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Query; why are NFL ratings/attendance etc declining?


Paradis

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I follow the players closer than the sport (to a fault), and wondering if someone(s) feels up to summarizing in a cohesive manner if possible manner - why there's a been general decline in business. Something more than - Roger's a buttface would be nice, but i'll take what I can get. 

Has the NFL product changed that much in the last 10 years?  Is there something tangible causing this residual erosion? 

What's the fix?  

 

  

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Over saturation and over exposure--too many games, sh*tty product on most games outside of Sundays, NFL everywhere and anywhere you look...there is some "mystique" or interest drawn from a league/product/organization "on the rise"...something on its way up, something reaching higher and higher...NFL did that and more and now it's on the back side of its pinnacle or climax.  I, personally, couldn't care less about the NFL...

 

For example, LA was always such an interesting and intriguing market because it's the second largest city in the USA and it had 0 NFL teams...now it has 2 NFL teams??!?!? That's just ******* weird.  I can tell you from being here on the ground in LA that literally no one cares about the NFL team(s)...no one cared about the Rams and now no one, literally no one, is talking about the Chargers...

 

Over saturation.

Over exposure.

 

Too much of a good thing is BAD.

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Where do I start?

There has been an explosion in entertainment options vying for eyeballs in the last decade.  And between more families cutting the cord, and younger audiences watching more content on mobile devices now, TVs are becoming largely abandoned.  Football doesn't really show well on phones and tablets so I think that's a factor.  

On top of that, everything in video entertainment is moving towards short content and NFL games are, if anything, getting longer with more commercials.  So highlights on Twitter is probably how a growing number of people engage with the NFL game because you can bypass all of the boring stuff.

Another factor IMO, the quality of announcers is worse than ever.  I used to look forward to John Madden as part of the entertainment of MNF.  Now, I can't think of a single personality I could give a crap about.  The tech of broadcasting is cool (yellow line overlay for the first down, for example), but the games are still just harder to watch.

I think the hyper-coverage of the players is also not good.  Everyone loves a good backstory, but most of what is covered isn't of the good kind.  I think the constant barrage of suspensions, domestic violence and DUI arrests, and political protests takes a toll on the interest level of a lot of fans, particularly the more casual or newer fans who aren't as invested.  

And yes, like Kleck mentioned, competitive balance in the NFL is worse than any other league.  

So I'm not surprised at all by the ratings and attendance declining.  What will be fascinating is to see if the next TV deal actually goes down, not up, and how the NFLPA will react to that.  

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Where do I start?  First they have made it impossible for DBs to defend.  Also, there might be too many franchises right now, and not enough NFL-quality players (and QBs) to fill up 32 teams.  Especially given the fact that these guys barely practice hitting and tackling any more.  TV timeouts and the rookie wage scale hurting player development are other issues.

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10 minutes ago, nycdan said:

Where do I start?

There has been an explosion in entertainment options vying for eyeballs in the last decade.  And between more families cutting the cord, and younger audiences watching more content on mobile devices now, TVs are becoming largely abandoned.  Football doesn't really show well on phones and tablets so I think that's a factor.  

On top of that, everything in video entertainment is moving towards short content and NFL games are, if anything, getting longer with more commercials.  So highlights on Twitter is probably how a growing number of people engage with the NFL game because you can bypass all of the boring stuff.

Another factor IMO, the quality of announcers is worse than ever.  I used to look forward to John Madden as part of the entertainment of MNF.  Now, I can't think of a single personality I could give a crap about.  The tech of broadcasting is cool (yellow line overlay for the first down, for example), but the games are still just harder to watch.

I think the hyper-coverage of the players is also not good.  Everyone loves a good backstory, but most of what is covered isn't of the good kind.  I think the constant barrage of suspensions, domestic violence and DUI arrests, and political protests takes a toll on the interest level of a lot of fans, particularly the more casual or newer fans who aren't as invested.  

And yes, like Kleck mentioned, competitive balance in the NFL is worse than any other league.  

So I'm not surprised at all by the ratings and attendance declining.  What will be fascinating is to see if the next TV deal actually goes down, not up, and how the NFLPA will react to that.  

Well said. Concussions should be added, which were a factor in ruining boxing. I would add that the reality TV political climate has put most sports in the shade. Watching a football game seems somehow rather routine and passe these days. And more than ever the NFL seems primarily a highly corporate business -- the joy of sports has somehow dissipated over the last few years.

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35 minutes ago, southtown24th said:

Over saturation and over exposure--too many games, sh*tty product on most games outside of Sundays, NFL everywhere and anywhere you look...there is some "mystique" or interest drawn from a league/product/organization "on the rise"...something on its way up, something reaching higher and higher...NFL did that and more and now it's on the back side of its pinnacle or climax.  I, personally, couldn't care less about the NFL...

 

For example, LA was always such an interesting and intriguing market because it's the second largest city in the USA and it had 0 NFL teams...now it has 2 NFL teams??!?!? That's just ******* weird.  I can tell you from being here on the ground in LA that literally no one cares about the NFL team(s)...no one cared about the Rams and now no one, literally no one, is talking about the Chargers...

