 international games per season, perhaps in conjunction with an 18-game season. However, the collective bargaining agreement requires the NFL and the owners to consult with the NFLPA to go beyond 10 international games in a season, and sources told FOS recently there had been no substantive conversations yet between the two sides on that issue.
Of the prospects for a future Super Bowl to be played outside the U.S., Schroeder said: “That feels a little bit far to me. But, like, that’s not my call, at the end of the day. At least for the foreseeable future … just look and think about some of the awesome rotations of Super Bowls we already have coming up with the venues and the locations. And just as big as that event has become, you know, I think there’s a lot of runway here in the U.S.
“Maybe that’s the right step to take at some point. But for me, it feels like there’s so many awesome opportunities in the U.S. markets that deliver such an unbelievable experience for that game. That feels like the runway that’s right ahead of us.”
The current CBA runs through the 2030 season and specifically prohibits the league and owners from unilaterally extending the regular season beyond 17 games.
The NFL’s current broadcasting deals were completed in 2021 and are worth more than $110 billion in rights fees over 11 years. The league can opt out of those deals early.
But Schroeder would not specify whether it would help the NFL to have an agreement with the NFLPA for an 18-game season—and thus additional inventory to sell to the networks and streamers—before doing its next round of broadcasting deals.
“People love the 17-game model right now,” Schroeder said. “You know, I think if there was an opportunity for an 18th, I think our fans would love that, too. But, look, there’s a time and place for that, that I’m sure sort of will be engaged at the appropriate time. And we’ll see where that goes.”
