Thankfully I don't spend money on micro transactions and don't play pay-to-win.

And people still trust their money to EA services....

In FIFA, Ultimate Team is the only mode I play for the past 5 years, and I never paid a single cent. But I do know people who have spent upwards of $100 (not counting the base game) on UT points and card packs.

Never really gotten into Madden UT, because its interface is very confusing and counter-intuitive, and after the last year's disastrous recycling of a game, I won't be buying it in a long time.

I don't really care if they, and how much, they charge, there's obviously a huge market out there. And I wouldn't get too upset about those "exclusive" cards, as they are purely cosmetic, great majority of different cards plays about the same anyway.

That just seems like a recipe for overexposure: exhausted players and increasingly apathetic fans. Football may be the biggest of the major sports in terms of popularity and cultural impact, but everything has its limits, as the NFL will soon discover.

It would seem the easier strategy would be to cook up a few new teams. Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and Portland OR would be easy targets. Maybe Omaha?

Personal problem with FUT: if you don't spend a shit load of time in it playing and are an average player like me who can't win tournaments, you have to spend money on packs to get players.

Go EA! Saving this industry one game at a time.

Oh yeah, I think part of why many sports are as popular as they are...is they go away for half the year.  The anticipation of OTA's, Pre-season, training camp, reg season opening etc... builds dramatically over the off-season and has everyone glued to their sets when it starts.  Spreading the 'official' NFL year out further will most certainly lead to apathy in my opinion.  As far as revenue in the States, not sure if that's really their ultimate goal (expansion locally).  The prevailing thought seems to be adding an expansion team on foreign soil.  England's been tossed around numerous times at this point, however, I'm inclined to think they'd give Canada a test-run first (logistically speaking, much easier to work with), though, there is a rather healthy NFL following in the UK at this point (speaking from how packed Wembley was, when the Pats/Rams played there).  Ultimately, the UK would represent a far more lucrative market than Canada, considering it's a foothold into the much broader and densley populated, Europe.  But, what a mess of a first season that'd be for that team. 

All that aside, you briefly touched on it, but I certainly think increasing the regular season to 18, raises the injury risks much, much higher.

I forgot to mention that I only play single player. I absolutely have no intention of playing online, as FIFA online community is comprised of about 95% quitters who disconnect in the 90th minute when losing 0-1.

If we keep buying it, they will keep doing it.