So why the ratings plunge?

[hawk45]

The NFL has a real blue collar fan base.

The Kaep thing is a bigger deal than most realize. I know a lot of guys who say they are done with the NFL for good.

I don't quite get it, but it is what it is.

White collar/blue collar, football covers all the demographics. College educated, not college educated.


A few mouth breathers leaving for NASCAR full time is fine by me.

Someone who feels differently than you is a mouth breather. Someone who watches NASCAR is a mouth breather.
Terrible post.

 

[mrt144]

Goodell telling fans they are wrong despite the incompetency with which he does almost everything.

http://deadspin.com/roger-goodell-no-it ... 1788088490

 

[mrt144]

Penalties, over-saturation, crappy presentation with London/TNF games, wussification, the whole "No Fun League" issues we've complained about for years. All take their toll, and all are a part of it.

The Kaepernick thing just seems to be a catalyst at a time where people were already souring on the game and wanting a diversion from issues they were trying to avoid while watching football.

It'd be kinda funny if Kaep was the catalyst but in a different way which is the realization these dudes are humans and watching so many of them get injuries by the inherent nature of the game - the head injuries and the completely ridiculous and inconsistent way with which any sort of protocol or hits to the head are called...

In a way, Kaep's situation antagonizes people without empathy who complain about the wussification America in aggregate while simultaneously guilting people with empathy to dare them to continue to watch a sport that is going to have life ruining injuries. But it's not like the NFL could do anything that wouldn't seem ridiculous given their gross incompetence in handling any situation.

I'm not going to fib here - watching players get injured over and over is really sapping my interest at the moment. After Ricardo almost died I think that was a turning moment in the whole "What am I getting out of watching football and is it worth it." All the other issues with Goodell,, DPI/Defensive Holding, Celebrations, DV, Stadium Deals Fleecing, Overexposure/Fantasy Football, Fan on Fan violence gnaw at me and push me closer to the threshold of 'enough' but truly, watching so many dudes get injured - it's better to just watch one game a week with keen interest than spend half of an AFC game hoping nobody gets injured on every single play.

 

[mrt144]

I think it's a lot of things.

1. Presidential race
2. Over saturation of games
3. Bad prime time games
4. People's access to traditional cable diminishing with streaming channels, especially millennials
5. Lack of star power in the league. No Brady, no Peyton, Romo hurt and others like Rodgers having a down year
6. No
Fun
League

Which IMO is a big one. Goodell and the owner's have decided to control the player's personalities by creating no fun rules for celebrating and tamping down what has made the NFL fun, characters.

Why watch if you have no rooting interest when it's just a bunch of homogeneous players all acting like perfect little robots not able to express themselves. Sterile.

The thing is though, there are dichotomous groups of viewers - those who absolutely bristle at players showing emotion because it's not their job to entertain outside of playing the game and executing like a soulless automoton - and those that love the human aspect of celebration for accomplishment even if some of it goes too far or is insipid.

Purely from a demographics POV I think the No Fun League fanbase is going to be shrinking over time (as I presume most of them are older and have some ideal football player schema cast in the mold of Johnny Unitis) and the NFL might be waiting to a certain critical mass before flipping a switch on this celebration standpoint. But they're potentially sacrificing long term viewership and breaking themselves against the changing preferences of fans.

 

[Sports Hernia]

Goodell telling fans they are wrong despite the incompetency with which he does almost everything.

http://deadspin.com/roger-goodell-no-it ... 1788088490

Rog like most CEO types is out of touch with reality. When you start slamming your customers (fans) and already disrespect your employees (the players) who already hate you, things are only going to snowball in a bad way.

Rog created this Frankenstein monster, and now has lost control of it.

 

[mrt144]

Goodell telling fans they are wrong despite the incompetency with which he does almost everything.

http://deadspin.com/roger-goodell-no-it ... 1788088490

Rog like most CEO types is out of touch with reality. When you start slamming your customers (fans) and already disrespect your employees (the players) who already hate you, things are only going to snowball in a bad way.

Rog created this Frankenstein monster, and now has lost control of it.

When the money is rolling in, no reason to be introspective and no yoke on bad vision.

 

[RolandDeschain]

Goodell telling fans they are wrong despite the incompetency with which he does almost everything.

http://deadspin.com/roger-goodell-no-it ... 1788088490

Rog like most CEO types is out of touch with reality. When you start slamming your customers (fans) and already disrespect your employees (the players) who already hate you, things are only going to snowball in a bad way.

Rog created this Frankenstein monster, and now has lost control of it.

He's not a CEO, he's a puppet for the owners...We've discussed this. :roll:

Keep the wool over your eyes if you want.

