The Cold Streak for the NFL
By: Josh Swanson
The NFL is one of America’s prime entertainment sources. Out of any american sport, it outranks every other and brings in the most revenue out of any of them. Thursday nights, Sunday, and Monday Nights are like holidays as many set plans to sit at home or attend the game. However, the NFL is beginning to suffer a lot of issues that are causing their total revenue and demand to drop. Due to many reasons such as off field antics, preserving profits while keeping prices reasonable, and the lack of attendance.
Throughout the past decade, there has been many instances with players that has caused quite the negative publicity and caused a negative image to hang over the NFl because of it. From Plaxico burress shooting himself in the foot to Mike Vick and participating in dog fights, it has all decreased the demand for the NFL and its image. Recently, there has been a big issue with domestic violence within the NFL. This is caused many to turn their attention away from the NFl as they feel it is proposing the wrong image. Even though demand seemed to decimate for a time, prices never seemed to drop.
Also, Commissioner Roger Goodell is is working to find a way to preserve profits without increasing prices to an outrageous amount that will make fans think it’s not worth it. Many teams are finding creative ways to continue to attract more fans even in times when the team isn’t doing good. The Cowboys have been able to offer a $29 party pass offer. However, factors like TV blackouts during games is causing it to be harder and harder to keep fan interest.
Lastly, it was admitted that over 20% of games this season are going to blacked out on TV Markets due to the fact that they attendance has majorly decreased. Over 12 teams are dealing with stadiums that aren’t even close to being sold out. These same 12 teams are also experiencing their lowest attendance in years. The main issue though is the TV blackout time which removes millions of fans from being able to watch the game and eventually provide revenue. I’m Curious to know how you after reading this feel about the NFL and their demand issues.
Works Cited
Ilan Mochari. "The 4 Biggest Questions for the NFL This Season." INC.Inc.Brandview, 4 Sept. 2014. Web. 5 Oct. 2016.
Lancaster, Marc. "NFL Owners Vote to Suspend TV Blackouts." Sportingnews. Sportingnews, 24 Mar. 2015. Web. 5 Oct. 2016.
Swatek, Karla. "The NFL's Three Biggest Problems." Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2016.
I believe the low demand has to do with the higher prices that NFL games demand in comparison to the prices of attending a college game, and as the two are substitutes, people would rather go to a much cheaper game and have a similar if not almost the exact same experience.
ReplyDeleteI don't exactly agree with what Tommy said. I am researching the Milwaukee Brewers for my research paper and it seems as though people will go to MLB games no matter the price, because the atmosphere and experience of going to a professional sporting event cannot be matched with going to a substitute like a college or minor league game. The same applies for NFL. Therefore, the supplier power is high and increasing prices may be a good idea for the NFL to increase total profit.
ReplyDeleteAlthough attendance and profit may have decreased a bit because of these off the field antics, there are still a plethora of people who will be attending the games because of their love for football. I attribute the lower attendance of some teams to their poor performance rather than off field antics. When the team in your city is 0-5 and has used 5 different quarterbacks, *cough* *cough* the Cleveland Browns, not many people are going to be attending the games. The New England Patriots on the other hand, who are 4-1, have no problem selling out their stadium because they are actually good. However I do believe off the field antics may contribute to some of the lowered attendance, I think most of it can be attributed to the poor performance of teams.
ReplyDeleteI think that a change in preferences by the audience of the NFL has slowed down profits for the league. This change in preference is likely due to the behavior of certain players and I feel like this is quite valid as it quite hard to sympathize for a wrong-doer. And the situation could improve if the League could control their players and also pay attention to their prices.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the total revenue has recently dropped, i think it will only be like this for a while, or at least until these certain "off field antics" decrease. But, I still agree that it is the people's preference that is causing low demand. If a team is not performing well, not many people will want to go to watch their game. I am also curious to see what the NFL will do to increase total revenue.
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ReplyDeleteI personally feel that there are off the field events that are partly contributing to this problem. However I feel that the biggest change is the fact that there are a growing number of substitutes for either going to NFL games or watching them such as other sports or other forms of entertainment. I mentioned this in my blog post, but to rejuvenate the demand in the NFL would need to expand internationally. That would introduce a brand new market which in turn would increase demand and bring in a whole new source of revenue.
