NFL: Owners OK adding 17th game

The NFL is increasing the regular season to 17 games and planning to have full stadiums for those games.

While reducing the pre-season to three games the league will be able to generate additional revenue, of course. America’s most popular sport also will provide more content for the broadcast partners who soon will be spending a total of about $10 billion US a year on rights fees.

Team owners at a virtual meeting on Tuesday approved the 17th game as expected, marking the first time in 43 years the regular season has been increased. It went from 14 to 16 games in 1978.

The Super Bowl now will move back a week to Feb. 13, which places it directly in the middle of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. Coincidentally, NBC has the broadcast rights to both.

Each extra NFL game will be an interconference matchup based on where teams finished in the previous season. AFC teams will be hosting the 17th game in 2021.

Some players have voiced their unhappiness with the expanded regular season, but NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and other league executives point out that data accumulated over the past decade or so show more injuries occur in a preseason game than any other.

Also as part of the labour agreement, the players now will receive 48.5% of shareable revenues with a 17th game, up from 47% last season.

The full schedule will be released in May, but the Buccaneers will kick off the season on Thursday, Sept. 9. The regular season will end Jan. 9.