Would NFL consider using neutral sites for every championship game?

BOSTON -- A rather curious press release was sent out to NFL media members on Friday morning, in which the league boasted about the excellent ticket sales for the potential neutral site AFC Championship Game between the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs.

"POTENTIAL NEUTRAL SITE AFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME IN ATLANTA SEEING EXTRAORDINARY DEMAND," the headline blared, with the note that 50,000-plus tickets had been purchased already. "The ticketing plan enables Bills fans to be seated on their side of the field and Chiefs on the other."

Clearly, the NFL is rather excited about this potential scenario, which will come true if the Chiefs beat the Jaguars and if the Bills beat the Bengals this weekend.

You'll surely remember that this scenario came about under an emergency circumstance, following the cancellation of the Bills-Bengals regular-season game following Damar Hamlin's cardiac incident. The NFL worked relatively quickly to determine what would happen if the Bills lost the No. 1 seed as a result of that cancellation, with the neutral site option mitigating the advantage gained by Kansas City getting the No. 1 seed.

Some shrewd minds -- hullo! -- thought at the time that the NFL was kind of capitalizing on a situation to execute a trial run of sorts for the potential to have a Final Four-esque weekend in a host city every year, two weeks before holding the Super Bowl in a different host city. Though championship weekend wouldn't have all the pomp and circumstance of Super Bowl week, it nevertheless would present another avenue for revenue for a league that is always relentlessly focused on financial growth. Eleven million dollars in annual revenue isn't cool. You know what's cool? Twelve billion dollars in annual revenue.

The league obviously has continued to explore holding games in different countries, adding Germany to the mix this past season and doubling Deutschland's game next season. A Final Four weekend in a city would open up another stream of dollars, with all 32 owners reaping the benefits.

But the NFL obviously would have some questions about such a setup. Will fans travel for a conference title game like they would for a Super Bowl? Which cities work best? Which cities would be interested? Can we pull it off?

The answer thus far has been yes to just about everything, despite some hiccups finding a location. Fans of outdoor football in January in games featuring outdoor teams would have liked to see an option like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, or Green Bay selected as a venue. Short of that, places like Baltimore or even New England could have fit the cold-weather bill. Even Nashville is satisfactory. (Cincinnati would be an option, but in this scenario, the Bengals would have had to lose in the divisional round for the stadium to be available. And the fine folks of Cincinnati might be an unenthusiastic welcoming committee in that scenario.)

Instead, the game is in Atlanta, which has  a dynamite stadium, but also is nowhere close to Buffalo or Kansas City. And it's indoors. Nevertheless, enthusiasm -- as measured by ticket purchases -- remains high.

And that evident excitement from the league caught the attention of plenty of media folks on Friday, who weighed in on the possibility of the NFL making this a permanent situation.

There wasn't a whole lot of support.

"Chalk me up as someone who cringes at the mere suggestion of neutral site conference championships becoming a normal thing," ESPN's Jeff Darlington tweeted. "A home game for a trip to the Super Bowl might be the most electric environment in American sports. 100 times better than energy of an actual Super Bowl."

Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer agreed: "I'll go on record in saying that putting the conference title games at neutral sites would be a godawful idea, and blatant money grab. The Super Bowl's the Super Bowl. A neutral-site conference title game would have all the atmosphere of a Cotton Bowl in a non-CFP year."

ESPN's Field Yates added to the chorus, tweeting, "100% agree with this. Annual neutral site conference championship games would be so lame."

Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio said it feels like a "when" not an "if" with regard to the league making neutral site conference championship games the norm.

"The foundation is further being put in place for the NFL's next strategy for cramming even more cheese into the crust of the pizza — and for squeezing more golden eggs from the goose's ass," Florio eloquently stated.

 The idea did get some support from The Boston Globe's Ben Volin, who tweeted, "The NFL may have stumbled onto something really cool with this neutral site AFC Championship Game. Chiefs fans on one half of the stadium. Bills fans on the other. The whole place rocking."

Yahoo's Dan Wetzel couldn't let that stand, though, replying, "Horrible idea, besides the decrease in the advantage of being the one seed, home football games are superior to 'bowl games' 100 times out of 100. ... I've been to a ton of neutral site bowl games, almost zero comparison. You need a near perfect game to equal a home field. Also prices out fans who aren't wealthy/have time off and takes money out of communities. There's a reason college is trying to move toward NFL model."

Clearly, there's some disagreement about whether this idea works or not. Obviously, home-field advantage is a very real element, and a home game with a Super Bowl trip on the line in front of the home fans is a worthwhile carrot for teams to chase all year long. Without that advantage waiting at the end of the postseason, the regular season will surely be devalued. On the other side, a road team swooping in and quieting a raucous crowd of 80,000 fans creates the type of drama that can't ever be recreated in a more sterile setting. And the league loves drama.

But, well, yeah. The league loves money a whole lot more. And if there's a way to make more money, the NFL is going to explore that opportunity. (Their decision to not make this weekend's Bengals-Bills game at a neutral site shows this endeavor wasn't really about fairness, anyway.)

And whether or not this game actually happens, it's already been proven that fans will pay for tickets and prepare to travel on short notice to see their teams try to earn a Super Bowl berth. That's already a win for the league if it hopes to make this an annual event.

For now, the suits on Park Avenue likely have visions of an NFL Final Four dancing in their heads. They'll almost assuredly be hoping to see this trial run through to the end.