Raiders reportedly considering hosting a preseason game in Canada
The NFL might be onto a smarter plan when it comes to shipping off games to other places.
Instead of moving regular-season games, which count in the standings, they might be better off sharing preseason games instead. Go figure.
Earlier this offseason, the Los Angeles Rams and Dallas Cowboys announced they’d play a preseason game in Hawaii. Then NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said the Oakland Raiders are considering playing a preseason game in Canada, and perhaps specifically in Saskatchewan.
Could NFL start moving preseason games around?
The NBA has for many years used the preseason to hop around to different cities and showcase the game to fans outside of the teams’ home cities.
That’s the smart way to do it. It helps grow the game without disrupting the regular-season schedule. And the NBA has 82 games; the impact of moving regular-season games to London or Mexico City is much higher in a 16-game NFL schedule. Shipping teams to London for a regular-season game means some teams get seven home games, others only have to deal with seven true road games. It will always make the schedule unfair.
But the preseason? No problem there. Many home fans would be just fine if their team had a preseason game in Canada or Hawaii or anywhere else. They’d have to buy only nine tickets in their season-ticket package instead of 10, and give up a game that doesn’t count. Good deal for everyone.
Canada has a history with the NFL
The Rams preseason game in Hawaii sold out quickly, though the inclusion of the ever-popular Cowboys in that game certainly helped. Still, if the Raiders do go to Canada and are received well there, perhaps it will signal to the NFL that moving around preseason games is a good idea.
Canadian fans have had NFL games before, most notably when the Buffalo Bills recently played some home games in Toronto for a few years. Obviously their Canadian Football League has had decades of great success.
Perhaps if the Raiders try it out and it goes well, Canada will get more NFL preseason games. That seems to be a great way to grow the game in other markets, even if it took a while to figure that out.
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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
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