With the years of questionable moves by the NFL, I asked the following question last week:
What is your take on all of the changes that the NFL has, will, or wants to make to its product? Do you believe it will all work itself out, since it’s still easily the most popular sport in the US, or do you believe the NFL is slowly killing the golden goose? Either way, which of the changes do you want to see actually happen, which changes would you make if you had a say, and which of the changes do you want to see go away
or never happen?
Below are some of your thoughts and answers-
UpInPensacola has a solid plan to circumvent the NFL’s gouging of fans.
I’m looking at purchasing NFL+ Premium this year so I can see them under the new regime. They won’t be live, but at least I can call up the rerun.
I run antenna and some streaming otherwise. Love watching sports on antenna. Good quality picture 100% of the time, no delays.
Luvs2drnk points out why broadcasters/streamers pony up for what seems to be overpriced game packages.
The broadcasters might lose money on the games themselves, but they recoup any losses through total network value and secondary revenue streams:
Retransmission Fees: Broadcast networks charge cable, satellite, and streaming providers fees to carry their local network channels. The massive audience the NFL draws gives networks immense leverage to negotiate higher per-subscriber fees.Loss Leader Effect: NFL games act as the most powerful promotional platform available. Networks use commercial breaks during games to advertise their own upcoming entertainment shows and news programs, driving up viewership and ad revenue for the rest of their daily lineup.
Ad Sales: While the multi-billion dollar rights fees consume most of the advertising revenue generated directly from the games, a top-tier broadcast—such as NBC’s Sunday Night Football—can routinely charge over $1 million for a single 30-second commercial, keeping in-game revenue highly lucrative.
This is what is driving the market and causing the price of the TV deals to become so bloated. Eeverybody is getting paid, not just the NFL. Which is exactly what the NFL will do in the next CBA to ensure they get their 18 games. They are likely to increase the revenue sharing from the current 48% to something closer to 50%. I would also expect to see roster numbers increased from 53 to closer to 60, and more tweaks to the IR/injury designations. Bottom line is the NFL is a business and if you’re not trying to improve the business to make more money, your business is doomed to fail.
Dave21 knows that it’s a business and that in the end, money talks; it is what it is.
It’s a business first and foremost. I understand that. When you have a product that everyone wants, you can charge what you want . I don’t like it , but it is what it is. Remember back with a certain somebody started the kneeling thing? How many people said I’m don’t with the NFL, I’m only watching College, guess what…. They are watching again. I agree it sucks, you should be able to watch what you want since most of us pay for cable or something similar. But you can’t. Hell I live outside the Palm Beach area and we just lost NBC and we can’t get it because they are in a bidding war with the local provider and Comcast Xfinity. Here is the catch… I used to work for Comcast Xfinity and they own NBC and can’t show it. I have Xfinity and can’t watch the channel they own on their network. Craziness I tell you. Lucky for me, TV and movies are some of my favorite things to do so I have about every streaming package so I have to jump around to watch stuff on NBC and other channels this screws with. 2 bills in my house will almost always be higher than other people’s , Cable and Electric, I like it cold in the house and I like to watch movies and shows .yeah it sucks but it is what it is.
Miami7 longs for the way things were.
I ‘semi-sarcastically’made this comment in a separate thread last week….
In a truly ‘old man rant’ I would honestly & sincerely propose that the league of today’s idiotic misappropriation of rules destroying it’s game adopt FLAGS to be worn by QBs, as the horribly biased & unfair rules have rendered Defenses extremely disadvantaged with regard to QBs. I think QBs ARE still considered football players – on a football TEAM? But they’re now differentiated by bubble boy protections with near video game controller ease because “the fans” don’t wanna NOT see their propped up hero out there since they’re so much more important than any other player on that aside group they call ‘a team’.
Sorry………..not sorry. Today’s NFL is an embarrassment, a joke to the traditional game. I watch every Dolphins game but very little, if any, of the rest games until the SB.
Maybe if they can get 3-4 teams in Iran, Iraq, the North Pole & the Moon my interest will be re-invigorated? Or they could just make RBs untouchable too (wouldn’t THAT be fun & lead to more scoring)?
GREED always eventually kills the golden goose.
Ludicrous rules changes dilute the product.
Future generations of fans adversely affected by combo of cost/late start times/viewing availability & on & on
Losing life-long fans of the traditional game
…………The list could be a mile long
PA phinphan points out that attending games in person is now unaffordable for many American families.
I hate how expensive it is to go to a game. The average ticket price is $156. That’s $624 for a family of 4. Throw in parking, food, and drinks and it’s around $800. That’s RIDICULOUS!
Staying at home to watch a game costs less overall. But it still isn’t inexpensive. Most likely this year I will not get to watch a single Dolphins game. I refuse to pay for the Sunday ticket (I don’t want to put any more money in Roger’s pocket) and the Dolphins have zero prime time games.
Yarganaught has in the past been suckered in by one of the NFL’s overpriced products.
Years ago, I made the mistake of paying for some NFL package… AppleTV or something I think. Like $200 for a “year”. But it wouldn’t allow you to watch the game until after 7pm. I learned quickly that this meant if the Fins played noon, I couldn’t watch any other games on TV, I couldn’t go on Facebook, or pretty much any other media or else I was sure to catch a “Fins 17/Bills 10” scroll across the screen. And the real kicker, was that “1 year” was based on the calendar year… NOT football season. So Jan 1st it stopped working.
