The NFL kicks off its first games in South America on Friday night as the league works to expand its presence overseas.
As the NFL moves into the Southern Hemisphere, professional football teams are financially stronger than ever. According to CNBC's official NFL team valuation, the league's revenue last season was US$13 billion, and the average team value was approximately US$6.5 billion.
But as the league tries to sustain growth, international markets are a priority.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC's “Squawk Box” on Friday ahead of the league's first game in Sao Paulo, Brazil, that the league's goal is to become an international sports industry. The NFL will play five overseas games this season in Europe and South America. By next season, the league will play eight games overseas.
“The reality is when we bring our regular season brand here, it creates a whole new environment,” Goodell said. “It created a spark and everything seemed to really take off after that,” he added.
Goodell said playing abroad will be a learning process as the league gets to see how players handle long flights and different time zones.
“When (the players) return to their hometowns tomorrow, they will be in a similar time zone, with eight days until the next game,” Goodell said. Brazil is one hour ahead of the Eastern time zone, but the trip takes 11 hours . “It's all part of understanding how many games we can play,” Goodell said.
As the NFL holds games in locations such as London, Germany and Brazil, it not only creates new fans but also helps increase sponsorship opportunities and deepen the league's relationships with international media partners.
The league has signed two sponsorship deals in Germany ahead of games starting in 2022.
The league also allows teams to build brand awareness and fans overseas. Global Market Plan.
The program, now in its third year, provides the team with marketing rights in other countries. This season, 25 teams in 19 international markets are participating in the program.
Among them, the Miami Dolphins have marketing rights in Argentina and Colombia; the Los Angeles Rams have broadcast rights in South Korea and Japan; the Seattle Seahawks have broadcast 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 adding streaming options benefits the league and its fans.
The NFL has reached broadcast agreements with Fox, Disney-owned ESPN and ABC, NBCUniversal and CBS, as well as streaming platforms such as YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and Peacock. These agreements are expected to be worth $11.4 billion by 2024. Friday's game in Brazil will air on NBC's Peacock platform.
“The bottom line is you have to go where your fans are, and our fans are moving to hot platforms,” he said.
However, Goodell said 85 percent of NFL games are still available on broadcast television.
He added: “We do think our policies are really good for our development and good for supporting more people to watch NFL football games and allowing fans to enjoy the game.”
Revealed: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.