On Friday night, the NFL will play its first-ever game in South America, aiming to expand its presence abroad.
With the NFL’s foray into the Southern Hemisphere, professional football has never been better financially. Last season, the league brought in $13 billion in revenue, and the average team is worth about $6.5 billion, according to CNBC’s “Official NFL Team Valuations.”
But to maintain its growth, the league’s priority is primarily on international markets.
Before the league’s opening game Friday in Sao Paulo, Brazil, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the league wants to become an international sports enterprise. This season, the NFL will play five games abroad in Europe and South America. Next season, the league will play eight games abroad.
“When we bring our regular season games here, it really creates a whole new atmosphere,” Goodell said. “There’s a spark and everything seems to really take off from that point,” he added.
Goodell said the overseas games have been a learning experience as the league sees how players cope with long flights and different time zones.
“When (the players) return to their hometowns tomorrow, they will be in a similar time zone and eight days before their next game,” Goodell said. Brazil is an hour ahead of the Eastern time zone, but the trip takes 11 hours. “This is all to figure out how many games we can play.”
As the NFL plays in places like London, Germany and Brazil, it not only attracts new fans, but also encourages the creation of new sponsorship opportunities and deepens the league’s relationships with international media partners.
The league had signed two sponsorship deals in Germany before playing its games there from 2022. Today, the NFL has 15 agreements.
In addition, the league enabled teams to build brand awareness and fans abroad through its Global Markets Program.
This program, currently in its third year, gives teams marketing rights in other countries. This season, 25 franchises in 19 international markets are participating in the program.
The deals include the Miami Dolphins, the marketing rights in Argentina and Colombia, the Los Angeles Rams the rights in South Korea and Japan and the Seattle Seahawks the rights in Canada with planned expansion to Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
Goodell also spoke to CNBC about the NFL’s current media rights landscape, saying the additional streaming options have benefited the league and its fans.
The NFL has broadcast deals with Fox, Disney’s ESPN and ABC, NBCUniversal, CBS and streamers YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and Peacock that are worth an estimated $11.4 billion in 2024. Some games will be streamed exclusively, including Friday’s game in Brazil, which will air on NBC’s Peacock platform.
“The bottom line is you have to go where the fans are, and our fans are moving to streaming platforms,” he said.
However, according to Goodell, 85% of NFL games are still available on television.
“We really believe that our policy is very conducive to our growth and to getting more people watching NFL football and for fans to enjoy it,” he added.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
