They've been the home of "Monday Night Football" since 2006, and it appears to be staying right where it is for the forseeable future. Sports Business Daily's John Ourand reports that ESPN & the NFL have reached a long-term extension that'll keep "MNF" on their air through the 2022-2023 season. It remains to be seen if Mike Tirico, Ron Jaworski & Jon Gruden will continue to call the games.

Although ESPN and sister network ABC, the original home of "MNF" when it debuted in 1970, will not get any playoff games or even a Super Bowl under the terms of the new deal, the "Worldwide Leader in Sports" will reportedly pay a 40% increase to continue airing the games. ESPN will also maintain exclusive coverage of the NFL Draft, which has gotten bigger & bigger since they first started broadcasting it in 1980.

Currently, ESPN pays $1.1 billion a year to broadcast "MNF", and pays more than any other network broadcasting the National Football League. FOX Sports, which has Super Bowl XLV next month in Arlington, TX, pays $720 million a year to broadcast the NFC. CBS Sports, which aired last year's Super Bowl XLIV in Miami, pays $620 million a year to carry the AFC. NBC Sports, which will carry next year's Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, pays $603 million a year to carry "Sunday Night Football".

Under the terms of the ESPN/"MNF" extension, the "Worldwide Leader" would pay a 65% to 70% increase in rights' fees, paying as much as $1.8 to $1.9 billion a year to continue airing NFL Football for the next 9 to 10 years, well into the next decade.

Dear God can Al Davis please give Jon Gruden a job again?

_________________

Glad to read, they won't get any playoff games or even a Super Bowl, some things should just stay on network t.v.

they'll eventually have every major sporting event. They've got money to burn.

_________________
Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

Sadly, your right.

yeah, i always found it amusing that the NFL treats local games like our god-given right (and seeing as we end up paying for the majority of stadiums, they should be) so local games on a cable network always get a network-TV simulcast... but i always thought that MNF belonged on network television. i guess the NFL decided that making a run at having sunday be "football night in america" was a good thing and furthermore they'd kiss a little ESPN ass by giving them and their money the only game on monday, barring a roof collapse.

_________________

If you think about sinscalypse, Sunday Night is now the bigger game than Monday, and at the end Sunday is allowed to switch games, and I also heard that the NFL liked all the people that watched their Tuesday Night game recently, now I don't know if anything will come out of that.

Heh. Set schedules up so the teams play Sunday/Monday, while others play Tuesday through Thursday. Have to be night games, so you can't have too many teams in "weekday" mode. Transitioning from the one day to the other is a little hard, so they use bye weeks for the switch.

_________________
Middle Aged Crazy, like Uncle Terry

I guess the big thing, is that is more that will go to the owners in case of a lockout next year, so the player's may have lost some leverage, because if some games are missed next season, the owner's will still get money coming in.