The NFL owners road tour to sell merchandise continues.
National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell would like to see a regular season game in Tokyo, Japan as part of the league owners’ plan to push the game on a global stage. Italy might be another destination. “A lot of people want to see that,” Goodell said. “That would be fun.” Rome and Milan might be NFL targets. Perhaps the NFL owners and the Green Bay Packers Board of Directors have decided that the United States has hit an economic ceiling and continued growth in revenue streams in America is unstainable. But Europe and Asia are untapped markets and there are a lot of hats and t-shirts that can be sold in Japan, in Germany and in other spots. The NFL has games scheduled in Melbourne, Australia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, three games in London, England, a game in Paris, France, and games in Madrid, Spain, Munich, Germany and a return to Mexico City, Mexico for a game in 2026.
Goodell and the owners want more international games. “Not one, I got about 10,” Goodell said.” We had a game in Tokyo, but it was a preseason game so we want to do a regular-season game now.” The NFL played 14 preseason games in Tokyo between 1976 and 2005. NFL owners want to increase the number of annual international games to 16. The National Football League Players Association has limited the number of international games to 10. For the league to get to 16 international games, a portion of the collective bargaining agreement has to be reopened and some tradeoff has to be worked out. The league owners want to increase the number of regular season to 18 games and the players are not keen on that notion. The present Collective Bargaining Agreement ends in 2030. The NFL wants to sell merchandise globally.
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