“What we do know is our current preseason is not a good product,” Murphy said. “Our players don’t need four games and it seems like fewer starters are playing in them. Maybe another way to do this is to add one neutral site game and one international one for every team, so we can use this to grow the game.”
Having more substantive games could also increase rights fees. Preseason games are, for the most part, broadcast locally. If two more games actually counted, under current rates, ESPN, Fox, CBS and NBC would pay approximate $500 million more per year combined.