Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Packer Plus

League adds 17th game for next season

- Richard Ryman

Green Bay — The Green Bay Packers will at last play an internatio­nal game — sometime during the next nine seasons.

NFL owners voted April 30 to expand the regular season to 17 games beginning this fall and decided that every NFL team will play an internatio­nal game at least once during the eight years beginning in 2022.

The Packers are the only NFL team to not have played a regular-season internatio­nal game because Green Bay always refused to give up a home game to do so. That is because of the disproport­ionate economic impact giving up a home game would have on Green Bay, by far the smallest market in the NFL. The impact of a regular-season game at Lambeau Field is estimated at $15 million.

Also, teams hosting internatio­nal games routinely refused to play Green Bay overseas because they knew they could draw a lot of Packers fans to their own home stadiums.

“We have been very clear we were not going to give up a home game. That never made sense for us, but obviously under this proposal that was approved, we will be required to do it,” said Packers

President and CEO Mark Murphy.

Now, each team will play internatio­nally at least once during the eightyear period beginning in 2022. Murphy said internatio­nal games will be assigned by division. In other words, all the NFC North teams will play internatio­nal games the same season, either 2022, 2024, 2026 or 2028. The league gave no indication what the rotation would be, he said. Technicall­y, those will be neutral site games.

Teams can volunteer to play more than one internatio­nal game.

Murphy said the team will be required to give up one of its home games from 2022 to 2029. It would be during one of the years when the NFC hosts the extra 17th regular-season game. The end result would be that the Packers would host eight regular-season games and one preseason game that year, so Green Bay would essentiall­y lose one preseason home game.

“When you step back and you look at it, for the good of the league, being able to grow the game internatio­nally is really going to benefit the league long-term. The fact that you still have eight home games is a positive,” Murphy said. “I think a lot of our fans are going to be excited about the opportunit­y to travel internatio­nally and go to London and watch the Packers play.”

Initially, the NFL will play games in London and possibly Mexico City, as it has done in the past, but it is considerin­g expansion to Canada, Europe, South America and China. Murphy said this year two games are planned for London and the Packers will not be one of those teams.

In adding a 17th game to the regularsea­son schedule, the NFL reduced the preseason to three games and designated the AFC to host the extra games this year. Teams will play cross-conference opponents based on 2020 standings. The NFC North will play the AFC West, which means the Packers’ additional game will be against the Chiefs in Kansas City. The Packers and Chiefs both won their divisions in 2020.

The league chose not to add a second bye week to the schedule, but it will move Super Bowl LVI from Feb. 6, 2022, to Feb. 13.

 ?? KIRBY LEE / USA TODAY ?? The NFL decided that every team will play an internatio­nal game at least once during an eight-year span beginning in 2022.
KIRBY LEE / USA TODAY The NFL decided that every team will play an internatio­nal game at least once during an eight-year span beginning in 2022.

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