Protecting Home games from International ~ No more
NFL removes teams’ ability to protect home games from international export
As of Friday, the prospect of removing the ability of teams hosting international games to block any of their nine home games from selection was regarded as a possibility. Four days later, it became a reality.
Via Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal, owners voted on Tuesday to eliminate the current privilege to protect two games.
“That really is less about international, though that’s a component of it, and more about optimizing the schedule,” NFL executive V.P. of club business, international & league events Peter O’Reilly said, per Fischer. “Making sure the schedule makers have as much flexibility and opportunity to deliver the best possible schedule in every window for our partners.”
NFL V.P. of broadcast planning Mike North didn’t characterize it that way on Friday. As he told it, it was out of respect for the international fans.
“You know, you can’t have a team say, ‘Well, I don’t want my two best games ineligible for international.’ What kind of message does that send to the international fans?” North said.
Regardless of the reason(s), teams hosting an international game will have, moving forward, no ability to shield any of their home contests from being shipped to wherever. That said, there will surely be plenty of behind-the-scenes politicking — as there always is — regarding the selections made. Favors get traded in back rooms — as they always do.
That said, when push comes to shove, the league now has the power to tell the teams to take their objections to a specific game being taken to London or wherever and shove it.
LIVE WELL ~ LOVE MUCH ~ LAUGH OFTEN
It seems pretty ridiculous that teams could veto specific games from being international, but I do think there should be some combinations that are banned from being international. You shouldn’t have divisional games at neutral sites. I also think it’s a bad feeling if you get to the end of the year and you get edged out of the playoffs by a team that got an extra home game, whereas yours ended up being an international game. I still think that the most balanced way of scheduling is every team gets 8 home games, 8 away games, and 1 neutral site game, which could be abroad, but could also be in an underserved area of the country. I could see something like a Vikings/Bengals game in Santa Fe or a Steelers/Falcons game in Bismark or whatever.
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