I used to be a huge F1 fan back in the early 2000s. Big parties at my house every weekend to watch qualifying and the race the next day. Then, they changed the rules. No more re-fueling on pit stops, no more big engines, DRS and passing zones… Every race has been a snooze-fest since. no room for race strategy and Pole position always wins.
Regarding the current NFL, I stream every game unless it’s on CBS (in SC) or I happen to go to a sports bar with some local Fin fan friends (maybe one per year). I don’t bother watching the internation games or any Thursday night games at all. I usually have to work then anyways, but otherwise I wouldn’t bother to stay up for them. I don’t even watch MNF because the games are so late. More of that nonsense just means more games I skip.
StanleyDoyle1 points out that traditional broadcast networks may soon be priced out of NFL deals, eventually killing some of what they built.
The owners’ greed will turn the NFL into the NBA. Remember the NBA? The league with so many games that people only care during the playoffs – which virtually every team makes? The league so obsessed with offense (compare “traveling” today to what it was 30 years ago) that scoring means less and less. The league so obsessed with milking revenue in a too-long season that the players run out of cartilage? Claiming that the expansion to 18 games has anything to do with anything other than squeezing out more revenue is laughable – except when you think about how it decimates the players and dilutes performance.
But here’s the punch-line. The four public networks will soon no longer be able to afford the NFL’s exorbitant broadcast prices. So they will ween off the NFL, and the Amazon’s, twitches, and YouTubes will buy more access, and even fewer people will care.
gertdoggy knows, without reading the article, that the NFL has already gone too far.
The answer is yes, and I didn’t even have to read the article to come up with it.
TheRoo1 has some workarounds to watch the games they want, even if some of them are expensive.
In some ways, I guess I’m lucky, my house is in a remote area, so we use Amazon Prime for a lot of our shopping. When we were travelling in the RV we streamed most everything, I kept 2 phones with high streaming options one on verizon and the other on ATT in most areas, one would work.
During football season, I have bit the bullet and taken youtube and sunday ticket for sep – Jan and the rest of the year we rotate through a month of netflix, then a month of hulu and so on. It did get a little cheaper this past season since we were able to get single days of ESPN for the Monday games we wanted. Local news we get by casting from our phones to the Roku tv.
The comment about younger folks not being able to afford all of this, may be intentional, trying to keep them going out to the sports bars for games, and the new bar restaurant deals for games can run into the thousands, so the league is happy to push them into that additional venue.
The cost for going to games is what has gotten me the last 10 years, travel cost, and then $200+ for decent seats, not to mention $16-20 for warm bad beer was a ticket to the couch for me.
Lefty5150 mentions the NFL’s greed and how it’s ruined the meaning of the single-season record.
The Goose is in the pot marinated with a greedy broth of I don’t give a damn. More games equals more injuries. Lets see how bad the owners want to go to 18 if the NFLPA demands a 60 man roster. What absolutely makes me want to puke is when the media tries to hype a single season record of any kind. OJ was at 2003 rushing yards in 14 games. Ditkas record for TE’s was in 14 games. In short talking heads…..There is no such thing as a single season record anymore. There are only 14, 16 and 17 game records.
MiamiItaliano points out that we should all just get used to international games.
Eventually the NFL will try to push for one international game every week. They need to limit it to a maximum of 4
Molly Polly II has a list of reforms for the NFL.
NFL is an extremely greedy organization and sadly there are just too many people in this world who will pay to watch football. As painful it would be, I’d bail on the NFL in a heartbeat if everyone was in, but that won’t happen and NFL riches happily know it. Goodell laughs at the money he’s making and as for safety, NFFL coming soon….thats rite, Natl Flag Football League.
NFL necessary changes: 1) kickoff…change that crap back! 2) QBs are part of the game, if they have the ball the same tackling rules apply (severely penalize the Josh Allen fake slide move)!! 3) WR catches/ control the ball, 2 feet on the ground & loses the ball it’s a fumble (get rid of this football move bs)!!! 4) Last but not least, NFL apologizes to ALL NFL fans and lowers (nothing short of 50%) the cost of tickets and tv/streaming!!!!
Phoenix6 is disgusted.
I’m disgusted with what the NFL has become (and soon will be).
JKBMia points to things that maybe mean it was all bound to happen.
The NFL traffics in hope. Every year, teams have new players, new coaches, and a new opportunity to write a new narrative.
Because of that, they basically have a never ending pool of an audience to pick from. Many of you on here have said it already. Many of you probably stopped paying attention last year, but now there’s a new sheriff in town, and we’re all back on the hope wagon.
Even though they make it so difficult to find the games spreading them across numerous different streaming services, the NFL is by country miles the most watched live programming every single year.
Just like everything else in a capitalistic society, you go from something pure, yet mediocre, before you get something that’s tainted, yet much improved.
Then, it starts to cannibalize itself.
Healthcare, government, education, entertainment.
It’s all the same.
CluelessNFLfan says it’s just greed.
It’s all in the name of greed. And Goodell is it’s poster child
Those are our random comments for this evening. I suspect this is one of the few subjects on which the vast majority of Dolphins and/or NFL fans agree. The NFL has made decisions that have hurt its product and/or its fans. As always, thank you to each of you who took the time to read and answer our Phinsider Question Of The Day.
