The NFL Is Seriously Concerned With Empty Stadiums
 

The NFL Is Seriously Concerned With Empty Stadiums

By: Ryan Phillips | September 13, 2017


Week 1 of the NFL season had plenty of important stories worth following, but maybe the most entertaining was the mostly empty stadiums in Los Angeles and Santa Clara. Both the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers had sparse crowds for their home openers, and that has not gone unnoticed by the NFL.


Ian Rapoport ✔ @RapSheet
NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart on the attendance in LA & SF: “Any time we empty seats that something we want to address.” Focused on sellouts.
10:29 AM - Sep 13, 2017


Ian Rapoport’s report (try and say that fast five times) above shows that the league is clearly worried about the optics of half-filled stadiums. And they should be. It’s embarrassing for the league.

This is what the 49ers crowd looked like at the start of the second half in Week 1:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DJZRldwVoAAsYsx.jpg

And here’s what the Rams crowd looked like in the first quarter:

https://www.ballerstatus.com/wp-cont...ms-780x520.jpg

Here’s the thing, the NFL’s plans for relocating teams have been hilariously ham-fisted. Moving the 49ers to Santa Clara, 45 minutes from San Francisco was a moronic decision. Levi’s Stadium is also positioned so roughly 70 percent of the stadium bakes in the sun with no chance of shade.

Meanwhile, the Rams might actually have decent attendance once they move into their new stadium, but that’s a huge gamble. Until then, they’ll likely be dealing with sparse crowds at the Coliseum for the next three seasons. It’s terrible optics for the NFL to have empty stadiums and absolutely no atmosphere for games.

And we haven’t even gotten to the Los Angeles Chargers, who haven’t even been able to sellout a 27,000-seat stadium. No one wanted the Chargers in Los Angeles, and it has shown so far. Dean Spanos and his family have consistently claimed they are pleased with ticket sales and “excited” about what’s happened with the franchise in LA, but look at the following picture for the team’s first ever official game in Los Angeles:

https://usatthebiglead.files.wordpre...rs-tickets.png

That was taken just before publishing this piece. Everything in color there is a ticket on sale for the team’s Week 2 matchup with the Miami Dolphins. Many of them are “re-sale” tickets that were likely snagged up by brokers when season tickets went on sale. Those brokers will likely aim to sell those seats to opposing fans all season. That graphic is stunning because it comes from just one ticket selling website, and there are several others that each have hundreds of tickets available.

The fact that the Chargers can’t find 27,000 fans to fill their tiny soccer stadium home for their opener in a new city would be shocking if you hadn’t followed this move from the beginning. But, let’s be real: there is zero buzz around the team, fan outreach efforts have been widely mocked and San Diego fans have abandoned the franchise en masse after the way the team’s ownership treated its former city. No matter how much lipstick the NFL tries to put on that situation, it’s always going to look like a pig.

Empty stadiums are a huge deal to the NFL. Yes, the league makes its money off of TV contracts, but when fans aren’t at games it has a detrimental impact on the product. It sends the message that games are boring, uninteresting and that people don’t want to have anything to do with them in person. That kind of message hurts the product as a whole.

Not to mention, players don’t want to play in empty stadiums, so those franchises will suffer when it comes time to lure free agents. That could lead to some teams being buried at the bottom of the league year after year and creating a cycle that leaves fans even less incentive to show up.

This is a major problem for the NFL. Maybe owners around the league will finally realize that their big, bold stadium and relocation plans should actually have more thought attached to them.


http://thebiglead.com/2017/09/13/the...mpty-stadiums/

Ham fisted

No one is in the Santa Clara stadium because it's hot as **** there. The reflection off of the luxury boxes heats up the peasant seats like an oven. Also both teams kind of suck (Rams less so) and tickets are expensive as hell.

Shouldn't this be titled:

The NFL is seriously concerned with empty stadiums in California?

It helps attendance if the team in question doesn't suck out loud.

The ratings for week one are out. While Irma certainly had an impact on the overall numbers, the NFL should be worried about viewership in general.

I think the worst thing that the NFL did was ever acknowledging any political BS. Think that brought a sour note to the NFL and is also pushing a significant amount of people (mainly SJW millennial/college age types) away from the NFL.

Other options and over regulation of the game have left viewers disillusioned.

They did it to themselves with all the BS rule changes and keeping the wildly unpopular Goodell as the commissioner. The arbitrary fines and suspensions also are making this league worse IMO. Kaepernick hasn't helped things either.

