Exhibition game An exhibition game ( also known as an exhibition match , exhibition , demonstration , demo , exhibit or friendly ) is a sporting event in which there is no competitive value of any significant kind to any competitor ( such as tournament or season rankings , or prize money ) regardless of the outcome of the competition . The games can be held between separate teams or between parts of the same team . Quality of play is generally valued over the end result . The term scrimmage is also sometimes used , especially with regard to team sports , but is ambiguous because it has other meanings even in that context . Another synonym is preparation match . Throughout the world , many team and one - on - one sports and games feature exhibition matches . For example , two professional snooker or chess players , or two ice hockey teams , may play an exhibition to settle a challenge , to provide professional entertainment , or often to raise money for charities . In some sports exhibition games also take the form of a handful of pre - season games that are intended to familiarize teammates with each other and prepare for upcoming matches . In professional sports , pre - season games also help teams decide which players to keep for the regular season . Association football . In the early days of association football , friendly matches ( or " friendlies " ) were the most common type of match . However since the development of The Football League in England in 1888 , league tournaments became established , in addition to lengthy cup tournaments . By the turn of the millennium , national leagues were established in almost every country , as well as regional leagues for lower level teams , thus the significance of friendlies has seriously declined since the 19th century . Today most club sides play a number of friendlies before the start of each season ( called pre - season friendlies ) . Friendly football matches are considered to be non - competitive and are only used to ' warm up ' players for a new season / competitive match . There is generally nothing competitive at stake and some rules may be changed or experimented with ( such as unlimited substitutions and no cards ) . Although most friendlies are simply one - off matches arranged by the clubs themselves , in which a certain amount is paid by the challenger club to the incumbent club , some teams do compete in short tournaments , such as the Emirates Cup , Teresa Herrera Trophy and the Amsterdam Tournament . Although these events may involve sponsorship deals and the awarding of a trophy and may even be broadcast on television , there is little prestige attached to them . International teams also play friendlies , generally in preparation for the qualifying or final stages of major tournaments . This is essential , since national squads generally have much less time together in which to prepare . The biggest difference between friendlies at the club and international levels is that international friendlies mostly take place during club league seasons , not between them . This has on occasion led to disagreement between national associations and clubs as to the availability of players , who could become injured or fatigued in a friendly . International friendlies give team managers the opportunity to experiment with team selection and tactics before the tournament proper , and also allow them to assess the abilities of players they may potentially select for the tournament squad . Players can be booked in international friendlies , and can be suspended from future international matches based on red cards or accumulated yellows in a specified period . Caps and goals scored also count towards a player ' s career records . In 2004 , FIFA ruled that substitutions by a team be limited to six per match in international friendlies , in response to criticism that such matches were becoming increasingly farcical with managers making as many as 11 substitutions per match . In the UK and Ireland , " exhibition match " and " friendly match " refer to different types of matches . The types described above as friendlies are not termed exhibition matches , while annual all - star matches such as those held in the US MLS or Japan ' s J . League are called exhibition matches rather than friendly matches . A one - off match for charitable fundraising , usually involving one or two all - star teams , or a match held in honour of a player for service to his / her club , may be described as exhibition matches but they are normally referred to as Charity football match es and testimonial match es respectively . Ice hockey . Under the 1995 – 2004 National Hockey League collective bargaining agreement , teams were limited to nine preseason games . From 1975 to 1991 , NHL teams sometimes played exhibition games against teams from the Soviet Union in the Super Series , and in 1978 , played against World Hockey Association teams also in preseason training . Like the NFL , the NHL sometimes schedules exhibition games for cities without their own NHL teams . Since the 2000s , some preseason games have been played in Europe against European teams , as part of the NHL Challenge and NHL Premiere series . In 1992 , goaltender Manon Rhéaume played in a preseason game for the Tampa Bay Lightning , becoming the first woman to suit up for a male pro sports team in North America . The Flying Fathers , a Canadian group of Catholic priests , regularly tour North America playing