 

Over saturation.

Over exposure.

 

Too much of a good thing is BAD.

Some fans tend to forget the Raiders were the LA Raiders for something like 15 years. They fielded some excellent teams but still didnt draw well.

How they expect to support both the Rams and Chargers is beyond me.

LA is not a sports town. Lakers are somewhat of an exception but I think it is more of a thing where poseurs and wannabes can share space with A listers

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3 minutes ago, Kleckineau said:

Some fans tend to forget the Raiders were the LA Raiders for something like 15 years. They fielded some excellent teams but still didnt draw well.

How they expect to support both the Rams and Chargers is beyond me.

LA is not a sports town. Period. 

 

LA is not a sports town...sort of.

 

People LOVE the Lakers...when they are winning.  People LOVE the Dodgers...when they are winning.

 

Compared to NY/Boston/Chicago/Philly--yes, you are right, it's not a sports town.  Correct.

 

Hard as **** to find a sports bar in this city, that's for sure.

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My 16 yo son has no interest in football whatsoever.

He did go with friends to a "sporting" event in a stadium however - a CSGO tournament!  :-O  

I think a lot of kids today are just growing up less interested in it, probably mainly because of all the other choices they have...  Also, no matter what the facts are about CTE, it's a fact that more parents today are prohibiting their kids from playing football...

Unless you're getting new young fans, it's inevitable that interest will decline over time...

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Parents are steering kids far away from football these days.  The town I live had a great Pop-Warner program for years fielded 3-4 teams on different levels this season ironically they are fielding 2 teams and doing so by sharing players from a much larger neighboring township. 

Overall interest in football seems to be down maybe because the hometown teams Jets and Giants both stink who knows. CTE isn't helping the cause. 

Season tickets being a hot commodity or something to brag about is a thing of the past. First thing you hear when someone says I have Jets season tickets is why do you waste your money on that. 

 

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1 hour ago, Kleckineau said:

Apathy created by the fact that 90% of the teams enter the season with a near zero chance of reaching the title game.

This was caused by the creation of rules that make it almost hopeless to win it all unless you have that unicorn QB.

I definitely think this is a part of it.

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47 minutes ago, Kleckineau said:

Some fans tend to forget the Raiders were the LA Raiders for something like 15 years. They fielded some excellent teams but still didnt draw well.

How they expect to support both the Rams and Chargers is beyond me.

LA is not a sports town. Lakers are somewhat of an exception but I think it is more of a thing where poseurs and wannabes can share space with A listers

This

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Instant replay has hurt the sport

bad officiating

rules weighted towards the qB

 

how many years do us afc followers have to suffer with ne, pitt and den..  every freakin yesr the past 15 years.. enough already

 

if you dont have a qb you can hang it up..  its ridiculous to pin the whole sport on one position...

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1 hour ago, Paradis said:

I follow the players closer than the sport (to a fault), and wondering if someone(s) feels up to summarizing in a cohesive manner if possible manner - why there's a been general decline in business. Something more than - Roger's a buttface would be nice, but i'll take what I can get. 

Has the NFL product changed that much in the last 10 years?  Is there something tangible causing this residual erosion? 

What's the fix?  

 

  

It's my fault. Sorry...and Rodger's a buttface. 

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Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.....

The NFL took their greed way too far, and there is no end in site. This is on both ends, the players and the owners.

The product is a shell of what it was, and far more expensive than what it was. 

Too many teams.

Too many games.

Bad rule changes.

Lack of practice time.

Players making political statements using the NFL as the platform for it.

 

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8 minutes ago, mphtrilogy said:

Instant replay has hurt the sport

bad officiating

rules weighted towards the qB

 

how many years do us afc followers have to suffer with ne, pitt and den..  every freakin yesr the past 15 years.. enough already

 

if you dont have a qb you can hang it up..  its ridiculous to pin the whole sport on one position...

Don't agree with instant reply. It's necessary,  and the league finally did make a good decision in having it reviewed in NY. 

The rest of your post is spot on

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1 hour ago, thshadow said:

My 16 yo son has no interest in football whatsoever.

He did go with friends to a "sporting" event in a stadium however - a CSGO tournament!  :-O  

I think a lot of kids today are just growing up less interested in it, probably mainly because of all the other choices they have...  Also, no matter what the facts are about CTE, it's a fact that more parents today are prohibiting their kids from playing football...

Unless you're getting new young fans, it's inevitable that interest will decline over time...

This is a good point. At the the same time older fans are abandoning the sport because of the pansy rules,  and the politics, as well as the QB friendly rules. In our day, there was actually a running game with great players like Payton and Sanders. 

Also all the penalties are a major distraction. It got to the point where I wouldn't celebrate a great play because I was expecting a flag to be down. What good is that? That's also true for any big hit. It's almost a given it will be a personal foul. That's one of the biggest things missing from this game. 

Greed, cheating, and teams relocating, etc. What the league did to the Browns was reprehensible. 

