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America’s Game – the NFL – returns this week.
This Thursday, September 8th, the National Football League (NFL) will finally return when the Los Angeles Rams host the Buffalo Bills to open the 2022 season.
The NFL has a complete monopoly in terms of US sports. How do I know? Because no other league can compete with their popularity. Not even close. And when you live in America, you see this reality.
Training camps get constant TV, radio and web coverage. Constant. Tom Brady being out of the Buccaneers camp generated national coverage beyond the sports pages. In Boston, the six o’clock news is talking Patriots football within five minutes of going on the air. Listen to ESPN radio, 90% of the discussions are focused exclusively on the comings and goings of the NFL. Even during the offseason. Baseball, getting to the business end of their season barely gets a mention.
With this level of interest, an obvious question arises.
How much bigger can the NFL actually get or can it get too big?
Last season, the NFL had its best viewing numbers since 2015. The regular season averaged 17.1 million viewers.
It was also the first time teams played 17 games in a regular season instead of 16. And Super Bowl 56 had an estimated 208 million viewers worldwide, which included two-thirds of the US population.
The league made moves in the off-season that aims to set them up for an even more financially successful season. Moves that will help the NFL reach an annual income of $10 billion from media rights alone while reaching fans across every channel imaginably. In fact, the NFL game rights are not only the most expensive in American sports but American entertainment as a whole.
The 2022 season will see Amazon Prime TV receive NFL game rights for the first time. Last year the pair confirmed an 11-year partnership worth $100 Billion where Amazon will get the rights for the NFL’s Thursday Night Football. Their first game? You guessed it, the 2022 season opener on September 8th.
The NFL will also receive a total of $2.6 billion from Disney (who owns ESPN) for the Monday Night Football game rights this season. While CBS and FOX will pay $2.1 billion dollars and $2.2 billion dollars respectively to keep their game rights on Sundays. And DirectTV paid the league $1.5 Billion for their ‘Sunday ticket’ package.
The NFL has even launched a new platform in place of ‘Gamepass’ in the United States. NFL+ will cost customers $4.99 per month, or $39.99 per year, and will give access to all live local and primetime regular and post-season games.
With such a collection of rights, broadcasters and the NFL are still banking on America’s obsession to continue. But where else could growth come from?
NFL expands international games for the first time
This coming season international fans of the NFL can also look forward to a string of games hosted outside of the US for the 2022 international series. England’s dominance over these games finally ends too.
This season there will be three games held in London, England, one game in Mexico City, Mexico, and for the first time ever, an NFL regular season game will be held in Munich, Germany.
German fans will have a chance to see the greatest NFL player ever grace the Allianz Arean in Munich when the NFL comes to visit – Terrific Tom Brady. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will play the Seattle Seahawks in Week 10.
How big was the reaction to this? This game is literally the hottest, most sought-after ticket in Germany, priced at an incredible $33,000 on reseller site, StubHub. The head of NFL Germany, Alexander Steinforth, even estimated that the NFL could have sold 3 million tickets, such was the demand.
Ticketmaster told us afterwards that they could have sold around three million tickets. This level of demand — whether for sporting events or concerts — is usually only seen at the Super Bowl. So, this advance sale for the NFL’s German game has once again exceeded all expectations.”
The head of NFL Germany, Alexander Steinforth
This highlights to the NFL just how big the game has become outside the US’ borders and given that current franchise expansion doesn’t seem likely, could offer a picture of where it is thinking it needs to put a new team in the future. For the most part, the US now has franchises in every major market (now that Los Angeles finally boasts the Rams and Chargers, putting that long-running saga to bed).
Speculation has always run rampant about a future NFL franchise outside of the US, however, there have been no breakthroughs as of yet, and I’d estimate there won’t be for a long time given the logistics (and likely pushback) that will be involved. Looking at it objectively, however, a return to St. Louis, Oakland, san Diego or expansion to Omaha, Salt Lake City, or even to Toronto (despite the CFL), or Mexico City seems likelier than a European franchise right now.
Simply put, it is the biggest show on turf in America and that’s unlikely to change, or slow down, any time soon.