 

[mrt144]

Goodell telling fans they are wrong despite the incompetency with which he does almost everything.

http://deadspin.com/roger-goodell-no-it ... 1788088490

Rog like most CEO types is out of touch with reality. When you start slamming your customers (fans) and already disrespect your employees (the players) who already hate you, things are only going to snowball in a bad way.

Rog created this Frankenstein monster, and now has lost control of it.

He's not a CEO, he's a puppet for the owners...We've discussed this. :roll:

Keep the wool over your eyes if you want.

Whether the lack of vision comes from the owners or Goodell himself, the issue is clear to me - the powers that be are divorced enough from adverse consequences that they think they are the single most important part of the whole operation and hand down edicts and dubious ideas like an investigation apparatus for players that bungles the entire process top to bottom.

Also, Goodell needlessly antagonizes the fanbase by stating it's decision process not for us to know or care about. It might help rationalize the stances they take if they're coming from the basis that this should be a game we care about irrespective of all our baggage and opinions - it fits with the idea of depersonalizing the game itself by crapping all over player celebrations.

 

[Sports Hernia]

Goodell telling fans they are wrong despite the incompetency with which he does almost everything.

http://deadspin.com/roger-goodell-no-it ... 1788088490

Rog like most CEO types is out of touch with reality. When you start slamming your customers (fans) and already disrespect your employees (the players) who already hate you, things are only going to snowball in a bad way.

Rog created this Frankenstein monster, and now has lost control of it.

He's not a CEO, he's a puppet for the owners...We've discussed this. :roll:

Keep the wool over your eyes if you want.

Same difference, he runs the league. And yes, we have been over this.
8)

 

[RolandDeschain]

Same difference, he runs the league. And yes, we have been over this.
8)

So if I'm your boss at work and order you to do something stupid, it's your fault. Sweet.

 

[mrt144]

Same difference, he runs the league. And yes, we have been over this.
8)

So if I'm your boss at work and order you to do something stupid, it's your fault. Sweet.

Umm that plays out every day in business.

 

[RolandDeschain]

Umm that plays out every day in business.

Aye; but the point is that smart people recognize the source of the problem. Addressing only the symptoms without addressing the source accomplishes what, precisely?

 

[mrt144]

Umm that plays out every day in business.

Aye; but the point is that smart people recognize the source of the problem. Addressing only the symptoms without addressing the source accomplishes what, precisely?

Why can't we complain about the cough while getting rest to fight the cold?

I mean, yes, bottom line, this is the owners own making and it's clear they've lost feedback on making a better more robust league and simply are doing the bare minimum while trying to maximize profit. This might border on slander but too many owners don't actually understand or give a hoot about the game of football itself. It's a vehicle for profit and ego for far too many now and it is seeping into every nook and cranny of it.

Football is a one of a kind sport but the NFL is going to have a reckoning of some sort if they don't take stewardship of the game and entertainment value of the game more seriously. They've taken their success for granted.

 

[TwistedHusky]

A lot of you seem to be overthinking things and missing the absolute obvious issue/contributor.

Ask yourself this question:

Why do YOU watch games?

Most likely it is for the some of the following reasons:

1 - You want to support your team.

2 - You want to see who wins.

3 - A team has great offense/defense and you like to see it operate.


There are others like maybe you like a star player or want to catch someone on your fantasy team but those are the main ones.

So why are those issues important?

Over time, the league has slowly but surely been shifting the rules to favor the QB. Remember that they were going to add entirely new rules to the roughing the QB definition, further decreasing the target area.

In the past, a very good QB with a great defense or a great run game, could beat an all-pro QB, but not really anymore.

If you want to compete, you have to have a QB. To keep a QB you have to pay up and that means stripping the team or filling the team with rookies in key spots. We managed a way around by bargain basementing our OL but ultimately 2 things happen:

1 - If you do not have a top 10% QB you have no chance, not over the long run. Since QBs are required to win, teams have to go all out for them. But since great QBs are a 1 in 4 prop at best (assuming you are terrible enough to get the 1st or 2nd pick), that means a lot of teams have to be terrible for 1-4 years just to get a competitive QB.

If you are a team without a QB, it can be easy to see that lack of a QB means lack of a future and quite clearly easy to give up caring for the year. All you can do is hope to be terrible enough to get a good draft pick.

2 - The sheer number of teams that have to throw in the towel early, means a lot of really worthless matchups. Usually you know before the game starts who will win, so why watch?

Admittedly, the loss of credibility in officiating and the loss of effectiveness of teams as teams are playing more raw/unskilled rookies and letting go of veterans for cap reasons, does affect the quality. But, since there really can only be 6-8 all everything QBs at a time, that means the rest of the teams are just treading water, or worse.

And if 6-8 teams are the only ones with futures, then why watch the other teams? They have so pushed the rules in favor of the QB that they have devalued almost all the other players removing much of the hope/enjoyment that someone gets a great player. Because great players that are not QBs do not really move the needle.

