18 GAME NFL $EA$ON I$ ALL ABOUT THE $$$

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This push for an 18-game season is fundamentally a revenue maximization strategy, not a competitive or fan-first initiative. Robert Kraft frames it as supporting labor and reflecting fan demand, but the underlying driver is simple: each additional regular-season game is a new, premium monetization event layered onto an already saturated sports media market.

The NFL’s leverage is unprecedented. With 93 of the top 100 U.S. TV broadcasts belonging to the league and streaming platforms like Amazon drawing 31 million viewers for a single playoff game, the league has proof that demand is both massive and resilient. In that context, expanding the season isn’t about “growth” in the abstract — it’s about extracting more value per fan, per team, per media partner, while distributing just enough of that upside to players to secure labor peace. Also, don’t forget, the NFL is now international, with games played outside the USA. An extra game offsets that in part, given that one of the teams is playing internationally.

Why This Is Really About the Money

1. One More Game = One More Revenue Stack

An extra regular-season game unlocks multiple revenue layers simultaneously:

  • Broadcast & streaming rights (new inventory for CBS, Fox, ESPN, Amazon)
  • Advertising sales (NFL games command the highest CPMs in sports)
  • Ticketing, concessions, parking, merch
  • Sports betting handle (legal markets amplify per-game value)

Preseason games, by contrast, are low-engagement, low-yield products. Replacing them with real games is a straight upgrade in ARPU (average revenue per user).

2. “Keeping Labor Happy” Is Cost Control Framing

Kraft’s comment about “keeping labor happy” is revealing:

  • The NFL salary cap is tied to football-related revenue (FRR)
  • More games → higher FRR → higher cap
  • Higher cap placates the NFLPA without changing revenue share percentages

In other words, players get more absolute dollars, but owners keep the same slice of a much larger pie.

3. Dominance Enables Risk Transfer

Player safety concerns are real — but economically manageable:

  • Injury risk is externalized to players
  • Career length risk is offset by short-term earnings increases
  • Owners and media partners face minimal downside due to guaranteed contracts and rights deals

The league can push this through precisely because there is no credible substitute product with comparable scale.

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Bottom Line

This is classic platform economics. The NFL has reached a scale where:

  • Attention is monopolized
  • Distribution partners compete for access
  • Labor has limited leverage

An 18-game season isn’t about tradition, competition, or even entertainment quality. It’s about converting unmatched cultural dominance into incremental, compounding revenue, and the league knows the market will bear it.

https://en.as.com/nfl/patriots-owner-confirms-plans-for-18-game-nfl-were-going-to-push-f202601-n