I guess we will find out tomorrow why it's crucial to have 2 rb's.

[Panthro]

They would have two preseason games, not four. Preseason tickets cost the same as regular season tickets, and you're forced to buy them. The additional revenue would likely come from concessions (which just about have to be higher in the regular season, when the games count) and television contracts.

That was the one difference I could see.

[CosmoGirl]

Panthro - we pay the same amount for preseason tickets as we do for regular season. AFAIK all teams do this. However some other teams give a discount to season ticket holders for the whole season and charge more for single game tickets but not the Panthers.

[Kettle]

could these two be merged?

http://www.carolinahuddle.com/forum/nfl-football-central/42030-am-i-the-only-fan-against-going-to-an-18-game-schedule.html#post2628289

[panthers55]

From what I have been told some stadiums don't charge season ticket holders for the preseason. In other stadiums as well they may have 25,000 season ticket holders out of 60,000 seats. Many stadiums don't sell half their tickets to a preseason game. So for many teams converting to a 18 game schedule with only 2 preseason games would add significantly to their revenue stream. I don't know if TV stations pay less for the preseason but I suspect they do.

[Pantherman]

18 games a season will not happen. If it does happen. Expect the players to go on strike next offseason for sure. Because alot of players are not wanting to play 18 games then the playoffs aswell. If this vote passes. Expect the NFLPA and the players to have alot to say about it come next week.:rolleyes5:

[panthers55]

18 games a season will not happen. If it does happen. Expect the players to go on strike next offseason for sure. Because alot of players are not wanting to play 18 games then the playoffs aswell. If this vote passes. Expect the NFLPA and the players to have alot to say about it come next week.:rolleyes5:

They won't go on strike. The owners will lock them out and the players will likely decertify the union.

Of course they won't want 18 games, but the owners want a 20% reduction in salary cap which the players won't want either. This is a bargaining chip that will be very important in the CBA. The players may go for it if they can keep the salary cap where it is. Otherwise there may be no football next year.

[blackcatgrowl]

I'm all for keeping a 16 game schedule. It's a long enough season to mathematically work well for parity reasons, but isn't too long to wear out the players.

However, I don't understand the whining about a 18-game regular season IF they shorten preseason. Starters play over a full game in preseason as it is. It would only be adding about 3 quarters of game time to their schedule. That's not a terrible burden to put on them.

Now... if they keep a 4 game preseason and extend the regular season to 18 games, then ya, I'd have a problem with that.

[Pantherman]

I'm all for keeping a 16 game schedule. It's a long enough season to mathematically work well for parity reasons, but isn't too long to wear out the players.

However, I don't understand the whining about a 18-game regular season IF they shorten preseason. Starters play over a full game in preseason as it is. It would only be adding about 3 quarters of game time to their schedule. That's not a terrible burden to put on them.

Now... if they keep a 4 game preseason and extend the regular season to 18 games, then ya, I'd have a problem with that.

Bro after 2 preseason games look at the panthers on ST Offense and Defense and tell me if they are ready for the season.:toetap05: I think not. The panthers Passing game is in trouble for now and the STs is crap aswell. The only bright spot for the team right now is the surprising D we have right now. Besides the D playing well. The other 2 parts of panthers team really needs the last two games of the preseason to really work on getting things right. That's the reason for 4 preseasons game so teams can kick off the rust from a long offseason and get the team into playing shape. Now you see why 4 preseasons are very much needed.:rolleye:

[Peppers90 NC]

Increasing the roster is useless.. Your stars are going to play regardless of how many scrubs you add to the roster..

18 games is full of greed and will be the downfall of football faster than any upside...

you missed the point on this one. more games=more injuries=more players needed

[Kettle]

quoting myself from the other thread to save typing

i've thought about it, and i guess i lean towards being in favor, but under conditions.

1. keep the total number of games the same so psl holders still pay for the same number of games. preseason + regular season = 10 home games

2. pay the vets more and the rookies less. only logical given more games are meaningful

3. increase the roster size to ~60 so that more depth can be retained for when a player goes down

biggest reason i started thinking this way is because of the run the panthers were on at the end of last season. two more games might have gotten us a wildcard.

[blackcatgrowl]

Bro after 2 preseason games look at the panthers on ST Offense and Defense and tell me if they are ready for the season.:toetap05: I think not. The panthers Passing game is in trouble for now and the STs is crap aswell. The only bright spot for the team right now is the surprising D we have right now. Besides the D playing well. The other 2 parts of panthers team really needs the last two games of the preseason to really work on getting things right. That's the reason for 4 preseasons game so teams can kick off the rust from a long offseason and get the team into playing shape. Now you see why 4 preseasons are very much needed.:rolleye:

There's a few key points about the Preseason you might not be aware of:

#1. Most teams typically don't game plan during Preseason for the upcoming opponent except for a little bit in week 3. This is a very important part of practice that affects the game dramatically.

#2. Most game time for the Preseason is spent watching backups in a game time scenario. Roughly 2 and a half games are NOT first team players (or more depending on the coach). If they shorten the Pre-season play to not quite a single game for the starters, it's not really adding that much to their workload for the year.

#3. The concept of "Knocking off rust" applies to every team equally. It wouldn't JUST be the Panthers who would have to ramp up to regular season play. Every team would.

As to your specific points about the Panthers.... while we're all a little concerned about the Panthers lack-luster offense and poor Special Teams performance in the past two games, I think people are reading more into this than it is. Astute fans who know how the NFL works realize that despite these poor performances, we ARE short a couple key starters, they ARE pre-season exhibition games that mean nothing, and the "fix" for these problems will mostly come on the practice field and in conditioning work-outs... pre-season play will only factor in a small amount.

[Liminy]

Maybe they should figure out the whole Labor deal thingy before worrying about 18 game seasons.

[njpanther]

I don't like this idea. I really enjoy paying full price to watch Armanti Edwards show us that he doesn't belong in the NFL.

Keep the meaningless preseason games. Those injuries don't count anyway.

[Future of the Funchise]

We need 8 Preseason games and 20 regular.

Either that or drop two games off the preseason, and make a summer league or something for developing talent. 8 games dedicated to practice squad and 3-6th stringers. Those guys will never develop with out actual game time play.