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/

[007]

I had season tickets for basically two years and I chose not to take on the full package when my buddy backed out. I'm going to one game this year and probably won't be going to any more. I love the atmosphere but the price is just getting beyond stupid.

[PutQuinnIn]

Chargers should be ashamed of themselves, putting out a piss poor product while having highest ticket prices in NFL. I wonder if Raider fans will be able to afford to hostile-takeover the StubHub when they play?

[PutQuinnIn]

Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry

Browns actually have fans. They sell out for whatever reason.

It's Cleveland, what else would there be to do?

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by Chief Pagan

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

Yes.

That stadium has to make all of their Jewish fans really nervous. It feels like an oven.

[Psyko Tek]

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

Shouldn't this be titled:

The NFL is seriously concerned with empty stadiums in California?

other than the east coast, what else matters?

[Psyko Tek]

Originally Posted by saphojunkie

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.

what is the price of a decent ticket, 35 yard line bout half way up


or secon d ring middle

[eDave]

Originally Posted by Psyko Tek

other than the east coast, what else matters?

Another problem.

[Eureka]

Originally Posted by Coochie liquor

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

Nope. As a Raiders STH I've had more people hit me up for this season for tickets than any other. A winning product sure does help. The Raiders even Raised my cost this year by 400$ after never raising cost for the past decade and I still can sale my tickets for more if I chose to.

The Oakland Coliseum will be packed this year!

It's not because of Cali, higher prices, or politics. People want to see a winning product overall. Or a decent exciting game etc.

[kccrow]

Ticket Revenues at 2.7 billion versus Broadcast Contracts, Licensing, and Sponsorships creating a Revenue Sharing Pool of around 7.1 billion. The NFL cares about what makes them the most money. I do agree though, image affects the latter as much as the former, and its high time that the NFL reigns in pricing.

Pricing isn't everything. I agree the Chargers belong in San Diego and I fear that the team has been crippled permanently by moving to LA. LA has proven it doesn't adequately support NFL franchises in the past and asking them to support two was lunacy. Just a slurry of bad NFL decisions. I don't see the same crash happening for the Raiders moving to LV, but it could get a bit ugly before it gets better for them as well. If it didn't create a divisional mess, I'd almost advocate for the failure of a few teams because expansion has diluted the product.

[kccrow]

What's' crazy about the lowering of ticket prices is that I'm not even thinking about the Chiefs and Raiders and people are bitching about it here. The Chiefs are 6th lowest in average in the NFL and the Raiders are 4th. That speaks volumes about how out of control ticket prices have become as a rule.

[KChiefs1]

Originally Posted by stevieray

Arrowhead will be half empty.

Arrowhead is fantastic on opening kickoff weekend & prime time games & playoffs games...otherwise my recliner & fireplace is nice when it's too cold outside. I've gotten too old for games like Tennessee last season.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

Shouldn't this be titled:

The NFL is seriously concerned with empty stadiums in California?

That is how I read it. Insert California joke here.

[jaa1025]

1) Prices. Just outrageous. NFL salaries and costs have far outpaced everyone else in the US. It's probably one of the biggest reasons I will never side with the players during a lockout. Who pays for that? Customers. Sorry, I'm not dropping a few hundred to go to a game...ever.

2) Better options. I have a 65 inch 4k TV with a fridge in the kitchen, hot food as I desire to make and much more comfortable seats. Why am I going to spend that much money when I can get a better experience in my own living room. Tailgating? I have a grill and can invite friends. Oh....and I don't have to wait in line trying to enter or leave the stadium.

[hometeam]

Originally Posted by 007

I had season tickets for basically two years and I chose not to take on the full package when my buddy backed out. I'm going to one game this year and probably won't be going to any more. I love the atmosphere but the price is just getting beyond stupid.

This is how I feel a bit.

For years I had an insane hookup for free tickets, I may have gotten a hundred free tickets or more total (some of which I shared with my pals on CP)

But now, that hookup is either gone, or very limited compared to previous years, and Im back to buying tickets.

500 bucks for two tickets, a parking pass, and fees etc for this home opener. If its gonna be like that, I might make one more game this year, which would be my lowest number since we went 2-14, where the only game I came to was the only game we won.

Sucks, because I'm one of those people who just really loves game day, really gets into trying to be loud and get false starts etc, and I have already seen the decline of fans like me and more girls sitting down texting in the seats instead. If I'm gonna pay 500 bucks, I don't want to go and be out there yelling by myself while a bunch of millennial assholes text, on top of every other reason already stated.

[stevieray]

Crowd has changed. Not nearly as friendly or rowdy.