It is the snowball effect. Even Mark Cuban predicted this.

I think the biggest problem is just prices.

Arrowhead would pack every game if they cut parking 2/3rds and lowered ticket prices 15%.

Of course, that would cost the teams money, which is what this is really about.

The NFL isn't concerned about empty stadiums, they're concerned about money. If they wanted to pack stadiums, it would be insanely easy.

I'd like to know how they formulate numbers on viewership. Is it a Nielsen type thing where they check in on who and how many people are watching a live event on their on TVs, and do they account for viewers that stream or DVR games to watch at a later date?

I also wonder what the impact is of all those companies moving their HQ's out of California the last decade. So many have moved to Texas and brought many well paid people with them. Sure, it might be a stretch... but, could it be a factor?

Those teams have all sucked for quite some time and I'm sure prices have gone up and it's stupid expensive to live in California.

Idk man.. Golden State Warriors are always selling out but like you said 49ers and Rams suck.

It's prob time for Goodell to bash Trump pulblicly, like he did adter the election. That's good for business, taking political stands as a CEO. Viewers love that!




On second thought, he can burn in hell.

The article mainly concerns itself with California teams that have little or no fan support (redundant, I know), and all three of those mentioned have recently relocated.

However, across the league I think the main problems are that the NFL has decided to price regular people out of the market, and that the quality of the product has declined.

Rule changes making the league so QB-centric... 4 or 5 teams realistically have a chance. You can't hit anyone, you can't defend anyone, nobody knows what a catch is any longer. Defense and the ground game are sideshows the passing game. Arena football isn't popular and this mess the NFL is declining toward isn't either. Bring back the run game, bring back defense, bring back what was once the most "team" of all team sports.

Then maybe people will consider paying exorbitant sums for parking spaces, tickets, and everything that goes with them.

It's always a good time to bash that ****ing ****.

maybe people are just tired of watching boring football / product, and paying through the nose to do so.

i haven't been to a game since the Chiefs home playoff loss to the Ravens, and used to go to probably 3 games a year.

the home experience is just way way better IMO.
at least it's better when you factor in the cost to go to a game. and I would imagine the Chiefs are on the low-end of costs to attend a game. (no idea though).




**EDit....NM, Cochise pretty much covered the point I was trying to make.

- the 49ers have only had 5 seasons over .500 since 2000
- LA Rams are 5-12 since relocating, their last season over .500 was 2003
- Chargers have had 9 wins three times since 2010
- last year was the first time the Raiders had been better than .500 since 2002

There's been a metric ton of shitty football in California for a very long time.

They're going to have to lower ticket prices, period. It's simple economics. It seems to me that they could get ahead of the curve and lower ticket sales preemptively. Why wait for the market to sour so much that you are forced to lower them, and enthusiasm has waned?

Enthusiasm is still relatively high. You could make your desirable product more accessible, and maintain your momentum. Or you can bleed it dry and shutter your doors in 20 years.

Right...

Staying at home and watching the games is so, SO much better.
I'm headed to the Chiefs/Chargers game in LA next week and had to pay out the nose for it ($170/ticket).

I won't be doing that next year.

last night, my wife (who is playing fantasy football for the first time ever with some work friends) said "Joe Mixon is on my bench and has only gotten me 2 points so far. but he's on my bench so, I guess that's no big deal'.


after hearing that I remember thinking ".....man...there's a football game on tonight"? lol. no shit.

Think about all the 'great games' on NFL films from the 60s, 70s, 80s. Visualize them in your head... take a few minutes.

Ok, did you see old, outdoor stadiums in the elements with Joe Sixpack and all his buddies face painting and having a blast in the stands? Hell yeah you did, and you've nailed so much of what I think the problem is today.

That new ATL stadium and all the others... it's so damn expensive to go to a game. Single game cheap seats are crazy.

It would cost me $100 per ticket to take my family of 5 to the Cowboys/Rams game in a few weeks... really? And, that's up at the highest and furthest away from the action. Don't forget parking and crazy priced food. Call it $550 with no food or drinks. $700 with all that and I'm not sure if I would pay that price to see Dallas/Denver. Maybe I'm just a cheap bastard, but damn that's insane.

It's like that everywhere. No thanks.

As with most things, it's the internet and big screen TVs.

I'm sure the Fade moving out of Cali and announcing it years ahead of time will help this problem too.

Great take, spot on.

