LEARNING MODULE 💡

Airline Points 🛩️🏈

Traveling for work can be tough. One day you’re enjoying a home-cooked meal and sleeping in your own bed, the next you’re eating at a Panera Bread in Detroit.

When the NFL schedules were released, not only did we enjoy the zany team videos, but we also received the travel destinations 🌎 and flight distances for every team. This took us down a rabbit hole that somehow ended up in Brazil. 🇧🇷

You might assume each team is treated fairly with travel… Not exactly. While they all play roughly the same amount of away games, where they fly ✈️ for those games can be a different story. This animation can help paint the travel picture and count down the most jetlagged teams.

Take the Los Angeles Chargers for example. They have 5 games more than 2,000 miles away this year while the Indianapolis Colts have none. 👌 

It may seem like a lot but in reality, 26K miles is chump change. It wouldn’t even get you the lowest tier of status on most US airlines.

Delta: ❌
United: ❌
American: ❌
Southwest: ❌
Alaska: ✅ (MVP status - go Alaska!)

So what separates an NFL player from a Deloitte Analyst? International expansion. 🌍

In 2007, the NFL kicked off their “International Series” where multiple regular season games are played overseas. This year will be the first-ever game in Brazil which is the culprit for the longest team flight of the year - 5.548 miles between Green Bay 🧀 and Sao Paulo. 🇧🇷

“Why are teams playing in London 🇬🇧, Germany 🇩🇪 and Brazil 🇧🇷? I thought football was our thing?”

The handful of competitions outside the US every year can confuse some. It’s no more than 2% of yearly games but it serves a much larger purpose.

Experimentation 🧑‍🔬

By hosting 1-3 games abroad a year, the NFL is slowly testing the efficacy of different markets. Every game is a petri dish 🧫 of fan engagement, ticket sales, and local media deals all under the league’s microscope. 🔬 And since money isn’t an issue, they can take all the time they need to inform their international strategy. They surely look at things like:

• 🎟️ London games selling out in under 2 days with 80% of the fans being from London or the UK.

• 🏟️ A game in Mexico City brought in 103k fans to Estadio Azteca for a game in 2005.

• 🎽 International merchandise sales increased 39% for the Super Bowl in 2024.

Another interesting test of efficacy abroad is the assignment of “International Home Marketing Areas”. This is where teams in the NFL are allowed to market in specified countries the same way they would in their own city. 🏙️

Imagine living in Nigeria and one day the Cleveland Browns are your official new home team… Um okay?

Most of these expansions are fairly thoughtful:

• 🇳🇬 Cleveland Browns assigned to Nigeria as one of their star players David Njoku’s parents immigrated from Nigeria.

• 🇨🇴 Miami Dolphins assigned to South American countries like Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina because of Latin influence in Miami.

• 🇮🇪 Pittsburgh Steelers assigned to Northern Ireland as Irish ancestry is very common in the city.

• 🇨🇳 Los Angeles Rams assigned to China… Not sure about that one.

The NFL will surely continue its slow burn on expansion, increasing its footprint across the world one country and one game at a time. We’ll be here to watch. 📺

There are 5 international games this year that all start early in the morning (~5AM PST), effectively extending the couch time from 11 hours to 14 on choice Sundays this Fall. Say goodbye to Sunday morning walks! 🌅

THIS PAST WEEK ⏮️

NBA Playoffs 🏀

We’re officially to Round 3 of the playoffs, also known as the Conference Finals. Our slow-rolling graph 📊 is starting to take shape as there are only 4 teams left playing for the championship:

• 🐎 Dallas Mavericks

• 🐺 Minnesota Timberwolves

• 🍀 Boston Celtics

• 🏎️ Indiana Pacers

The NBA playoffs have been packed with excitement. Although viewership is down 12% since last year, we’ve seen the emergence of huge stars like Anthony Edwards of the Timberwolves and Tyrese Haliburton of the Pacers.

Keep watching and by this time next week, we could have a championship series on our hands 🏆

NHL Playoffs 🏒

The Oilers and Panthers have taken early leads in their respective series as they’re the only teams who’ve made it to 9️⃣ wins. Just 7️⃣ left!

Unlike basketball, the NHL playoffs have set viewership records through 2 rounds, up 9% since last year and the highest average viewership ever through this point.

The strong numbers are certainly helped by big markets like New York 🗽making a deep run in the playoffs as well as a strictly Canadian 🇨🇦 second-round matchup between the Oilers and Canucks. Some good hockey eh?

Payback Time ⏱️

As we’ve talked about before, the NCAA has been embroiled in a battle to keep amateurism in college sports to avoid sharing revenue with players. Well, that chicken has finally come to roost. 🐣

A landmark settlement has been reached in the House v. NCAA case, ushering in a transformative era for college athletics. The key points are:

• 💰 NCAA and Power Five conferences agreed to a $2.8 billion settlement, ending the amateurism model in college sports.

• ⚖️ The settlement introduces a revenue-sharing model that will benefit current and former athletes, starting in Fall 2025.

• 🤕 The settlement includes paying past damages over ten years, with the NCAA and conferences contributing significant portions.

I’ll be awaiting my check in the mail for the intramural soccer championship at Cal Poly in 2018; that has to be worth something right?

Our friend Tyler has a deeper breakdown of the situation here if you’re curious to learn more.