More details on possible 2018 NFL regular-season game in China
All signs point to the NFL playing one of its regular-season games in China in 2018.
The teams have been picked out, reports have said. It’ll be the Los Angeles Rams, as the home team, against the San Francisco 49ers. One has to imagine the Rams going to China is unofficially part of their relocation fee. Why the 49ers would agree to go too, I have no idea. The NFL has consistently said a game in China is not official, but it’s clear the league plans to do so.
It’s a logistical nightmare in many ways, but the NFL thinks doing it in Week 1 will help. Daniel Kaplan of the Sports Business Journal said the game could be the 2018 NFL regular-season opener and take place on a Tuesday or Wednesday to give the teams some extra time to recover.
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It will help, but it’s not ideal. Will the teams have to skip their final preseason game (usually played on a Thursday, the week before the regular season starts) to go to China? Many teams have gone early to London to promote the game and adjust to the time difference, and one would imagine if the NFL is making two teams go halfway across the world they’re going to fully commit to it. If the teams play the preseason finale as usual on Thursday, it doesn’t give them a ton of time to finalize the roster, prepare for their opponent, and then travel 12 hours to China. And another day or two might not completely eliminate the effects of traveling around the world to play a football game, either. Both teams will be affected long into the regular season.
International regular-season games are disrespectful to the league’s core fan base. The NFL makes about $13 billion annually, according to various reports. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has set an arbitrary goal of $25 billion, and seems determined to chase that. Of course China has a massive population, but will putting one game there affect the NFL’s bottom line that much? That seems dubious.
And is the relatively minor bump worth it to mess with the symmetry and fairness of the league’s regular season? I don’t think so. It also seems strange to put a team in Los Angeles and take away one of the eight 2018 regular-season home games from fans the NFL is trying to win over there. Why doesn’t the NFL focus entirely on its core fan base, which has made it one of the most successful businesses in America, rather than chase whatever money there is to be made overseas?
The league might wake up one day and realize that whatever gains it made in other countries, it gave back by taking precious regular-season games away from its core fans.
But it’s likely going to happen, regardless. The NFL’s international push is probably going to include a game in China in 2018. Now it’s figuring out the best way to minimize the disruption.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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