The National Football League kicks off its first-ever game in South America on Friday night, as the league pushes to grow its footprint overseas.
As the NFL enters the Southern Hemisphere, professional football has never been stronger financially. Last season, the league pulled in $13 billion in revenue, and the average team is worth about $6.5 billion, according to CNBC’s Official NFL Team Valuations.
But as the league tries to sustain its growth, international markets are a priority.
Ahead of the league’s inaugural game in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Friday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the league aims to become an international sports property. This season, the NFL will play five games abroad in Europe and South America. By next season, the league will play eight games overseas.
“The reality is, when we bring our brand of our regular season games here, it creates a whole new environment,” Goodell said. “It creates a spark and everything seems to really take off after that point in time,” he added.
Goodell said it has been a learning process playing games abroad, as the league sees how players handle long flights and different time zones.
“When [the players] get back to their home cities tomorrow, they’ll be on a similar time zone, and eight days before their next game,” Goodell said. Brazil is one hour ahead of the Eastern time zone but an 11-hour trip. “This is all part of learning how many games we can play,” Goodell said.
As the NFL plays in places such as London, Germany and Brazil, it not only creates new fans, but it also helps grow sponsorship opportunities and deepen the league’s relationships with international media partners.
The league had two sponsorship deals in Germany before it played games there starting in 2022. Today, the NFL has 15 agreements.
The league has also allowed 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 are participating in the program across 19 international markets.
Among the deals, the Miami Dolphins have marketing rights in Argentina and Colombia; the Los Angeles Rams have rights in South Korea and Japan; and the Seattle Seahawks have rights in Canada and are expanding to Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
Goodell also spoke to CNBC about the NFL’s current media rights landscape, and said the addition of streaming options has benefited the league and its fans.
The NFL has broadcast deals with Fox, Disney’s ESPN and ABC, NBCUniversal and CBS, in addition to streamers YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and Peacock, all worth an estimated $11.4 billion in 2024. Some games are streaming exclusive, including Friday’s matchup in Brazil, which will air on NBC’s Peacock platform.
“The bottom line is you have to go where your fans are and our fans are moving onto steaming platforms,” he said.
Yet, Goodell said 85% of NFL games are still available on broadcast television.
“We really think that our policy are really beneficial to our growth, to supporting more people watching NFL football and the fans’ enjoyment of it,” he added.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.