Plus, think about all the money that goes into fantasy football. It always comes back to money.

The NFL could die off, or go to a PPV scenario, or some other method where they're not on TV anymore, and I seriously don't think I would be all that upset by it. Yes, it would suck not watching the Chiefs (the only really team I follow anyway), but oh well. If you would've told me 10 years ago I'd have that opinion of the NFL, I would've said you're crazy. I used to play my entire weekends around football.

Now I get more enjoyment watching NCAA games at random / good matchups, and have my Sundays pretty much free again.


and though i used to be a fanatical FF player, I haven't played in probably nearly a decade. and I think the game has evolved to cater to fantasy football. all the FF segments on pre-games, entire FF programs, etc, I think has alot to do with it. An entire generation of people are only interested in the NFL to see how many points they got each week, and don't really have a passion for a particular team.

The other problem is these stadiums are becoming mini-amusement parks... why the hell is it necessary to have great Wifi for a 3 hour game? Go to the Cowboys' stadium and on the levels with restaurants and bars, you'll see people that spent great money for their suite... sitting in the atrium club or the Jack Daniels bar watching the game on a TV screen. Dumbasses with too much money.

I've never understood why people would pay that kind of money to watch the game on a TV screen from inside the stadium. Or in a suite, even.

When you turn on your tv and they're talking about football they're always talking about concussions, sitting during the national anthem, or a team holding a city hostage for money.

Nobody wants to spend a ton of time or money on that shit.

Mark Cuban was right.

Yep.

History is a good teacher in spite of many passing decades. The facts are that the AFL LA Chargers lasted one year, 1960, before bolting to SD. Then we know both the Raiders and Rams vacated LA in the 90s because of poor fan support. LA is a college football town, just as St Louis is a MLB town and other examples abound.

That reminds me of the oddest photo I've seen of these new affronts to God. There was an artist's rendition of the Redskins new stadium that had a guy surfing in front of the stadium.

EDIT: Found it.

https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-con...pg.optimal.jpg

LMAO

Yep, and there's also

Horrible officiating impacting games and pissing off the fans and bettors
Corrupt front office leading to bad off-the-field policies and blatantly unfair penalties
Bad optics with the dissing of the anthem
etc...

There are so many (mostly) self-inflicted wounds here, that it's easy to overlook some. And that doesn't even get into whatever number of people have pulled away because of concussion studies and the like.

Looks like they have wall climbers repelling on it too.

The first year we had season tickets it was $480 for the pair-$20.00 parking.

Even though we had many horrible seasons- the tickets kept going up. When it got to $1440 for the same seats- Plus a $50.00 "Convenience" fee added onto my season ticket account- Plus $40.00 for parking- I gave it up.

My last game as a season ticket holder was a December game. It was shitty out and could not even give away my extra ticket. So it cost me $159.00 with my share of parking to see the Chiefs get creamed by the Donks. People were giving out free tickets outside. It was such a huge waste of money being a season ticket holder. Never again.

Yeah, I agree with Cochise's big picture summary, but I do think the true catalyst is price. It's expensive enough now that you could go spend a weekend at a lake or something instead if you have a family. Or for a two-person family like mine, it would cover my airfare to some nice place. It's just not really worth it for a three-hour excursion where your team may or may not win, especially when you can also watch it on your big-screen high-definition television.

If they lower the prices, they'll get a lot of their crowds back, despite the other structural issues going on.

No doubt about it. Los Angeles is a weird animal when it comes to pro football. I understand the league obsessing about it since it's the second-largest national market. It seems like you could fill a stadium from a population of 13 million or whatever it is. But maybe you just can't.

Here in ATL they didn't even sell single game tickets. You wanted to go to games you had to buy a seat license and then pay for the whole season.

Never mind that our new soccer team (best attendance in the MLS over 45k a game) plays in there and you can get cheap seats without license.

Sunday games in that new dome are gonna have a lame ass environment because nobody in there is actually the Joe 6 pack die hard fan. Those folks all told the Falcons to piss off.

I wonder if they realize that half the stadiums are always gonna be empty on any given Sunday because the team is on a road trip. They need to think things thru.

All of this. I would also add the tailgate experience is not even close to what it was. The Chiefs try to cram you into a little spot now for "safety" reasons and send the Nazi's around in a golf cart to harass you if you are over the line. It also takes twice as long to get Into the stadium with all the security-which cuts down your tailgate time on noon games.

Tailgating was half the fun of the game day experience- now you almost spend more time being directed around the lot than party time.

