Owners support 18-game season
Unsurprisingly, the 32 owners of the NFL showed great support of enhancing the NFL season to 18 games from the 16 now in place. The new enhanced season could begin as soon as 2012.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that the owners showed “overwhelming support” for the enhanced season. This has been an ongoing topic amongst the owners as they are getting ready to make a formal proposal to the players’ union as part of the next collective bargaining agreement. The 32 owners did not officially vote on the idea but Goodell said the support for the idea has continued to grow. Most players have not supported the idea of an extended season out of fear for injuries escalating late in the year.
Goodell said that while the owners would like for this to happen, they’d have to come to an agreement with the union. In order for this to occur some changes would also have to be made to the off-season schedule and the pre-season.
"From our standpoint, we think we've moved this concept along," Goodell said. "There's a tremendous amount of momentum for it. Right now, we have to get more specific as far as what we're talking about, how it can be successful and bring that to the players," he added.
The plan is for the off-season workouts to be reduced and for the league to remove two pre-season games and insert two regular season games instead. Goodell has said that the fans do not enjoy pre-season games and he feels the quality of the games does not show what the league is about.
The slow movement in negotiations for a new CBA makes the possibility of adopting the 18-game schedule in 2011 next to impossible. Goodell said the goal to implement the enhanced schedule would be in 2012.
Having more regular season games obviously will mean more revenue to the owners but measures would have to be taken to compensate the players for an extended season. It is also not known whether the proposed enhanced season would start earlier and finish later. Goodell is known to be very much in favour of a longer season.
"I look at this as an opportunity to create an agreement that will be good for players, good for the league and take our league to the next level," Goodell said.
Another major North American league, the Canadian Football League has long held 18-game seasons successfully.
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