NFL Proposed to Expand to 30 Franchises
March 24, 1973 - At an owner's meeting, San Francisco 49ers President Lou Spadia proposes that...
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"NFL Proposed to Expand to 30 Franchises"
Last updated 📅 2025-03-24
March 24, 1973 - At an owner's meeting, San Francisco 49ers President Lou Spadia proposes that the NFL expand to 30 teams per the profootballhof.com site. This was just 4 years after the AFL and NFL merged, and the total number of teams in the League was now 26.
Some of the franchises were afraid of expanding too fast and thinning out the talent bases, thus making the NFL very vanilla. Others supported the increase to strike while the iron was hot. A compromise was reached, and the League awarded franchises to Tampa Bay and Seattle to take the total to 28.
It was not until the early 1990s that the National Football League added Jacksonville, Carolina, and later Houston and Cleveland to round out 32 teams.
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