Lions' Wood talks international game, ticket prices, possibility of playing on Christmas and rule changes

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West Palm Beach, Fla. — Detroit Lions team president and CEO Rod Wood met with the media Tuesday afternoon at the league meetings. Here are the highlights from that session.

Stamping the passport in 2026

A year ago, the Lions were awarded international marketing rights in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Canada. This year, they've added Brazil to the franchise's portfolio.

Those rights unlock opportunities to engage fans and establish a foothold in rapidly expanding international markets.

"Certainly, with (Amon-Ra) St. Brown's popularity (in German) and connection — he has a camp over there — we sent some people along with him last year to be over there for the camp," Wood said. "We'll probably do the same thing this year. We had a couple of watch parties over there for the Lions fans, so we're growing a fan base. Obviously, there's some connection to Detroit, Michigan, because of the auto industry, so that makes some sense. We're working on a couple of the sponsorships already over there."

Wood noted Ford also has a large operation in Brazil, strengthening the franchise's ties to their newest market.

The Lions haven't played internationally in a decade and will avoid one of those trips again this year. However, it's anticipated they'll play one of their home games overseas in 2026.

"I think it's highly likely," Wood said. "I would think that one of those nine could be an international game. I've talked to the league a little bit about it. We're certainly overdue, and with the markets that we've now taken some marketing interest in, certainly playing in Germany with St. Brown would be an interesting thing to think about."

Home sweet home

Earlier this week, the team announced an extension of its partnership with Ford Motor Company on the home stadium's naming rights through the 2036 season. The renewal comes with a significant jump in revenue, which Wood said is important to fund things outside player salaries.

"Looking forward, hopefully, to continuing to have a great coaching staff, and a great head coach, and continuing to invest in the facility," Wood said.

The Lions are reinvesting in the team's practice facility in Allen Park again this offseason. After reworking the dining and training rooms last offseason, the locker room is getting revamped with modern stalls for the players. The weight room is also getting another upgrade after an overhaul in 2018.

If you remember, the Lions had flirted with moving its practice facility to a new location in recent years but, after evaluating options, decided it was best to remain where they've been since 2002.

"We have no plans to move right now," Wood said. "We're investing a ton in the building. We've looked at alternatives. There really isn't a great location that is superior to where we are. We're convenient to downtown, we're convenient to the airport, we're near all the highways. People have decided where to live based upon where the facility is, so it'd be very disruptive, I think, to move, it would have to be something that's substantially better than what we have."

Wood noted that the lingering downside to the team's current setup is a lack of space to expand the outdoor elements, including the possible addition of a third practice field or increasing the capacity for increased fan attendance during training camp.

Reaction to rule changes

The league approved a few rule changes this week, rejected another proposed by the Lions, and tabled a few more topics for further discussion later this offseason, including a potential ban of the “Tush Push.”

Among the new changes are kickoff touchbacks coming out to the 35-yard line and the overtime format being changed to a 10-minute quarter with no sudden-death scoring elements.

Wood said the Lions heavily favored the kickoff alternation, which is designed to encourage more returns.

“We value special teams, so we actually think it can play to our advantage to force people to kick the ball not into the end zone every time,” Wood said. “And we can cover kicks good, so hopefully we can take advantage of that.”

Possible changes to the onside kick format were tabled until later this summer, but Wood said the Lions would like to see that changed, as well.

One rule change that was rejected at the meetings was Detroit’s proposal to eliminate automatic first downs for defensive holding and illegal contact penalties. Both coach Dan Campbell and Wood said the organization views the infractions as too punitive. Still, the change had little support across the league. The only other team to vote in favor of Detroit’s proposal was the New York Jets, who are now led by Detroit’s defensive coordinator, Aaron Glenn.

Playing it safe

ESPN recently had an interesting feature on an increasing trend of teams insuring player contracts. Wood was asked if the Lions were partaking in the trend, which allows teams to recoup cap space on paid claims.

In short, the team has used them, but sparingly.

"We have done that for a couple of player contracts," Wood said. "It's becoming more and more expensive. I think because the insurance companies have had to pay out on a few of these things. It gets into a financial decision about how much. It's like any other insurance, you know, you never want to have to collect on it. But the premiums are really expensive. It's why you're waiting to collect on it."

Wood did highlight one recent instance when the Lions successfully utilized contract insurance.

