Roger Goodell has made it very clear over the past 12 months that he wants to expand the regular-season schedule and he's also made it very clear that he wants to add more games to the international schedule. However, until this week, the NFL commissioner had never put an exact timeline on his plans.
During an appearance at Liberty Media's investor day, Goodell had some interesting things to say about possibly expanding both the international schedule and the regular-season schedule (via Sports Business Journal).
Back in September, Goodell said that he would like to see the NFL expand the international schedule to eventually include 16 games, but he didn't put a date on when he hoped to see that happen. As it turns out, it's something that could happen in the very near future.
"We hope to be 16 [international games] within five years," Goodell said at the investor day.
The NFL played five international games this year with three in London, one in Germany and one in Brazil. In 2025, the number is expected to be bumped up to eight with games definitely being played in London, Spain (Madrid), and Germany, and possibly being played in Brazil, Mexico and Ireland. The NFL has also conducted site surveys in Abu Dhabi, Paris, Barcelona, Rome and Dublin, so those cities could be hosting a game in the near future.
The league is also expected to target Australia for possible games as soon as the 2026 season, so if the NFL does expand to 16 international games, there will be plenty of cities willing to host a game.
As for expanding the regular-season schedule, that also could happen in the near future. It seems that Goodell would like to see the schedule get expanded to 18 games at the same time that the international schedule gets expanded, which makes sense.
"We could be doing more regular season than preseason, so we're looking at a change from the 17-and-three format to maybe 18 regular-season games and two preseason games," Goodell said. "And that will open up more inventory to allow us to play more globally."
That last comment is the key part: Goodell specifically noted that adding an 18th game will make it easier to expand the international schedule so he'd almost certainly like to see those two things happen around the same time. If we stick with the five-year timeline that he put on international games, that means we could see the NFL expand the regular-season schedule by 2029.
Although Goodell wants to see the schedule expanded, that can't happen unless the NFLPA is on board. The current collective bargaining agreement runs through the 2030 season, which means nothing can be done about expanding the regular-season schedule before then unless the NFLPA approves it. Back in May, CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones broke down what the players might ask for in exchange for agreeing to add an 18th game before the current CBA expires and you can check his reporting here. One thing Jones noted is that that players might ask for an extra bye, which would turn the current 18-week regular season into a 20-week season. It will certainly be interesting to see how that plays out.
Goodell publicly mentioned expanding the schedule to 18 games back in April, so it's pretty clear that it's something he wants to get done sooner rather than later. He's also been privately talking about it since at least 2021.
The bottom line is that more international games are definitely coming and an expanded regular-season is likely coming, and it's all probably going to happen before the end of the decade
