Here is part 2 of the sports financial crisis summary that I started. The NFL, currently known as the National Football League, or as it has become recently, the No Fun League. This league is run by Roger Goodell, who started out as an Intern in the NFL, only started running the league in 2006, taking over for Paul Tagliabue.
Since the NFL was taken over by Goodell a few things have happened to the game that is creepily catching up on Baseball for America’s most beloved sport. Although there have been more headlines made with the NFL in the Finance section of the newspaper now than before. Obviously something is amiss when you make headlines that aren’t sports related but business related. There also has to be a problem when you’ve started to cater to the pink hat crowd. Not always a great thing to do when the majority of the your fans are overweight, beer drinking, barbequing men who love to drive trucks, tailgate and consume more chicken wings than normally allowed.
As did last time, we will start off with a list of things that I see going wrong, or already had gone wrong with the NFL:
The 18 Game Season – There are these recurring ideas circulating the media about how the NFL wants to change their sport. Change their sport so more people will watch and the NFL can attract more commercial coverage and more revenue. Let’s talk about the idea of the expanded season to 18 games. 18 games, with 2 less preseason games. As soon as that news came across the airwaves in the first few weeks of the season, NFL players were getting season ending injuries each day. Sidelined and not getting any money, unlike the MLB where all the money is guaranteed. There were some good arguments about this idea. But there wasn’t any other details that came along with this idea. Just an 18 game season. No other news about more players on a roster, no details of another bye week. It was almost laughable about how players were dropping like flies when Goodell brought this idea to the table. As soon as the season started and player’s seasons were over, there was no mention of it. It probably went away but there is no development on this 18 game season.
Blackout Rules – I don’t think many people know the NFL’s Blackout Policy. If a team doesn’t sell out their stadium during a given week, the game is blacked out. Economically, this doesn’t make sense. The average cost for a football game to the fan is upwards of $420 according to the FCI (Fan Cost Index). That’s not logical. Considering what it costs to buy an HDTV, the Network Cable, and the homemade food without having to sit in traffic. So let’s say I live in one of the cities where this happens (San Diego, Oakland, Jacksonville, etc.) If I wanted to watch a Chargers game, and I even bought the Season Ticket Pass to watch any game on, I still would not be able to watch the game unless the stadium had sold out. Meaning, that buying the HDTV, Cable package, and other crap that is advertised by the NFL so often doesn’t become worth it unless the stadium is sold out. Now, usually this is a problem for fan bases that are not that strong for the teams. Or it becomes a problem for fan bases that CANNOT AFFORD these kinds of ticket prices. A friend of mine once asked my friend’s and I a question of whether I would be a fan of baseball if we couldn’t see the games but were able to see the score in the newspaper the next day. I argued whether we would be able to see the box score or just the score. He said just the score, and I said no I would not be a fan anymore because when you take away the action of the game, the timeline, the actual ‘what’ of the hobby or event and just post a result, it becomes the Lottery. Think about that. Lottery players, all they do is look for numbers in the paper. There’s no listing of whether the 16-ball rolled over the 12-ball in the last drawing of numbers. We only have numbers. This is the danger that the NFL is playing with. If fan bases are being subject to disenfranchising and are being pushed to liking the teams that only get shown on TV, then there eventually be a shrinking of the league, team-wise and fan-wise. This past economic crisis only illustrates this point more. How many Jaguars fans have had to watch their rivals play instead of their own team? How many Raiders fans, who are undoubtedly the most committed group of individuals to ever attend a football game, have had to settle for watching San Francisco games because the Raiders game is blacked out? The term Luxury starts to become more and more relevant when economic crisis hits the U.S. What becomes luxury when it was considered a necessity before? These are questions that Goodell needs to ask himself when making these policy decisions. If the shit hits the fan (the fan that fills the seats) how will we be able to keep our product attendance at a continuously high level? Not many Commissioners ask themselves that because there is usually no one to suggest this to them, but that’s why certain people have to do something.
The New Hitting Rules – Since about when ever everyone started putting emphasis on the concussion, Goodell has made it a point to fine anyone that makes a destructive hit. Now I have two theories on this and why it is in place. The first time this happened was with 3 defensive players who were all pretty much doing well. They just happen to make great hits (with the exception of Brandon Meriwether) and players who got those hits just happened to be on the ground for a bit longer than expected. Think about how this commissioner has acted differently in the weeks prior to the season starting and week 6. Complete turnaround. I don’t get it. I’ve never seen that happen in anyone. Ever. But one of my reasons for the new rules on hits to the helmet and the legs and hitting to hard is so that people have to WATCH MORE FOOTBALL to actually pick out which hits seem more destructive than others. Before we were only watching the hits in slow-motion and now we are dissecting each hit like we’re all scientists and NFL coverage is the Zapruder film. So not only are people watching more Football, but we have to rewatch more and more of NFL games.
Now the fines that are given out to players could be more of a reason for the NFL to gain more of a monetary advantage in the upcoming CBA. Obviously people are talking about a lockout and I figure Goodell is trying to rack up as much dough for the league in the short time he has until there is a stand still. A couple thousand here from this guy and couple thousand here from that guy, and I can make the league an extra $1M or so. Especially if the hit injures one of the players that “America” loves to much, like Brett Favre. When Myron Pryor was given that fine for an illegal hit to the helmet on Brett Favre, two things went through my mind: 1) Roger Goodell is protecting people he should not be protecting, 2) I don’t think he knows that everyone liked that hit and that it took Favre out of the game.
Thursday Night Draft – This last complaint is something that is directly related to the greed of the NFL and the office of Roger Goodell. This past NFL draft took place, not on a Saturday where most men aren’t working and most football fans who are really into the Draft could get together and barbeque and shoot hoops, throw a football around and hang out…NO! It had to take place on a Thursday Night during Prime Time. Why, might you ask? Because Roger Goodell wanted to take away from the big piece of the pie that is Thursday Night Must See TV. I was working because I work on weeknights. So not only could I not enjoy hanging around my friends and seeing their reactions to certain draft picks, I had to get the news from the computer that I was working on. Drafts, unless they are like the NBA Draft which is Prime Time because it’s quick and there’s 3 rounds, should be a Saturday event. The NFL Draft is 6 rounds. That’s a lot of selection and there is only so much time people can give to watching it.
I have spent a lot of time on this blog post so I hope you do read it. I have been putting it off for a while but I have been busy with the rest of my life and that’s something that I need to get back onto.
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