ReplyDeleteAlthough total revenue has decreased for certain teams in my mind it truly depends on how good a team is and how loyal the fan base is. Teams like the Patriots are continually good, and there is a reason why they are continually filling their stadium full of fans. There are also teams like our very own Green Bay Packers that has a fan based that sits through below freezing games just because they love their team that much. So, one main reason total revenue varies is how good the team is because who wants to go watch their team get beat each week.
ReplyDeleteAlthough total revenue has decreased for certain teams in my mind it truly depends on how good a team is and how loyal the fan base is. Teams like the Patriots are continually good, and there is a reason why they are continually filling their stadium full of fans. There are also teams like our very own Green Bay Packers that has a fan based that sits through below freezing games just because they love their team that much. So, one main reason total revenue varies is how good the team is because who wants to go watch their team get beat each week.
ReplyDeleteThere are fan bases that are loyal to bad teams such as the Cleveland browns who are not always good but still sell out about 90 percent of their stadium. NFL interest is still extremely high it's just so much negative outside attention causing people to shy away from it. Breaking the law is still breaking the law even if you are a star football player making millions and to most Americans they don't like the fact they get away with awful behavior. I don't think the NFL has a problem but they need to tighten up on the off the field actions because that is hurting their image more than guys celebrating on the field.
ReplyDeleteThere are off field antics that is causing the number of Americans to stop watching NFL, but those antics are just temporary. It was talked about in another blog post that those off field antics have to do with the players health; such as concussions and their protocols. But the NFL can only do so much, according to Variety the audience's age ranged from 18-49. Which is showing a 10.6% decrease over the last four seasons. This is due to substitutions. Substitutions that attract the under population. Like Kyle said in his comment, there needs to be something more to the NFL. It has to keep expanding to attract the under generations. Therefore by expanding the NFL overseas, will hopefully cause the NFL's revenue to increase again.
ReplyDeleteThe NFL will always be influential to its consumers because of entertainment and pure interest. Regardless if they are making or losing money, the NFL will continue to do it’s own thing and fine players at will, suspend them, and do what they deem necessary to live up to expectations. Loyal fan bases and football fans will always be spending money on tickets and at stadiums because it is what they love. Teams that struggle with attendance or revenue could be putting themselves at a disadvantage in location or marketing, not just because their team is underperforming. I agree that the NFL has gone slightly down hill over the past couple of years, however, it doesn’t change the fact that they will make their money anyway.
ReplyDeleteThe NFL holds an extremely high bargaining power because they can simply blackout games and make them impossible to watch unless you're in attendance. If the league can control the players they shouldn't have a problem maintaining revenue.
ReplyDeleteThere are many things that the NFL is going have to correct if it to maximize profits. The NFL faces strong competition with college football, that offers the same product for a lower price. They will also have to deal with the PR issues, all these scandals plaguing the NFL, they need to adjust their procedures for when star players break the law, otherwise they may continue to see profits fall.
ReplyDeleteI personally couldn’t care less about football. All I know is that when I’m working a Sunday and the Packers are playing, I’ll most likely go home early. It’s interesting to find out that this national pastime is losing popularity, but it doesn’t surprise me. Some athletes have been in big trouble recently and lots of people take it to heart when their favorite celebrity turns out to not be the angel they imagined. I’m not too upset that this sport is losing demand, if I’m honest. I’ve never held a liking for it and to me it promotes violence. Maybe the cold streak is some kind of blessing in disguise.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that the NFL was the most popular league in the country for a long time, but now other leagues are starting to take over, most specifically the NBA. With attendance falling in most NFL stadiums, there's a lot of problems that they must fix. Profits will once again rise when the most important issues between the owners and PA are solved.
ReplyDeleteI think it the market for sports could be compared to any other market such as food. Since the demand for football is decreasing, the demand for other sports is increasing. I recently read an article about the NBA which said basketball's increasing popularity is due to the likability of its players while other leagues' players are gaining bad reputations like you mention. I didn't really connect that to economics until I read your piece.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that other sports are slowly the NFL viewers because of all of the incidents that are happening. Especially in the NBA, where the players are likeable and good role models. It would be interesting in the future what happens in the NFL if they were to become the second most watched sports league in the United States.
ReplyDeleteI think that the NFL might have some problems but it still clearly the number one sport in America. Although off field incidents have happened it is not going to stop Americans from watching their favorite sport. In the case of Mike Vick some were even cheering for him when he made his return. Overall I would disagree the NFL is fine and will still continue to be the leader in American sports.
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