The NFL and the sports media that support it are delusional if they do not consider what is happening a major issue.They got the money for this years season tickets, that is true.
But if we see erosion of season ticket renewals for next season, that will hurt.
And they are being hurt by the erosion of TV ratings. TV ad revenue is ultimately based on the ratings; on the audience for the games.
If they see a 10-20% decline in season tickets for next year, and similar continuing declines in TV ratings, that will start to pinch them.
Any company that is subsidized by the government is to big to fail. As usual the taxpayer isn’t asked.
The NFL and the sports media that support it are delusional if they do not consider what is happening a major issue.Where does he get the “paid per play” stuff?
Fans spend almost as much for the NFL crap and parking at the stadium as the ticket. These people are taking a big hit and the NFL is going to hear about it.
The real big money comes from the giant TV deals that are based on ratings, not from live attendance at games.
Some owners, like the ever cheap and greedy Mike Brown of the Bengals, have negotiated deals where they get a generous cut of parking and concessions, so empty seats do his him in the wallet.
Owners want recurring revenue.
A “long-term steady acute decline” will be _very_ hard to recover from. They’re not going to just sit around waiting for a crash to occur, they’re presumably having some pretty serious arguments with players etc about “don’t **** up our revenue stream just because of some self-righteous ‘protest’ y’all can’t even articulate!”
Seriously overlooked: not only is a significant percentage of viewers moving on to other attractions, but we’re raising a whole generation largely devoid of football. Soccer and other sports are dominating kids’ activities, leading to a lack of interest in NFL-profiting events.
I think where this is invariably going is to have robots on the field instead of the snowflakes anti-american ungrateful multi-millionaires.
I'd like to hear your reason why you direct Free Republic's traffic to your blog.
When it comes time to sell next year’s season tickets, it will be a much tougher sell.
Buyers figure they can resell tickets they don’t use to help defray costs. Some split up their packages and only figure they will attend a couple of games.
If the resale price of tickets is down, which it has to be with so many unoccupied seats, it will be difficult for teams to sell season tickets at the same price, and they will have to offer discounts, as well.
Frankly, I don’t know how football recovers. Now that the veneer has been stripped away, and it is no longer possible to pretend that the league has a patriotic core, a lot of pleasure has gone out of the game for a lot of fans.
I work with a couple of life-long Jets fans who never missed a game. These guys bleed green. I asked them about the blown call in yesterday’s game, expecting to get an earful, and they could not have cared less. They are not following the team this year, and were only vaguely aware that the Jets played the Patriots yesterday.
To say that this is an astounding transformation is under selling it.
Also, we shold understand that ticket sales are a “drop in the ocean” for the NFL. Their ^real^ money comes from TV contracts and advertising.
That is why the owners don’t care about the fans.
The owners may have the fans money But their Sponsors Do Not.
Similarly I never understood the protests against some beverage a few years ago (absolut vodka perhaps?) where people dumped their vodka. You already paid - go ahead and drink it - protest by not buying a new bottle.
From Drudge today:
FBI: 118 Law Enforcement Officers Died in Line of Duty Last Year...
57,180 Assaulted...
NFL and Disney/ESPN celebrate.
Whoever believe this is a moron. People buy stuff at games and pay parking costs just to mention a few problems; but biggest one is the empty seats make for terrible optics.
Buy I’m betting they’ll have a little problem the next time they ask for a new stadium with OUR TAX DOLLARS. :-) Enjoy it while you’ve got it NFL, you won’t have it for long.
They will.
Not a very good article. The author missses the point: season ticket sales are only part of the revenue stream. Yeah, season tickets are already sold. The money is in the TV revenues, the gear, etc. And thugball is taking a hit. It also ignores the role of debt financing which exacerbates revenue declines.
This whole dustup gives a lot of so-so fans the cover to stop watching something that already bores them.
Season tickets are hardly where their money is generated. Though folks staying at home instead of going to the game are hurting the vendors, which in turn also detracts from the bottom line. However, the pain is yet to come as people turn away from the game of professional football.