For couch potatoes, fantasy junkies, and degenerate gamblers, this week is more important than Christmas. Another NFL season kicks off! I can hear my wife sighing already.
Lost in Olympics coverage over the summer was the fact that the NFL’s overall attendance for the 2011 season was the lowest it has been since the league expanded to 32 teams in 2002. Everyone has a theory. Most blame the overall state of the economy. Some blame expansion itself, diluting the product on the field to the point where we have the Colts, Dolphins, Rams, and Buccaneers of the world.
Yet some – myself included – have a different theory.
The product on TV is simply far, far better than what you can get in the stadium. Stadiums face the same problem as movie theaters: We’re so coddled by technology in our home theaters, it’s getting harder and harder to find an excuse to leave.
Although I have an NFL stadium 20 minutes from my house, I haven’t been to a Bucs game in about seven or eight years. Part of the reason is that I am an admitted fair-weather fan. I’m simply not interested in paying what I consider an exorbitant sum to watch a team lose. Just as if a restaurant started putting out an inferior product, I would stop patronizing that restaurant. And Chez Buccaneer has been an inferior restaurant for most of the last decade, not winning a playoff game since their Super Bowl run in 2002.
More importantly, the NFL shot themselves in the foot when it came to my prospective attendance when they invented NFL RedZone.
For those who aren’t familiar, RedZone is a channel broadcast by the NFL on most cable networks that shows only the most important plays from every game going on during Sunday afternoon. It simply skips around the league, staying at one game only if a team is in the “red zone.” The cost is around $50 for the season, less than one ticket to a live game.
No more rushing plays into the middle of the line, resulting in a 2-yard gain.
No more incomplete passes.
I only see what is important. I don’t even watch highlight shows anymore, because chances are I saw the highlight in real time, no matter the game. As a fantasy player, I see when my players (or the opponent’s) score before it even registers on the online fantasy tracker website. I’ve finished cursing by the time the score is updated.
I’ve heard the same refrain from the people who are lucky enough to subscribe to DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket, where they have access to every game broadcast. Or the people who would rather frequent the local sports bar, where they can also see every game and probably get better food than what would be available at the stadium.
So perhaps the cause of the NFL’s attendance woes (if you can call them that, considering more than 16 million people visited a game last year) is the NFL itself and its blinding madness to chase money wherever they may be able to find it.
The question is: What can they do to get butts back in the seats?
I can’t say I’ll never go to another Bucs game, particularly if I have some friends going as well. But they need to provide a similar experience to what I have at home, which means letting me know what is happening in the other games. I may be a Bucs fan, but this season I’m also a fan of Tom Brady, Trent Richardson, and Jamaal Charles (until I trade them).
At Raymond James Stadium, there is one scrolling scoreboard in the whole building that shows scores from the other games around the league. Just scores. No stats. They don’t even show highlights of other games during halftime.
Meanwhile, during the innumerable stoppages of play to let the TV stations get their commercials in, the fans in the stadium are also treated to a bunch of commercials on the jumbotrons. I thought I paid you a lot of money for a ticket so I didn’t have to watch commercials?
So instead of the commercials between series, they need to show RedZone. Since it’s already an NFL product, there are no licensing issues. The people in the stadium can then get a much better idea of what’s going on around the league and won’t have the feeling that they’re missing something by opting to see the game in person.
Speaking of not missing anything, I need stadium-wide free Wi-Fi. Then I can bring my tablet to the game and keep up with my fantasy players. Or you can do some work during halftime, if you’re trying to offset the cost of the ticket.
Just as we started this conversation by bemoaning the slackening attendance at NFL games, we’re going to end it with another figure: $9.5 billion. That was the NFL’s total revenue last season. They can afford the bill for 65,000 people using Wi-Fi for three hours eight times a year, and to forgo the commercials in the stadium. And by doing that, maybe fewer games around the league will get blacked out, creating even more revenue.
Without changing the live game, the NFL risks losing a generation of fans to whom football might as well be played on a soundstage.
I have been going to NHL games for the last 2 years and the atmosphere and views are fantastic.
Sitting 20 or 30 rows back of the ice (and on the sides so no netting is in the way) makes the game a perfect live experience. I wish it was only an hour away via interstate instead of 2.
Good read here. I definitely agree the TV experience for Football is better than the real thing. Actually, I think it’s the best TV experience for ANY live sport, the NFL and cable companies have done an awesome job of this and I love it.
That being said, I think the NFL knows they are losing out on actual attendance and are doing a decent amount to “personalize” the experience at the stadium, especially for VIPs. However, if they want to keep attendance up they’ll have to start doing a lot more for the regular ticker buyers
Very Interesting your point and I agree with you about the wifi. But I would like to add another perspective to the point. Last season I went to Buffalo to see Bills vs Patriots, as a Patriots fan, it was a great experience, I think the most people who attend the stadiums are fans of the team and they don’t care about what other teams are doing unless they are fighting for the same playoff spot, even when my team lost that game and the crowd it wasn’t that friendly, it was a great experience. I was pushing hard to travel to Boston this season to see them on their own turf but no luck whatsoever with the tickets and I’m not willing to pay a ridiculously amount of money for a couple resale tickets. The point is I prefer to go to the stadium, support my team and enjoy the experience with my wife or my buddies rather to stay at home and watch it on TV.
Count me as one who prefers the stadium experience. What finally turnend me off was the exorbitant prices for tickets, parking, concessions, souvenirs, etc. If I could afford it, I would still be attending games in person. But I can’t afford it and I don’t blame the recent recession. I haven’t attended a pro game in over 15 years due to the cost.
And speaking of the comparison to movies: I remember seeing “Star Wars” on the big screen back in the summer of 1977. There is absolutely NO WAY you can reproduce the crowd experience of seeing that movie, by sitting on your couch and watching it on a television — I don’t care how big the screen is. Enjoying the movie with your fellow audience members is part of the movie “experience” and I’m glad I have that experience (as well as “2001″ during its opening run back in 1968).
With the way most stadiums are built for football, I can’t help but think unless you have pay a certain large chunk of change, the seats you get aren’t very fulfilling to watching the action without your eyes glued to the jumbotron. And unless your at a college game, “atmosphere” goes only so far as an excuse.
Also, I only think basketball is a game that is truly enhanced more live than on television. There is rarely an awful seat in basketball stadiums.
Well said! When owners started treating sports teams as a business, I started to view my favorite team as a business, I wont buy an inferior sports product just like you wouldn’t buy a crappy car or an old, almost expired jug of milk. NO MORE!!
And I agree about the NFL Redzone, last year was the first time I subscribed to it and the wife and I agreed that we will never go back!!