nfl fans, see what you think about my solution to the preseason...i personally don’t mind it, but four games is too much, imo...owners want the revenue from the games, so they think an 18 game regular season is a must if you cut the preseason schedule...the players don’t want that even if they receive an additional $500k(estimated).
here is my proposal...i would cut the preseason to two games...one of the weeks, the third preseason game is now a controlled scrimmage that the fans can attend, get on the field, meet the players, buy merchandise, etc...every team can choose how they treat that 3rd week, but it’s essentially a home event...every team will play on thursday night during the season, but they receive an additional bye week before that thursday night game, so every team gets two byes(also helps with injuries).
here’s the fun part...the league would expand the playoffs to eight teams in both conferences, but the #1 seed no longer gets the bye week, just homefield...nobody really cares about the bye week in the playoffs, they want to stay fresh...1 vs 8 etc on down.
the owners would then receive the revenue sharing through the extra playoff games...that money alone from advertising would trump any home game during a preseason i believe.