 

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2 hours ago, Kleckineau said:

Apathy created by the fact that 90% of the teams enter the season with a near zero chance of reaching the title game.

This was caused by the creation of rules that make it almost hopeless to win it all unless you have that unicorn QB.

Reply Number 1 says all that needs to be said

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Without a doubt for me it's ALL the rules. So many rules. The refs dictate a win probably more than a team at this point imo. 

Even as a casual fan with no skin in who wins I've seen so many games ruined by refs. Not to mention the replays. The commercialization. Too many commercial breaks. The millionaire primadonna players who don't care as much. The no contact practices have led to slopppier play too imo.

 

i genuinely think the NFL is a sh*t product.  They're just lucky to have engineered my brain to watch since I was a kid. But I don't care about games anymore, not even close to what I use to.

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Nothing lasts forever.  

The problem isn't much to do with the NFL, its just a lack of interest in football altogether.    20 years ago, each small town where I grew up had a football team of 40 or 50 guys and the crowds were pretty bi g.  40 years ago, there were teams of 80, with varsity, jv, junior high and midget league teams and the whole town turned out for every game.  Now?  None of the towns have enough turnout to have their own teams.  2 or 3 or even 4 high schools have to join together to put a team together (one team, sometimes only jv or varsity), and no one shows up to games.  

In general, it seems like there is less interest in sports amongst the younger generations.  Football is no exception.

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1 hour ago, Larz said:

college football is not suffering, so its not football in general, the pro product lost the "ritual" factor with thursday and sunday night games

plus cheating is allowed, and hitting is not

 

 

Im not so sure about that?  Major schools?  Yeah, they have a large base to draw from, and the games are huge events, especially for students and alumni who feel like they have a hand in the fight.  But, I don't see the same interest in games as I used to, especially outside of those big schools.

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I agree with most of what I'm reading here. I think the rules designed to create more scoring has resulted in the league being intensely QB dominated, but only about a third of the league has a QB you can hope to win a championship behind. Oversaturation is another real issue. Used to be the NFL was something to look forward to, now it's a year-round venture. And Thursday night games suck. The players hate them, the fans hate them, why do they exist? 

Most of all, I think it's a product in decline. I appreciate the concept of player safety, but the rules against hitting in practice have turned the first month of the regular season into an extended exhibition - except that it counts. The league has expanded beyond the capacity of true NFL quality players. 

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4 hours ago, Kleckineau said:

Apathy created by the fact that 90% of the teams enter the season with a near zero chance of reaching the title game.

This was caused by the creation of rules that make it almost hopeless to win it all unless you have that unicorn QB.

It's a simple as that.

The NFL reengineered itself into a passing league and there are only 5 passers. 

SAR I

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The generation that accounted for the biggest boost in popularity and ratings is growing up and starting families.  Priorities change.

Fantasy football has turned the casual fan into a fan of individual players, not a fan of a specific team. Why dedicate yourself to a team and sit through 3 hours of commercial filled games when you can watch the Redzone channel or check your smart phone for a quick update on your fantasy league scores? It's too easy to turn a game off and get the information you really care about through alternative means.

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1 hour ago, Butterfield said:

Nothing lasts forever.  

The problem isn't much to do with the NFL, its just a lack of interest in football altogether.    20 years ago, each small town where I grew up had a football team of 40 or 50 guys and the crowds were pretty bi g.  40 years ago, there were teams of 80, with varsity, jv, junior high and midget league teams and the whole town turned out for every game.  Now?  None of the towns have enough turnout to have their own teams.  2 or 3 or even 4 high schools have to join together to put a team together (one team, sometimes only jv or varsity), and no one shows up to games.  

In general, it seems like there is less interest in sports amongst the younger generations.  Football is no exception.

Where do you live?

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21 minutes ago, Matt39 said:

Where do you live?

That particular example was where i grew up, in Central NY.  It wasnt much different in Allentown and the surrounding area where I lived until recently.  The schools and communities just werent into football at all.  Basketball is what brought the community out.  Same as in Upstate NY now.  Havent been in Vermont long enough to make a comment about it.

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18 minutes ago, DoubleDown said:

The generation that accounted for the biggest boost in popularity and ratings is growing up and starting families.  Priorities change.

Fantasy football has turned the casual fan into a fan of individual players, not a fan of a specific team. Why dedicate yourself to a team and sit through 3 hours of commercial filled games when you can watch the Redzone channel or check your smart phone for a quick update on your fantasy league scores? It's too easy to turn a game off and get the information you really care about through alternative means.

I dont even see the same interest in fantasy football anymore.  Its hard to get people to play these days.

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6 minutes ago, Butterfield said:

That particular example was where i grew up, in Central NY.  It wasnt much different in Allentown, PA and the surrounding area where I lived until recently.  The schools and communities just werent into football at all.  Basketball is what brought the community out.  Same as in Upstate NY now.  Havent been in Vermont long enough to make a comment about it.

I think the northeast is a poor way to extrapolate tbh(if the election taught us anything). Football is still booming in the south. College footballs ratings continue to rise. It's all people care about down here besides their families.

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