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The NFL’s Very Profitable Existential Crisis

TedTed
in Off-Topic
FYI: Consider the curious case of the National Football League: It’s the largest single entertainment property in the U.S., a $14 billion per year attention-sucking machine with a steady hold on the lives of tens of millions. And its future is now in widespread doubt.

Ratings for regular-season games fell 17 percent over the past two years, according to Nielsen, and after one week of play in the new season, viewership has been flat. February marked the third-straight year of audience decline for the Super Bowl and the smallest audience since 2009. Youth participation in tackle football, meanwhile, has declined by nearly 22 percent since 2012 in the face of an emerging scientific consensus that the game destroys the brains of its players. Once a straightforward Sunday diversion, the NFL has become a daily exercise in cognitive dissonance for fans and a hotly contested front in a culture war that no longer leaves space for non-combatants.

To many outside observers, this looks like the end of an era. “The NFL probably peaked two years ago,” says Andrew Zimbalist, a professor of economics at Smith College who specializes in the business of sports. “It’s basically treading water.”
Regards,
Ted
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-09-13/nfl-makes-more-money-than-ever-and-things-have-never-been-worse

Comments

  • BrianW
    I believe this falls under the heading of, this too shall pass. As I sit to watch my Redskins play the Colts, I'm dismayed by the absence of the National Anthem. I believe traditions matter. Instead of resolving the issue, one way or the other, the NFL is trying to wait it out. Trump won't always be there to poke them in the eye, but the issue will be, unless resolved. To which I say, just deal with it already. On the other side of the argument, I understand how it started, I'm just not sure anyone outside the tribe understands. Having said that, I don't believe it is prudent to crap where you eat.
  • Chinfist
    Still watching, but not as much. My interest has waned due to something less talked about as far as the appeal of the game: poor and biased officiating.
  • MikeMMikeM
    I'm with @Chinfist on this one. The product just isn't the same anymore, and officiating and rule changes for safety issues maybe (unconsciously) the biggest part of it, IMHO. Not saying safety rule changes aren't the right thing, just saying it changed what people liked about the sport to begin with - the gladiator mentality.

    The national anthem stuff doesn't affect me at all. I don't see it as tradition. I personally don't see it as having any place in sporting events period... except the olympics. The NFL is not the olympics.

    Nobody watches baseball anymore. I suppose football will take a similar course as generations change. Video game superbowl anyone???
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