 

[mrt144]

I think you hit on something Twisted which is that the current rules, player composition of the league have created an unentertaining situation for most teams. It also explains why great D Linemen are some of the best paid and D line as a position group can tilt games - there aren't enough QBs or O Lines or Cognizant OCs to go around the league to manage a good to great D line.

The talent gap in O Line has been raised as problem of the NCAA not doing enough to make NFL ready O-lineman but I think complaining about that is pissing in the wind. College has their own metagame to manage and college football doesn't need the NFL to do their thing and do it well. What possible leverage could the NFL use to get better college O Linemen right off the bat?

Perhaps something should be done vis a vis salary weighting for veteran players?

And to speak to your point about teams throwing in the towel early, 5/8 divisions have a team with 1 or less win this season.

 

[Anonymous]

As some others have already said, the viewership is not down, there are just a lot more fans using ways to view that cannot be tracked as easily.

NFL Mobile trough Verizon can be, but it depends on how you have your privacy settings set on your hand-helds as to whether you count or not. Lots of paranoid folks uncheck those little boxes for location settings, privacy, feedback, etc. Also, tons more folks forego the expense of DTV ST and head to the sports bar instead. NFL can't collect turnstile info from those venues. Google phones and iPhones both have "incognito mode" which interferes with browser watch stats using streaming feeds as well, and you most certainly aren't getting anything out of Comcast.

Ratings aren't down, tracking methods are not as effective and/or not as accessible as in the past. Unless the NFL pays the NSA and the CIA for cell-tower triangulation and spy data, those stats vanished. You can thank Edward Snowden for protecting that for you.

 

[RiverDog]

As some others have already said, the viewership is not down, there are just a lot more fans using ways to view that cannot be tracked as easily.

NFL Mobile trough Verizon can be, but it depends on how you have your privacy settings set on your hand-helds as to whether you count or not. Lots of paranoid folks uncheck those little boxes for location settings, privacy, feedback, etc. Also, tons more folks forego the expense of DTV ST and head to the sports bar instead. NFL can't collect turnstile info from those venues. Google phones and iPhones both have "incognito mode" which interferes with browser watch stats using streaming feeds as well, and you most certainly aren't getting anything out of Comcast.

Ratings aren't down, tracking methods are not as effective and/or not as accessible as in the past. Unless the NFL pays the NSA and the CIA for cell-tower triangulation and spy data, those stats vanished. You can thank Edward Snowden for protecting that for you.

Sure, there's more viewing platforms/venues. But they have slowly come onto the scene. They did not all suddenly materialize in one year in large enough numbers to account for such a large, one year decline of 13%.

This season, at least the first half of this season, there's been a perfect storm of events..The POTUS election, Kaepernick, baseball's post season (Cubbies made the WS for the first time in 71 years), plus, in bits and pieces, all of the stuff mentioned in this thread.

 

[Anonymous]

Okay, I'll give you a few percentage points for a lack of an exciting product nd/or election stuff, but not many. I still say it's alternative means that cannot be tracked that speak to much of the measurable declines.

All can tell you is any reductions most certainly are not coming from me or my friends/neighbors. We watch the hell out of the NFL. Not just the Hawks, all the discussion shows, Fantasy shows, NFL Network, you name it. We're still glued.

 

[Sports Hernia]

Same difference, he runs the league. And yes, we have been over this.
8)

So if I'm your boss at work and order you to do something stupid, it's your fault. Sweet.

So you are saying they pay Rog 30+ million dollars a year and then and then they tell him EVERY SINGLE WORD to say???
If that's the case, that's one expensive dummy, and uncle Jerruh and the Rooney's are horrible ventriloquists.

I know Rog is your dog and all, but come on man. :lol:

 

[RiverDog]

Okay, I'll give you a few percentage points for a lack of an exciting product nd/or election stuff, but not many. I still say it's alternative means that cannot be tracked that speak to much of the measurable declines.

All can tell you is any reductions most certainly are not coming from me or my friends/neighbors. We watch the hell out of the NFL. Not just the Hawks, all the discussion shows, Fantasy shows, NFL Network, you name it. We're still glued.

Baseball fans have the same alternative means to watch their sport as NFL fans, yet their viewership is going up. That leads me to believe that the root cause of this decline has little to do with viewing platforms.

You, me, and a lot of us are still glued. But it's a big country, the face of which has been changing. At my workplace, well over half of our labor force was not born in the USA. Most of those folks care way more about soccer than they do football. There's a lot of viewers out there that are very passive in their attachment to American football. The more rule changes they make, the more they confuse those folks that are trying to adapt the sport.

I really think that football has peaked. It's still going to remain as the 500 pound gorilla of the American sporting scene, but we've seen an end to this exponential climb in popularity. It's not unlike Major League Baseball in the late 50's.