So far, the NFL has committed to play games in foreign countries, early in the morning in United States time, and distribute them only on the internet in exchange for money.
So honestly, there’s no reason to assume they won’t put games in a stadium that’s less than half the size of a regular NFL stadium.
As Florio noted last night, the decision by the Rose Bowl to not bid to be the temporary host to an NFL team in Los Angeles cost the league the leverage they covet. That leaves the Coliseum, which only wants to host one team, not two, along with the baseball stadiums of the Dodgers and Angels.
The other option is the 27,000-seat Stub Hub Center, home of the L.A. Galaxy. But if you think the league would hesitate to put games in such a tiny facility, it’s not inconceivable.
“StubHub is more realistic than some may believe,” Marc Ganis, president and founder of consulting firm SportsCorp told the Los Angeles Times. “There’s something interesting about playing in a smaller facility, to start with creating a scarcity of tickets and increase the level of interest early on. It’s part of a complex that’s easy to get into. There’s space around it to do events and, frankly, AEG knows how to put on events.”
Turning NFL games into a boutique event seems odd, but the chance to sell tickets at double or more regular prices and turn it into an “experience” is something that’s actually right up the NFL’s alley.
They’ve taken the draft from a list of names being called out to a traveling three-day street festival, with plenty of opportunities for fans to “interact” with memorabilia for sale.
So while it might look unusual on TV (which is where most people would have to watch it), the idea the league isn’t considering a small stadium should be the strange part, as desperate as they are to find multiple bidders.