Posted on 10/02/2017 12:44:20 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Is there a method to President Donald Trump's “madness,” as many of his most ardent supporters have stated from the beginning?
Most recent case in point: Trump said NFL ratings are down and continue to slide, because of growing fan displeasure with national anthem protests:
(TWEET-AT-LINK)
Meanwhile, liberal media outlets and others, including Vox, have blamed the ratings slide on everything but the protests.
Just one problem.
As CNN anchor John King reported Sunday, team owners are now in possession of data backing Trump's claim — at least to a substantial degree:
"NFL owners so far siding with their players for their right to free speech, but they're also keeping close tabs on the financial impact and the public relations impact of this confrontation.
I'm told the owners have research clearly showing the president is right when he says the anthem protests are one factor in a TV ratings drop."
As is always the case, the formula is simple: If business owners don't pay attention to the bottom line, they ultimately go out of business:
“And since the president weighed in, the owners are now dealing with a surge in ticket holder requests for refunds. Other sports leagues are watching this quite closely.”
Let's get back to that “method to the madness” reference.
Being the savvy businessman Trump is, is it reasonable to suggest maybe, just maybe, when he poured gas all over the national anthem protest, he believed the resulting firestorm would cause players to double down on their protest, further alienating fans?
Is it also reasonable to suggest Trump figured ratings declines associated with growing fan discontent would ultimately cause not only advertisers to balk but force owners to ultimately consider their respective bottom lines, as well?
If Trump has taught both supporters and detractors anything over the past 28 months, it's that he often defies his critics. Gleefully so. Every time.
King's comments are in the below video.
Research? How about looking at ticket sales for a start?
Everyone I’ve spoken to about the issue has a ban on the NFL in place.
The NFL is not sports, it’s an entertainment industry, pure and simple. The owners were trying to triangulate, allowing the players to be disrespectful, while expecting most of the fan base to support the players. I think the owners were relying on the media’s portrayal of the public, (that of a largely liberal/progressive America).
Now, the owners are finding out that the media is wrong about the fan base, and revenues will be squeezed.
That is the single most important thing in the NFL, money. There will be changes, soon.
They can turn on the TV and look at the crowd at the start of the Falcons game!
The NFL’s crony, money-grubbing, insider, leftist-PC, mainstream media, out-of-touch management let the tinder get real dry at their place.
Trump simply lit a match, and the place turned into an inferno.
Is there a method to President Donald Trump’s “madness,” as many of his most ardent supporters have stated from the beginning?
If he ever loses ardent supporters, the ratchet will work the other way, and everything he says will dismissed as uninformed rantings. His actions will tell the real tale.
I apparently am on the mailing list for NFLshop.com.
Today’s promotional email is for Official 2017 Giants Salute To Service Jerseys & Apparel – Order Now!
Apparently they think that having camo fabric jerseys will sway those in the military or military sympathizers into going back to where things used to be.
It seems to be a desperation ploy, IMHO.
NFL = No Fans Left
3 weeks and I’ve gotten a lot of reading and yard work done.
Today’s local sports page shows a pic of Larry Fitzgerald (a guy I truly respect) making the winning TD catch... in the upper corner of the pic you can see a nearly empty upper section of the stadium... that NEVER happens at the Cardinal’s stadium.
I know so many who are not watching.. you KNOW they are feeling it.
and my final thought: since the military (US) are paying them to display the flag and the NFL put in rules telling the players where and how to stand for the anthem, either cancel and demand refunds all the way back from when the NFL officially announced it’s ok to protest, or get back in line.
The only difference between the NFL and the World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is that in the NFL only 90 percent of the winners each week are predetermined prior to Kick Off.
Apparently, John King, CNN and the NFL owners don't understand First Amendment rights.
I’m sure Trump knew his statements prevented owners from firing or suspending. The opposite of the media’s take on his statement.
Before he said anything, the owners could do what they wanted as private business owners (no 1st amendment issue).
After Trump suggested firing, the owners would look like they were acting on order of the president if they did something that they’d declined to do the previous 12 months. Could be a 1st amendment issue at that point. Maybe it really is for business reasons NOW though not the previous 12 months. But the player lawyers would get their day in court for a jury to decide if they owners were acting in their own interest or at the request of government (1st amendment problem - is the firing an effort to shut down speech so owners can make the gov’t happy and get stadiums or other benefits in the future).
He set the NFL up so the media and dems will be defending “flag haters” into the 2018 election season. And dems will have a hard time “winning back” a group they’re focusing on without losing their base for the next few months at least.
I fail to understand why Donald Trump's underlying motive in this is cause the downfall of the NFL, or any other business in this country. I prefer to think that he called out a bad situation, and the people in charge of the thing he criticized made bad decisions. Putting vendors out of work does not sound like a desirable outcome. Maybe the people who get criticized should think through what those outcomes could be, and act accordingly.
Ditto, Hillary running for President. They thought it was a done deal when Trump got nominated, but no one I talked to had any enthusiasm for Hillary. When she said she didn't understand why she wasn't ahead by 50 points, I think she genuinely believed it.
And the media. How many times do we get that "deer in the headlights" look, like they can't believe what they see or hear, but most of us fully understand the position being presented. Or they'll trot out the craziest theories on something that's fairly common sense to the rest of us.
These c***bites in the media just can’t figure out how to deal with a President who isn’t a devious double-talking slime. They are always looking for the hidden dishonest agenda. Just like the ones they carry out.
It takes ‘research’ to find out you are not supposed to piss off your customers?........................
NFL has been losing fans ever since the first kneel that they did nothing about. My husband and other people we know quit watching them last year. The NFL has just been in denial about the reason until it slapped them up the side of their head. Liberals are convinced everyone agrees with them for some bizarre reason.
They offered everyone a choice; the NFL or America. Did they think that was going to be a tough one?
“Trump simply lit a match, and the place turned into an inferno.”
I’d say Colin Kaepernick was the one with the lit match and a bunch of his bros decided it was good to light up with him. Trump just pointed out all those lit matches could only cause bad things to happen: “Nice franchise you got here...it’d be too bad if the employees burned it down with all those lit matches.”
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