Declining NFL Viewership
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For the second year in a row, NFL viewership is down. I'm a huge fan of the NFL, borderline obsessive and at times I care too much. I've read a few bad suggestions about how to improve the viewership and wanted to throw my opinion out there. I don't speak for all fans, but I do believe this echos the concern of most losing interest.
I think fans are just getting tired of the NFL. We’re tired of hearing about the Patriots, CTE, who's protesting the national anthem, repetitive commercials, the next CBA negotiations, Roger Goodell and offield legal issues. We’re tired of watching only local games on Sunday, excessive game stoppages, bad officiating and bad performance. Finally, we're tired of the greed.
Outside of New England Patriots fans, were tired of hearing about Brady, Belichick and the Patriots. Every non-casual fan for 3+ years knows about those three and also knows New England will go deep in the playoffs. They’re tired of seeing and hearing about them. Does that mean to broadcast about the possibility of that Dynasty finally failing, suspensions or cheating allegations? No. It means give them no more than equal highlight air time and move on. If the average fan doesn't hear or see them until they have to, I think that’s best.
I think fans are tired of hearing about CTE. That doesn't mean we don't care. We care, but we know football is a brutal game, we know the players know the risk of playing, we know the NFL tried to hide the risk to former players and we know players decades ago weren't aware of the risks. Continue to research ways to minimize brain injuries and educate the players (and parents) at all levels of the sport. The NFL should also go above and beyond to help players that suffered long term brain injuries.
I, like many other fans, watch football for leisure and to escape from the adulting in life. Political, cultural, social and humanitarian issues are the last thing I want to hear while watching football. I understand players’ have freedom of speech to protest. Individuals that strongly support those players that protest will probably have some not-so-nice things to say about this one but that is okay. It doesn't change my opinion that I think it contributes to fans not watching, especially ignoring pregame ceremonies.
Did you know Chevy uses real people, not actors in those commercials? Of course you do. We’ve seen the exact same commercial at every commercial break, for every game, for every week between now and January. Require diversity by your advertisers and limit how often the same commercial is aired.
Between Brady and Ezekiel Elliot, I believe the NFL has pivoted to attracting fans with professions in law. People generally don't like lawyers. Hearing about that stuff outside of CSI is not entertaining. We’re tired of the off field issues. Let the law determine a players guilt and suspend them accordingly. We really don't care who is going to appeal what and when. We also don't need the announcers to acknowledge fans don't want to hear about it before proceeding to talk about it anyways. Just don't talk about it at all.
The next CBA negotiations is another issue that doesn't happen on the field and should not be a part of your broadcast. The NFL is doing a terrible job at player discipline and most suspect they plan to use this as leverage when negotiating the next CBA. There are several other examples, but ultimately the average fan doesn't want to hear about billionaires haggling millionaires. I'm dreading the next negotiation period because I expect a lockout. I have little interest in following the upcoming stars because I expect to miss football very soon due to these negotiations. The best thing the NFL can do is limit broadcasting time and make the CBA minimum 10+ years.
NFL fans are tired of watching only local games on Sunday. I know we can pay the outrageous price of DirectTV Sunday ticket, but that still doesn't include all games. People are cord cutting and FYI that also applies to satellite. It’s currently cheaper and more accessible to purchase a VPN and the NFL game day package. End the exclusive contract and let multiple companies compete to broadcast your business.
The game has gotten too slow with all the stoppages. The classic touchdown-commercial-extra point-commercial-kickoff-commercial series is terrible, and thankfully the NFL has acknowledged that this year. The next best thing you can do to curtail stoppages is improve player performance.
Player performance has gotten week recently, especially in the early part of the year. The limits on practice imposed in the last CBA should be reversed. Players have got to practice more and coaching also has to improve. Somehow the NFL has got to do a better job of attracting coaches. This may be more to blame on ownership of individual clubs.
The NFL has finally come around on hiring full-time officials. That was long overdue. Keep on this path and eventually employ all full-time officials.
Fans are also worn out on the greed. Professional football franchises make plenty of money to finance their own stadiums. Stop taking tax dollars away and pitting city vs another city. New stadium seat licenses are super profitable, but moving the Chargers, Rams, and Oakland was a bad idea. It's bad in the short term because attendance is pitiful, and it's also bad in the long turn for the product on the field. None of those cities will attract strong local support. It will be mostly away fans attending those home games. Players won't want to play a franchise like that, the team will suffer long term and so will your parody. The fans see the NFL moving teams, reluctantly hire full-time officials, fighting with cities over stadium financing, expanding to Thursday night football, fighting for longer seasons and shortening preseason; and, it all points to one major motive: greed. It makes perfect business sense to want to grow your product and increase revenue. Unfortunately, the lack of competition in the professional football market has given the NFL the freedom to make some bad decisions. You’ve finally reached the tipping point and fans are seeing the greed and changing the channel.
I saved Fire Goodell for last. Not because it's the most important issue… no, average fans don't really care about the commissioner or know what he looks like. I saved him for last because he is the root of a lot of these bad decisions above. After Paul Tagliabue, owner's wanted a commissioner who would grow the sport more aggressively. Goodell made the game more family friendly by halting celebrations and cracking down on player discipline. I believe the growth of the sport has peaked under Goodell and it’s time for the ownership to move on. The league needs a new commissioner that won’t use every conflict opportunity as a bargaining chip for future negotiations - the fans interpret this as greed. The league needs a new commissioner to buck the belief that ownership is filled with old, wealthy, racists. Someone that will tackle more progressive issues such as using marijuana responsibly for pain management. The league needs a new commissioner to grow the sport in such a way to make fans happy - not owners richer.