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Good Thursday Morning. Here’s the rundown of this week’s Sports Business Playbook:

• 📰 This Week’s Topic: The NFL is off to a strong start. Here are three key metrics from an impressive Week 1

• 🍸️ Impress Your Friends at Cocktail Party: Want to show off your sports knowledge in a public setting but don’t have time to read the deep dive? Hit the “Impress Your Friends at Cocktail Party” section at the bottom for a CliffsNotes of this week’s topic

• 🤯 “Whoa of the Week”: The W finishes the regular season in the record books.

• 💪 Weekly Reminders that Sports are Awesome: Remembering a story of true bravery every year, and an incredible postgame speech

Hey team,

Week 1 of the NFL is in the books, and it brought with it a series of upsets, thrilling finishes, and resigned recognition from fans of other clubs that this is another year that the Chiefs will likely be very good.

It was also a hot start for the Shield on the business side, as the league had a strong showing at the box office and on TV. Let’s dive into three key metrics and what they mean from Week 1.

20 million

That’s the number of viewers who tuned into the opening Sunday Night Football game between the Lions and Rams.

The success also occurred outside of primetime, with the first five TV windows of the NFL season averaging19.86 million viewers, good for a 14% increase from last season.

To put this in perspective via the below chart, there is nothing else like the NFL in terms of its ability to dominate the mindshare of Americans every Fall.

The NFL has seen dips in political years in the past due to split attention and some hot button political items, but this year is showing strong early results — so much so that this is the first election year since 2012 that a presidential or vice presidential debate will not conflict with games.

This was an intentional decision by the political powers that be, and it showcases the strength of the league.

50,000

That’s the number of fans who packed Corinthians Stadium in São Paolo, Brazil last Friday to watch the Eagles - Packers game. Despite a challenging playing surface and a high level of security around the teams due to safety concerns, the NFL’s first game in the Southern Hemisphere is being considered a success.

The NFL estimates it has roughly 38 million fans in Brazil — marking it as the second largest international market after Mexico — and is planning to set up an international office there, so it’s likely not the last time we see a game down there.

Plus, it’s likely a sign of things to come.

The NFL has continued to get more aggressive with its international game strategy, growing the number of games in the UK, adding in Germany, and setting up a tilt next year in Madrid, Spain. Outside of Europe, though, there are rumblings of interest in Australia, Asia, and other less tapped into countries.

This international expansion is a logical next step for the NFL. As it continues to dominate the U.S., it needs to look elsewhere to maintain its long-term growth targets. Expect to see them deploy grassroots campaigns to get people in these countries playing (American) football, and the inclusion of flag football as an Olympic sport for LA28 is not a coincidence either.

18

That’s the potential number of games in the regular season, which the NFL and the NFLPA are reportedly beginning to discuss.

This adjustment would mean an expansion of the NFL’s calendar, starting a week earlier on Labor Day weekend and ending a week later on Presidents Day weekend.

If this sounds like a great setup, you’d be right. Being able to enjoy two of the best weeks in the football season with a day off the next day is what many have been clamoring for for a long time (in fact, there has been a large movement for the Monday after the Super Bowl to be declared a national holiday).

The concessions to the NFLPA required to get this done — one less preseason game, an extra bye week, and some other potential schedule and revenue considerations — are entirely worth it for the NFL given the amount of the weekly revenue driven and the opportunity to go back to its TV partners for additional money.

The only people unhappy about it are college administrators, whose opening weekend the NFL may now infringe upon. You may think it is not as big of a deal given they play most games on separate days, but the concern is that the NFL is not afraid to get its sharp elbows out and start to slowly take over important dates (see: snatching Christmas Day away from the NBA) that it believes will benefit it.

Nothing is set in stone yet, but keep your eyes out for further developments on this topic because it’s a matter of when, not if, with this one in my opinion.

🤯 “Whoa” of the Week

Insane, mind-blowing things constantly happen in the sports business world. Here was my favorite of the past week.

1. The W finishes its regular season with record numbers

💪 Weekly Reminder that Sports are Awesome

This newsletter is, of course, mostly centered on the business side of sports and the things that happen off the field. That being said, it’s important to remember why we fell in love with sports in the first place, though.

This section is meant to highlight the amazing things that happened in sports this week that serve as that reminder.

1. This is one of the best sports stories ever, and it is a testament to Welles Crowther’s bravery and heroism that it gets re-shared every year.

2. Northern Illinois head coach Thomas Hammock’s postgame speech after knocking off Notre Dame in South Bend is what it’s all about.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what feedback you have.

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Until next time, sports fans!

-Alex