NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has stated that a vote concerning the possibility of extending the League's regular season could occur in May.

NFL officials and franchise owners are currently discussing the future direction of the league at its annual meeting, and the extension of the regular season to 17 or 18 games per team would certainly bring more revenue opportunities for the sport.

While Goodell stated that he does not expect any votes on the topic to be taken at the ongoing meeting, he believes the franchise owners annual spring meeting in May could present an opportune time to gauge opinion on the subject.

He told reporters: "It could come as early as May, but I think we will have a very good sense of the ownership and our clubs as we come out of this meeting.

"Then we'll make a judgment of when that vote is necessary. However, I think it's dependent to a large part on our relationship with our television partners and the players."

Goodell outlined the owners' plans to address the possibility of extending the regular season with the players' union as part of the crucial upcoming labour negotiations.

A new collective bargaining agreement with the players' union must be secured in the next year or the NFL faces an uncapped 2010 season and a potential labour stoppage.

The parties would have to agree to additional player compensation for the extension measure to be enacted and that would likely see a cut in the number of pre-season encounters to keep the total number of games at 20 per team.

While extending the regular season could potentially generate additional revenue in the next set of network television contracts, Goodell remains cautious and wants to ensure that the League is not overexposed, adding that any measure is unlikely to be enacted before the 2011 season.

"That's the analysis we're going through: just how can we create greater value with the content we have?" he said.

"Making it attractive by ensuring you don't overexpose your product is another issue. This would stay within that 20-game framework, which is still, I believe, roughly two months less than any other professional league.

"So I think that we keep our content tightly presented and continue to be attractive to all the people who want our content."