exhibition hockey games for charity . One of the organization ' s founders , Les Costello , was a onetime NHL player who was ordained as a priest after retiring from professional hockey . Another prominent exhibition hockey team is the Buffalo Sabres Alumni Hockey Team , which is composed almost entirely of retired NHL players , the majority of whom ( as the name suggests ) played at least a portion of their career for the Buffalo Sabres . American college hockey teams occasionally play exhibition games against Canadian college teams as well as against USA or Canadian national teams . ( In men ' s hockey , the senior national teams are selected from NHL and other pro players , and college teams would be overmatched against those teams even if they were allowed to play them . However , the national under - 18 teams are made up of amateurs . ) Baseball . Major League Baseball ' s preseason is known as spring training . All MLB teams maintain a spring - training base in Arizona or Florida . The teams in Arizona make up the Cactus League , while the teams in Florida play in the Grapefruit League . Each team plays about 30 preseason games against other MLB teams . They may also play exhibitions against a local college team or a minor - league team from their farm system . Several MLB teams used to play regular exhibition games during the year against nearby teams in the other major league , but regular - season interleague play has made such games unnecessary . The two Canadian MLB teams , the Toronto Blue Jays of the American League and the Montreal Expos of the National League , met annually to play the Pearson Cup exhibition game ; this tradition ended when the Expos moved to Washington , D . C . for the 2005 season . It also used to be commonplace to have a team play an exhibition against Minor League affiliates during the regular season , but worries of injuries to players , along with travel issues , have made this very rare . The annual MLB All - Star Game , played in July between players from AL teams and players from NL teams , was long considered an exhibition match , but as of 2003 this status is questioned because the league whose team wins the All - Star game has been awarded home field advantage for the upcoming World Series . Another exhibition game , the Hall of Fame Game / Classic which was played in Cooperstown , New York on the weekend of inductions to the Baseball Hall of Fame , was also ended in 2008 due to interleague play and teams playing only substitutes . Basketball . Professional basketball . National Basketball Association teams play about seven preseason games per year . Nowadays , NBA teams almost always play each other in the preseason , but mainly at neutral sites within their market areas in order to allow those who can ' t usually make a trip to a home team ' s arena during the regular season to see a game close to home ; for instance the Minnesota Timberwolves will play games in arenas in North Dakota and South Dakota , while the Phoenix Suns schedule one exhibition game outdoors at Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells , California yearly , the only such instance an NBA game takes place in an outdoor venue . However , from 1971 to 1975 , NBA teams played preseason exhibitions against American Basketball Association teams . In the early days of the NBA , league clubs sometimes challenged the legendary barnstorming Harlem Globetrotters , with mixed success . The NBA has played preseason games in Europe and Asia . In the 2006 and 2007 seasons , the NBA and the primary European club competition , the Euroleague , conducted a preseason tournament featuring two NBA teams and the finalists from that year ' s Euroleague . College basketball . Traditionally , major college basketball teams would begin their seasons with a few exhibition games . They would play traveling teams made up of former college players on teams such as such as Athletes in Action or a team sponsored by Marathon Oil . On occasion before 1992 , when FIBA allowed professional players on foreign national teams , colleges would play those teams in exhibitions . However , in 2003 , the National Collegiate Athletic Association banned games with non - college teams . Some teams have begun scheduling exhibition games against teams in NCAA Division II and Division III . Major college basketball teams may still travel to other countries once every few years during the summer to play in exhibition games . American football . Professional football . Compared to other sports , the National Football League preseason is very structured . Every NFL team plays exactly four pre - season exhibition games a year , two at home and two away , with the exception of two teams each year who play a fifth game , the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game . These exhibition games , most of which are held in the month of August , are played for the purpose of helping coaches narrow down the roster to the regular - season limit of 53 players . While the scheduling formula is not as rigid for preseason games as they are for the regular season , there are numerous restrictions and traditions that limit the choices of preseason opponents ; teams are also restricted on what days and times they can play these games . The NFL has played exhibition games in Europe , Japan , Canada , Australia ( including the American Bowl in 1999 ) and Mexico to spread the league ' s popularity ( a game of this type