"One of the ones that we did have that we did get some money back was that we had an insurance policy on Trey Flowers' contract," Wood said. "When he had his injury and missed a number of games, we did collect on that. And when you do have that and you collect on it, you get credit on the salary cap in addition to the cash back. We've evaluated it. We've got a lot of big contracts that we did and a lot more on the horizon, so we'll continue to look at it. But the premiums are in the millions of dollars. It's not cheap."

Little more than bad luck

Wood said the team continues to evaluate why it had so many injuries last season; however, the current opinion is that it was an unbelievable stretch of bad luck.

“With the year before, we didn’t have as many injuries,” Wood said. “I was talking to Dan Campbell about this the other day, and I don’t know if you saw ‘The World According to Garp.’ …There’s a scene where Robin Williams and Glenn Close are shopping for a house. They’ve gone through it. They’re out on the sidewalk looking at it, and a plane crashes into the house. And Robin Williams says, ‘We’ll take it. That will never happen again.’

“I hope that’s what our injury year was,” Wood said. “We had the plane crash and we’re not gonna have that problem again. But we’re looking at all that stuff. The training staff. Do we need to dial back practices at different times later in the season? I’m really pushing (Vice President of NFL Broadcast Planning & Scheduling) Mike North to give us a mid-season bye this year so that we don’t have to play 14 games in a row without a break. So, there’s all those kind of things that we’re looking at.”

Surging popularity

The NFL announced it will have three games on Christmas Day this year. I asked Wood if he thought the league would bypass asking the Lions to play on the holiday, given they already host a contest on Thanksgiving annually.

He wasn't confident that would be the case.

"You know, Christmas this year falls on a Thursday," Wood said. "I think there's probably going to be a full day of NFL games, including a couple on Netflix, like last year, and Thursday Night Football, maybe on Amazon.

"…I know we're a big TV draw so I wouldn't rule out that they might ask us to do it," Wood said. "I do think, for our fans, asking them to give up Thanksgiving and Christmas to come to a (home) game is a big ask, so I've tried to avoid it, but we'll see what schedule comes out."

Christmas on the road? If I get a vote, I'm pulling the lever for no.

Regardless of whether the Lions play on Christmas or not, the team is rightfully expecting a full slate of primetime games this season.

"Other than the Cowboys Thanksgiving game on Fox, we were the No. 2 Fox game, the No. 1 CBS game, the No. 1 ABC game, the No. 1 Amazon game, the No. 1 NBC game," Wood said. "So we were the No.1-rated TV game on every network except for Fox. We were two. It's not just good for us, it's obviously good for the networks. I'm sure, because of that, we'll have more primetime games."

Wood said one request he's put into the league's schedule makers is that the team doesn't play a Monday night game on the West Coast, as they did with last year's late-season matchup against San Francisco. The Lions play the Rams in Los Angeles this upcoming season.

"That's what you think about is the travel and the wear and tear on the players, and for Dan, scheduling the week out," Wood said. "But that's just kind of the price of being a good team and a marketable team. It's a good problem to have."

Wood was asked why he thinks the Lions have morphed into such a national draw. He speculated that it had to do with a number of factors.

"I think it's a combination of a lot of things," he said. "I would say the fact we've historically been a team that wasn't this good and I think people root for an underdog. I think Dan is a big part of it. He's a beloved coach. I think fans can relate to him, want him to be the coach of their team. I think the fact that we're an exciting team on offense, score a lot of points, run an occasional trick play people like, all that feeds into it. And I just think our fans are so hungry because they've been rooting for this for so long. Let's just get to the next step and really put this over the top."

Fan hunger has also led to a steady surge in ticket prices for home games. Wood said the average ticket price on the secondary market last season was $404, the highest in the league by a wide margin.

"It's a tough thing, but you have to recognize what the market is," Wood said. "And you know, our game against the Commanders was the No. 1 postseason ticket price other than a Super Bowl in the history of the NFL. The two (playoff) games the year before were the most expensive Wild Card game and the most expensive Divisional Round game. So, our fans are hungry to go to the Lions game. You see them on the road, how they travel with us. So it's just a function of the demand and the ability to price them at a point, I think, that's still fair relative to what other teams are pricing their tickets at, and well below what the secondary market (charges)."

Wood noted the team had a 98% renewal rate for season tickets this offseason while the waiting list remains larger than 20,000. The team revoked season tickets from a handful of people this offseason, who the franchise had identified as brokers.

"They were buying season tickets and selling every game and making thousands of dollars," Wood said. "So, under the contract, we have the right to take those tickets back. The biggest complaints I got (this offseason) were the people who had their tickets taken away from them because they now can't re-sell them and make money."