The NFL is easily the most popular sports league in the country, with the most TV/Cable/Streaming viewers every single season. They also lead all leagues in merchandise sales and ridiculous broadcast contracts. Those contracts are ridiculous, given that broadcasters regularly lose money on their deals yet return for the next round of contract negotiations, bidding above value for another round of rights. No other league could pull this off time after time. The overpaying by various broadcasters for the rights to air NFL games doesn’t hurt us fans directly, but the NFL is doing plenty else to hurt fans all the same.
The one thing the NFL does with its broadcasting rights that hurts us fans is divvying up games to every single broadcaster or streamer who shows up to the rights negotiations with a big enough bag. Now we have Thursday night games on Amazon Prime. Then there’s the ever-growing list of other streamers, including Peacock, Netflix, and ESPN+. If you live outside the local viewing area for your favorite team, like me, there’s also the very expensive NFL Sunday Ticket that you can stream via YouTube or YouTube TV. NFL Sunday Ticket will be $240 this coming season for new users, while previous users will be charged $378 with YouTube TV or $480 as a standalone product via YouTube. I don’t know how I would have ever been able to watch games now if I were still in my 20s. This seems like a huge mistake on the NFL’s part, possibly pricing out the younger viewer who will one day form the foundation of their fan base, especially during a time when there are so many other entertainment options available.
There is also the whole games on other nights/days outside of Sunday, Monday night, and the traditional Thanksgiving Day games thing. Now we have a game on the night before Thanksgiving, giving us our first Wednesday night game!?! The Friday games will also return on Black Friday, with a triple header on Christmas, which falls on a Friday this year. I can’t imagine this is as popular with actual NFL fans as the league thinks it is, or at least says it is, but as long as it gives them another way to squeeze a few extra dollars out of the broadcasting/streaming system as it is now, it’s going to continue to happen.
The NFL has also signaled that it plans to go to an 18-game season with 2 bye weeks. This in no way improves the game, but it does, of course, give the league 16 more games a season to sell to someone while also adding two more weeks to the season, thus…giving it another way to demand more money from the various carriers. There has been considerable pushback on this by the players and their union, but the owners will continue to push for it, and I assume that if it takes until the next collective bargaining agreement that comes up for renewal after the 2030 season, the owners will get their way by giving in on some other small/insignificant thing that the players want.
Another thing that most fans seem to dislike is the international games. These games began with just a couple of games in Europe, and now we are up to nine this season. The NFL will return to Europe, Mexico, and Brazil this year with the addition of a game in Australia. The commissioner, Roger Goodell, has now stated that the NFL’s ultimate goal is 16 international games per season. This is on top of the league, looking at possible expansion by placing new franchises in foreign countries. I can only assume that the number will eventually well exceed 16 games if there are eventually teams in other countries. This also sticks it to the fans who are season-ticket holders and miss a home game, when the NFL, unlike all the other leagues, has so few games per season to begin with.
There are also the rules changes. I am all for measures that truly protect the well-being of the players on the field, but some of their recent rule changes to do so have not made the game safer; they have only gotten us further away from what we consider “American football.” The NFL should continue to look at, research, and invest in ways to make the game safer for players, but stop trying to change the game in radical ways. The NFL also has a refereeing issue that has eroded fans’ faith in the sport’s fairness. This is a subject that could probably be its own series of posts, and one that the NFL CLEARLY needs to address.
So tonight’s Phinsider Question Of The Day is:
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?
Please share your thoughts and answers in the comments section below-