Writer’s Strike End a Boon for Sports Networks, Agencies
EAGAN, Minn. — The Super Bowl will return to Northern California, while the NFL Draft is headed to the league’s smallest market.
The league announced that Levi’s Stadium will host Super Bowl LX in 2026, a decade after the San Francisco 49ers’ home venue in Santa Clara hosted Super Bowl 50. The other location announcement that became official on Monday wasn’t a shocker: Green Bay will host the 2025 NFL Draft.
“We are honored to host the Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium once again and to be stewards of one of the biggest sporting events in the world,” 49ers President Al Guido said in a statement. “Since hosting Super Bowl 50 in 2016, Levi’s Stadium has cemented its reputation as a world-class venue. I’m confident Super Bowl LX will be a terrific event that benefits the entire community.”
The NFL Draft has been a traveling road show since it was last hosted at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in 2014.
“This is an incredible day for the Packers, Greater Green Bay, and the entire state of Wisconsin as we are excited and honored to be selected to host the 2025 NFL Draft,” Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy said in a statement. “The Packers have a rich and proud history that goes back to the early days of the NFL and are the only community-owned team.”
The draft announcement wasn’t unexpected, as Front Office Sports reported earlier this month that Green Bay had been gearing up to spend around $7 million to bring the draft to town.
The NFL Draft will be held in Detroit next year. After the start of the pandemic forced the draft to go virtual, it was held in Cleveland (2021), Las Vegas (2022), and Kansas City last month.
TNF Gets Flexing
Amazon’s “Thursday Night Football” will have flex — at least for the upcoming season.
After NFL owners shot down the original proposal at March’s owners’ meeting, the owners revised a revised plan that nearly doubled the notice to 28 days given to teams to have their Sunday afternoon.
The deal, which covers only the 2023 season for now, will allow the NFL to flex games beginning in Week 13.
The proposal would allow the NFL to flex Sunday afternoon games to Thursday nights starting in Week 14. The proposal includes a 15-day notice to the teams that’d be flexed to TNF.
NBC has had flex scheduling for its Sunday night games since 2006, and ESPN will benefit from it starting in 2023 as well.
Giants owner John Mara was among the opponents to allowing flex scheduling and didn’t appear happy it passed here today. When asked about Thursday flexing, Mara referred reporters to his comments from March.
“People have gotten used to going from Sunday afternoon to Sunday night,” Mara said in March. “That doesn’t mean that they like it. This year, we can be flexed to Monday night, which I think is really inconsiderate to our tickets holders. But to flex a game back to Thursday night is, to me, abusive, and I am adamantly opposed to it.”