Last year i fished as much as I could instead of watching football, this year I am going to the river.

Maybe they need to quit checking for weapons at the gate, I understand the parking lot was full of people turned away.

Yes they are missing the point- the real fans are there to see the football team-NOT to sit in a billion dollar stadium and post selfies on FB.

One hugely annoying thing the Chiefs did to **** up our stadium is put a constant add running screen all around the middle of the stadium that flashes nonsense pop ups at you the entire time. ****ing sucks. :shake::shake:

AND, I'm told, the Falcons coughed up an additional $700 Million for a roof they can't or don't want to open in fear of not being able to close it again. Arthur Blank must be feeling that one deep in the sphincter.

My kids wanted me to take them all to the game this weekend... this conversation happened about 9 months ago. I said, let's say we drive from Dallas to Denver - no airfare. And, we don't want terrible seats, but "ok" seats. Let's price it out.

All in on hotel for 3 nights, gas, food, game, extras along the way... I said, what if I just gave the three of you $250 each and we call it even.

It's just too much money to take a family to a game.

Unless it's folded in with another special event (concert, for example), I doubt I'll ever bother going to a live game again. I was offered "free" tickets. I added up what "free' would mean for one person, assuming they kept it on the cheap,

$60 for parking
$20 (lowballed) for 2 beers and a small food item
$10-$15 for gas
3 hours lost time in traffic
Harassment policy a/k/a security measures just to get into the place


So, I can spend $90+, and my wasted time, on "free" tickets, or I can just stay home and either watch on a big screen television or do something else with my time. To me, it's a no brainer, and season ticket holders are insane for spending full amount of money required on what has become both an inferior viewing experience and an inferior overall product experience.

To be fair Chargers never had more than a couple of dozen fans in the stands before moving out of San Diego.

Tear down the Santa Clara stadium. You could cover the price of airfare, a nice hotel, and decent seats at Levi's Stadium, and I STILL wouldn't accept that offer.

Nothing like being baked alive.

This. I could have had free tickets to the last preseason game. 4 tickets lower level. It would have been great watching Mahomes- but would have still been very expensive to see a game that does not even count.

I'm with you. There's little doubt that the trade off between a HD big screen in the home with surroundsound vs those price points is nudging up on the impossibility scale of rational thought. The in-game experience is unique, no doubt, but the cost line now favors the in-home version, at least to me. I think if every seat had a gambling portal approved for in-stadium viewing, i.e., betting on individual plays/outcomes against posted odds, the rush would be back on but I can't see the NFL going in that direction.

the NFL is largely unwatchable for me anymore.

Hours and hours of commercials,
Networks pushing whatever the latest narrative is,
Every big play there's always that 2 to 3 second pause where you wait for a penalty flag. No idea what is, or is not a catch anymore.
No idea what Pass Interference is.
Selective holding enforcement.
Preferred treatment of star players.
The "2 minute warning" (which sits high atop my list of Irrational Hatred).
Officiating crews blowing calls, or being the cause for outcomes of games but never getting anything other than a 'sorry, that was the incorrect call' after the fact.

it's just......boring by in large.
Not baseball boring, but pretty boring.

I can sit and watch a college game between two rivalry teams or a big match up between ranked teams, and have 100 times the enjoyment despite not having a dog in the fight with either team.

I get that they are playing in crappy stadiums but this is the enthusiasm that LA has after how many years without a pro team?

Wow.

Is the stadium really any hotter than most stadiums at the beginning of the season?

They just want the stadium to look good on TV with a full crowd. That's it. It pissed me off when the Chiefs dump tickets, and guys can buy single game tickets for much less than I have to pay as a STH. And it really pisses me off to pay full price for pre-season. That's just outright robbery, and they don't care. Our pre-season games had woeful attendance this year.

Also a lot of Millenials are no longer playing football and/or don't give a shit about football.

I'll add to this:

• Emasculation of the NFL...players sitting during national anthem, ESPN transitioning into Jerry Spriniger and making gladiators wear hot pink
• Can we make it through 3 plays without the zebras calling a penalty?

The NFL is on the decline and it's their own fault.

Yes this.


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Nielsen Ratings, DVR and streaming (the legal kind, not illegal).

I read it might be open this weekend. Shocking everyone here.

The Braves got a $650m stadium that opened this year, Falcons got a $1.6B stadium that opened this year, and the Hawks are renovating their newish stadium to the tune of $250M right now.

