The NFL Is Seriously Concerned With Empty Stadiums

[Eleazar]

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:



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



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:



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/

[Dayze]

Originally Posted by Bewbies

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.

[3rd&Long]

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.

[MMXcalibur]

Originally Posted by Mile High Mania

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.

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.

[Dayze]

[Just Passin' By]

Originally Posted by Mile High Mania

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.

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.

[BucEyedPea]

Originally Posted by KCtotheSB

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.

Looks like they have wall climbers repelling on it too.

[Halfcan]

Originally Posted by Mile High Mania

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.

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.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Mile High Mania

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.

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.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by 3rd&Long

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.

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.

[Bewbies]

Originally Posted by Mile High Mania

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.

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.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

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.

[Halfcan]

Originally Posted by Just Passin' By

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.

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.

[Demonpenz]

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

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

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.

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

[Halfcan]

Originally Posted by Bewbies

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.

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.