ORLANDO — The NFL has a clear vision of what its ideal regular season looks like. And like a pound-and-ground offense that keeps churning downfield, one 5-yard run after another, the end zone is now within reach.
The league’s nirvana is an 18-game regular season and one international game for each of its 32 franchises. It will be a few years before that happens, and the players and their union will ultimately have a say in all this, but the seeds haven’t just been planted; they are taking root.
A clear example was the amendment NFL owners approved this week that raises the maximum number of international games each season from eight to 10.
In addition, owners voted to remove a scheduling mechanism that enabled each team to protect two games from international consideration. This year, for instance, the 49ers wanted their home game against the Raiders to be played at Levi’s Stadium rather than in Mexico City.
As a result, the Raiders will make their first regular-season trip to the Bay Area and the 49ers will host the Vikings at Estadio Banorte.
At first glance, it might not seem like a significant shift. After all, the NFL will play nine international games this year, in part because the Jaguars are playing two games in London during the renovation of their home stadium in Jacksonville.
But it’s far more layered than just adding two more games to the international docket. It’s laying the groundwork for what the NFL eventually wants to build as it continues to expand its international interests.
Short of actually putting a team overseas, either through relocation or expansion, the NFL wants to create a season-long international presence by playing one overseas game each week.
Before you ask the obvious, if not the rhetorical question of why, it’s clearly about money.
As the NFL moves into the future, player salaries continue to grow, as does the cost to do business. New stadiums need to be built, along with entertainment hubs and districts around them. All of that costs money.
Creating new revenue streams, while building on others, is essential to meet those rising costs and keep the NFL on pace to set new standards for its financial bottom line.
It’s why the league has been so ambitious with its scheduling the last few years, adding a game on Black Friday and Thanksgiving Eve, and beefing up its Christmas Day schedule.
And it explains the thought process behind increasing the number of games now owned by streaming services. Amazon Prime has the rights to the entire “Thursday Night Football” schedule. Netflix will stream a handful of attractive games this year.
There isn’t a more untapped horizon than the international market, where lucrative television rights deals and sponsorship agreements can be had, and millions of new fans can be cultivated.
And it’s no longer just Europe, including England, offering those tantalizing new revenue possibilities.
The NFL will start the season in Australia this year by pitting the Rams against the 49ers. It’s the first time the league will play a regular-season game in that region. A game will also be played for the first time in Paris, when the Saints host the Steelers.
Additionally, the league is returning to Brazil, Germany, Spain and Mexico City.
“Our strategy is not one and done, so our goal is to go back to those markets that we’re establishing,” said NFL vice president Peter O’Reilly, who is in charge of club business and league events.
And don’t think for a minute O’Reilly and the NFL aren’t looking beyond the current international fence they’ve built.
“There are parts of the world that we are looking at for future years, maybe not ’27, beyond. Asia would be an example of that. Japan would be a good example within Asia of a market that has complexity.”
Accomplishing that, and getting to the point where each team will play one international game per season, will mean increasing the regular-season schedule from 17 to 18 games. And doing that will require support from the NFL players’ union.
The union has consistently pushed back on an 18-game schedule. But as is the case with just about everything in life, it’s all about negotiations.