Tax payers didn't foot all of that, but a big portion. ****ing stupid.

There is this thing called a DVR... An entire game can be comfortably watched in a little over an hour.

And if you insist on watching live, flip over to the Red Zone for a couple of minutes during commercial break.

Track down a college student and you can get Sunday Ticket streaming for $100.

Skip the pre and post game shows and all the other shows hyping this or that and the actual games are more enjoyable.

Soccer is the new cool thing. Basketball has also enjoyed a rise in popularity (I think).

At least you got a Chic-Fil-A that is closed for those Sunday football games, though, right?

:thumb:

There's no such thing as "too much money"

Complete and utter bullshit.

It was stadium deals, dummy.

Simple Solution: What the game muted.

I've been doing it for years.

The announcers miss most of the action, anyway, because of their incessant babbling.

Because it's a different type of environment, usually business related.

I've been to several suites across the country and the one thing in common was that host was more interested in doing business deals than watching the game(s).

Huge issue as well. Sunday NFL games were a time to have a couple beers with the guys and watch men hit each other. Now, it allowed the asshole uncle who won't shut up about politics at the family picnic to have a loud say on what dictates the flow.</br></br>If the NFL hasn't slayed the goose that layed the golden egg yet they're above the belly button on that cut. And yes, geese have belly buttons in my posts.

It is really amazing how terrible the announcers are now. Unless you get the #1 announcing team (and even then it might climb to ok) mute is a superior option.

I was more referencing ESPN etc in coverage of the NFL. I watch, and the coverage doesn't bother me, other than watching the best professional sports league we have kill itself via a billion cuts.

There are so many events in that place Chick-Fil-A will still serve a ton of sandwiches.

The rest of this year there's something like 3-4 events per week in there.

The only announcing team that I don't mute is when Al Michaels is involved.

Last night, it was Collinsworth and Tirico and while I don't mind either, I prefer to watch the game muted.

But Al Michaels is a living legend that always has such great perspective.

See Dane, we agree sometimes! :thumb:

Always nice to be welcomed to a board with such well reasoned out candor:clap:

That 49er picture was right after halftime kickoff. It says 15:00 on the game clock. I'm sure most are still pissing and getting concessions and working their way back to the seats.

My problem is convenience. **** the drive in, and the wait to get the **** out.

I am a laid back guy, but I am also very efficient with my time. The game day experience turns both of those traits upside down.

That's only part of the conspiracy...getting local municipalities into 30+ year debt.

Notice the cities that refused to become stadium debt-slaves... have or are in the process of losing the team.

Screw not having the resources to pay for critical infrastructure... for a stupid football team owned by a billionaire.

It been shown that these deals never work out for the community...the citizens just reallocate that extra entertainment budget into other things. NFL is a centralized cash-hog....

NFL used to be middle-class entertainment...it's moving more towards people with disposable income which really isn't its target demographic. Not enough of those people for an 80,000 event on a bi-monthly basis. Your seeing empty stadiums because of it...they are pricing their core consumers out of their own product. It will eventually collapse on itself...which, IMO, is intentional...but that topic is for another thread.

Nfl attendance problems...

1. Expensive ticket
2. Expensive parking
3. Expensive food and drink
4. Inconvenient locations of stadiums relative to highways.
5. Too many drunk assholes.
6. Shitty weather conditions.
7. Teams leaving loyal fanbases behind to start from scratch where the NFL has failed already.
8. Have to stand for the national anthem.

Viewership problems...

1. Sick of watching the ****ing giants and cowboys every god damn week.
2. If you like out of market team, and refuse to get direct TV you are forced to watch a stream via the Internet which isnt accounted for in ratings.
3. The game of the week broadcast teams are terrible.
4. Thursday night football is a joke.
5. Espn is a joke.
6. Bob costas is still alive.
7. 20 commercials for every 5 minutes of football.


Game related problems...
1. Refs interjecting themselves into the game way too much.
2. Subjective rules differ game to game.
3. Too many non competitive teams.




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St. Louis says hi, but that doesn't fit with your tin hat bullshit.

Chiefs are coming to Dallas this year. I have been to several Chiefs-Texans games in recent years and was excited about being able to go watch the game in JerryWorld. Then I looked at prices. Damn! Travel up from Austin, one night in a motel and 2 tickets, I am looking at $500 minimum. For that kind of money I could buy a new tv to watch all the games on all season long.

Needless to say, I will not be attending.