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ESPN Can’t Afford Monday Night Football Any More

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Re: ESPN Can’t Afford Monday Night Football Any More

#21

Post by kodablah »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #18

Long time NFL GamePass subscriber here... no commercials, watch any game I want when I want - it's a completely superior experience to cable / OTA. I get that the NFL wants to maximize its revenue by selling rights, but they could likely provide their own real-time streaming service and every football fan on the planet would be happy to pay for it.

> it's a completely superior experience to cable / OTA

Can't watch ALL games live right? That's hardly completely superior. IMO, NFL would make less money on direct sales than they do when they charge networks which charge all cable subscribers (even via retransmission fees for those of us who can't get OTA) AND charge advertisers. That double dip is going to net more money than a specialized service for NFL fans.

Re: ESPN Can’t Afford Monday Night Football Any More

#22

Post by apendleton »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #18

Long time NFL GamePass subscriber here... no commercials, watch any game I want when I want - it's a completely superior experience to cable / OTA. I get that the NFL wants to maximize its revenue by selling rights, but they could likely provide their own real-time streaming service and every football fan on the planet would be happy to pay for it.

Yes, but nobody else would. Lots of the people paying for ESPN don't do so by choice, they do so because it comes as part of their cable package whether they watch it or not (this was me pre-cord-cutting).

Re: ESPN Can’t Afford Monday Night Football Any More

#23

Post by Brendinooo »

legitster wrote: post #5
rhino369 wrote: post #2

I think it's a bad assumption to think the NFL will demand more money when ratings and subscriptions are down. ESPN just has to be the highest bidder. Someone has got to air the games.

The NFL has struggled finding a good home for Thursday Night Football. MNF could easily turn into another network wandering nomad.

Is that true? My impression was always that it was a valuable enough property that lots of companies wanted in on the action, but I admit that's not grounded in sources.

Re: ESPN Can’t Afford Monday Night Football Any More

#24

Post by brian-armstrong »

kodablah wrote: post #15

This is going to be one of many reasons there might be a lockout in 2020 when it's CBA renewal time. This is going to trickle down to the players. NFL can't continue charging exorbitant access fees which means they will have to request a serious reduction in the salary cap (the owners aren't going to be willing to eat these losses). I think this is great thing as the economics of large sports salaries have been artif…

Given how traumatic the sport and related CTEs are, I wonder if falling salaries will spell the end of football

Re: ESPN Can’t Afford Monday Night Football Any More

#25

Post by Mountain_Skies »

sunsetMurk wrote: post #13
endtime wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens if the highest bidder can't pay the NFL enough to make it worthwhile? I keep seeing pictures of half-empty stands behind kneeling football players, and ultimately if the NFL destroys its value by alienating too many fans with politics, there's no reason the entire business won't or shouldn't collapse.

curious - are there any reports/#'s out there that indicate attendance is lower than normal? +correlation w/ kneeling players?

The vast majority of NFL tickets are sold before the start of the season so teams are still claiming sellouts, which while technically correct, gives an impression that isn't reflected in actual people in the seats. I'm not sure how the NFL counts attendance but in NCAA football each school decides on what methodology to use. Some don't count hotdog vendors, some count every person inside the stadium, some just estimate the crowd without bothering with an actual count. It wouldn't surprise me if some pro teams massaged their numbers to appear larger than the actual number of fans who show up.

Re: ESPN Can’t Afford Monday Night Football Any More

#26

Post by SpikeDad »

saluki wrote: post #7

I would like to see MNF go back to an over-the-air network. MNF has a long tradition before moving to ESPN. There are lots of fans who don't have a pay tv package that have been missing out on MNF.

That's an assumption that the NFL (or any sports league for that matter) do things that are beneficial to fans as opposed to beneficial to the bottom line of owners.

I can name a hundred things leagues have done to dilute and harm their respective games in order to increase profits.

Re: ESPN Can’t Afford Monday Night Football Any More

#27

Post by brian-armstrong »

endtime wrote: post #3
rhino369 wrote: post #2

I think it's a bad assumption to think the NFL will demand more money when ratings and subscriptions are down. ESPN just has to be the highest bidder. Someone has got to air the games.

What happens if the highest bidder can't pay the NFL enough to make it worthwhile? I keep seeing pictures of half-empty stands behind kneeling football players, and ultimately if the NFL destroys its value by alienating too many fans with politics, there's no reason the entire business won't or shouldn't collapse.

I'm always a little shocked when people admit outrage over kneeling players but don't seem at all concerned that the sport endangers the players' wellbeing. What do you think contributes to this empathy gap?

Re: ESPN Can’t Afford Monday Night Football Any More

#28

Post by ProAm »

ghrifter wrote: post #10
sandworm101 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Someone has got to air the games. Really? Football has been played without network coverage. I could see a future whereby teams handled their own streaming, or where the NFL did it all through NFL.com. The days of "air" are quickly coming to an end. I'm a little surprised that Netflix, Google or even FB aren't bidding. And if NFL owners want more people into the stadiums, curtailing broadcast coverage has been the…

Amazon currently streams Thursday Night Football

So does Twitter I believe....

Re: ESPN Can’t Afford Monday Night Football Any More

#29

Post by bearcobra »

I think it's worth noting that this site is run by Clay Travis, who generally seems to be an outspoken ESPN critic on political grounds. It's also worth noting that ESPN currently down to 87 million subscribers from a peak of about 100 million in 2011, so they haven't lost 30% of their subscriber base since adding MNF in 2006.

Re: ESPN Can’t Afford Monday Night Football Any More

#30

Post by vestermark »

zeveb wrote: post #9
rhino369 wrote: post #2

I think it's a bad assumption to think the NFL will demand more money when ratings and subscriptions are down. ESPN just has to be the highest bidder. Someone has got to air the games.

> Someone has got to air the games. Does someone? Sure, professional football has been very popular for many decades, but there's nothing about the order of the universe which states that it will remain so forever. We don't have chariot races, or gladiators, or bear-baiting — maybe someday we won't have professional football either.

The NFL's life expectancy is now less than 20 years. Young people aren't playing the game, because their parents don't want their brains to get all smashed up. Active participation in tackle football among teenagers fell from 9% to 7% in just 5 years from 2011-2016. The talent pool will dry up. The game will be less interesting. The fan base will die off.
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