was proposed for China but , due to financial and logistical problems , was eventually canceled ) . The league has tacitly forbidden the playing of non - league opponents , with the last interleague game having come in 1961 and the last game against a team other than an NFL team ( the all - NFL rookie College All - Stars ) was held in 1976 . Exhibition games are quite unpopular with many fans , who resent having to pay regular - season prices for two home exhibition games as part of a season - ticket package . Numerous lawsuits have been brought by fans and classes of fans against the NFL or its member teams regarding this practice , but none have been successful in halting it . The Pro Bowl , traditionally played after the end of the NFL season ( the 2011 edition was played the week prior to the Super Bowl ) , is also considered an exhibition game . Teams in the Canadian Football League play two exhibition games each year , in June . The Arena Football League briefly had a two - game exhibition season in the early 2000s , a practice that ended in 2003 with a new television contract . Exhibition games outside of a structured season are relatively common among indoor American football leagues ; because teams switch leagues frequently at that level of play , it is not uncommon to see some of the smaller leagues schedule exhibition games against teams that are from another league , about to join the league as a probational franchise , or a semi - pro outdoor team to fill holes in a schedule . College and high school football . Many college football teams , particularly larger organizations , play a public intramural exhibition game in the spring mainly to promote the team and give new recruits an early chance at public game action . Many of these intramural games are nationally televised , though not to the same level of prominence as intercollegiate play . True exhibition games between opposing colleges do not exist in college football ; due to the importance of opinion polling in college football , even exhibition games would not truly be exhibitions because they could influence the opinions of those polled . Intramural games are possible because a team playing against itself leaves little ability for poll participants to make judgments . However , many of the major Football Bowl Subdivision teams usually schedule early season non - conference home games against lesser opponents that are lower - tier FBS , Football Championship , or Division II schools , which often result in lopsided victories in favor of the FBS teams and act as exhibition games in all but name , though they also provide a large appearance fee and at least one guaranteed television appearance for the smaller school . These games also receive the same criticism as NFL exhibition games , but instead it is targeted to schools scheduling low - quality opponents and the simplicity for a team to run up the score against a weak opponent . However , these games are susceptible to backfiring if the lesser team does win the game , resulting in damage in poll position and public perception to the defeated FBS school ' s team . High school football teams frequently participate in controlled scrimmages with other teams during preseason practice , but exhibition games are rare because of league rules and concerns about finances , travel and player injuries , along with enrollments not being registered until the early part of August in most school districts under the traditional September - June academic term . A more common exhibition is the high school football all - star game , which brings together top players from a region . These games are typically played by graduating seniors during the summer or at the end of the season . are used as showcases for players to be seen by colleges . Australian rules football . Australian rules football has been introduced to a wide range of places around Australia and the world since the code originated in Victoria in 1859 . Much of this expansion can be directly attributed to exhibition match es by the major leagues in regions and countries where the code has been played as a demonstration sport . Auto racing . Various auto racing organizations hold exhibition events , more specifically , races that do not count towards the season championship . The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series holds one exhibition event annually , the invitation - only Budweiser Shootout at the start of the season . The top seven teams of each manufacturer from the previous season compete in the event which awards cash prizes only , and no points towards the Sprint Cup championship . A second event , the NASCAR Sprint All - Star Race is also a non - points paying race ; however , it is falls under the category of all - star events . NASCAR also held exhibition races previously at Suzuka Circuit and Twin Ring Motegi in Japan and Calder Park Thunderdome in Australia . Other historical examples of non - championship races include the Marlboro Challenge in IndyCar racing and the TOCA Touring Car Shootout in the British Touring Car Championship . Until the mid - 1980s there were a significant number of non - championship Formula One races . The National Hot Rod Association Pro Stock teams will have a pre - season drag meet held before the traditional start in Pomona . The Pro Stock Showdown is a pre - season drag meet held for the Pro Stock teams held at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway .