I haven't been through the whole thread yet, but I wouldn't use Monday night as a good metric. More and more people are "cutting the cable". With Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu there is enough content to keep even the most avid TV watcher busy, and the cost is minimal. Cable TV has always been a bad deal, people just paid it cuz there was nothing else. I sat there while my In-Laws signed up to pay close to $200 for cable TV per month, insanity!

Also everyone hates ESPN these days due to them deciding they are some political news outlet. So if ESPN was keeping you on the cable, it isn't anymore.

Also the more ready access to Thursday Night football due to it being on Prime doesn't help Monday either. You can now watch three games on Sunday, one on Monday, one on Thursday, and sometimes 4 on Sunday if they have an early game in London that is televised. That is a shit ton of football! I watch enough between Thursday and Sunday that I don't really care if I can't watch Monday.

It is possible that all of the social issues may have an affect on the NFL, but I wouldn't use Monday as a good metric of that. Streaming and distaste for ESPN are doing more to torpedo that.

From what I have read, the NFL T.V. ratings are down, but not as much as overall T.V. watching is.

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Just Triing
Triathlete since 9:56:39 AM EST Aug 20, 2006.
Be kind English is my 2nd language. My primary language is Dave it's a unique evolution of English.

If shit like this happened just once at an any US or Canadian sporting event there would be hell to pay. Soccer countries OTOH, can't seem to grasp the concept.

This isn't new. Maybe the football demographic is tired of 6 hr games...

The ratings for world series game 7 fell 30% from the previous year. But sure, the NFL is in trouble.

Don't you mean deplorables?

The ratings for world series game 7 fell 30% from the previous year.
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The collective public might having bought into the drama of the Cubs ending their century+ WS drought, which was far more interesting than the Dodgers v. Astros. Even then, the idea that this WS was less watched than last year and still game 7 beat out football seems to support the OP.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

Ignoring the fact that MLB ratings have been on the decline for decades and even last year world series is floating around the worst ratings of the 1980's.

I don't recall so much analysis of the decline of other sports ratings, which have been far more precipitous, but the NFL ratings decline and it's the end of the world.

Really? Most of that stuff happened decades ago and lots of steps were taken. Ending of the terraces, they seem to track pretty much everybody who buys tickets so they can keep the hooligans out, etc. More recent tragedies seem to mostly happen in third world countries.

Leaving aside that for soccer unlike many if not most U.S. Sporting events the whole tribalism thing is more pronounced since there's a reasonable amount of traveling fans at games.

A lot of folks are just now recognizing that the traditional (big four) pro sports in north america don't offer a very good product. IMO, the lack of a top flight league is really the only major inhibitor to soccer becoming the top sport on this side of the Atlantic.

Despite the lack of a comparable domestic product, the European product is making huge inroads in the US. I turn on midweek soccer, and I get Spurs up-ending champions Real Madrid in thrilling fashion. I turn on midweek NFL and I get a televised dose of NyQuil between the Bills and Jets.

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"The right to party is a battle we have fought, but we'll surrender and go Amish... NOT!" -Wayne Campbell

I remeber bradford vaguely but heysel and hillsborough very well

Hillsborough was caused in large part by police negligence and then was subsequently covered up. Policeman are only now being prosecutes and going to jail for their part in it.

Basically in the UK prior to bradford and Hillsborough all stadiums were standing only amd it presented real safety issues

NFL will not crumble but will struggle. NFL viewership still far greater than other sports. However, revenue will decline and they have high fixed costs (stadiums and player salaries). Won't take much for some of the lesser teams to start losing money. Richer teams will have to provide more subsidies. In ten years the NFL will be like the NHL. (Not knocking the NHL -- much more exciting to watch.)


Pretty much agree except on officiating -- it is a silly game with so many silly rules and so many officials on the field that it simply can't pass muster in the age of instant replay. I don't expect the impossible.

I'll add that the games are too long with too little action. Less than 15 minutes of action in an over 3 hour broadcast. I am just not entertained anymore. I don't care to see replay after replay, when a call is challenged I change the channel, I don't like watching a coach on the sideline between plays while two guys speculate about what he is thinking, and even when there are three games on TV which I try to flip between, seems like most of the time there are commercials on all three channels.

Professional and college football has morphed into a bad product. The bubble is about to burst.

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It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev

I'm not sure what you're trying to say...only 3 world series games last year cleared 13M viewers: Game 5 - 13.1M, Game 6 - 13.3M and Game 7 - 21.8M. Each NFL game last week averaged 12.7M views and that is down year over year. The Super Bowl cleared 170M viewers last year. Even in a down year NFL viewership is light years ahead of NBA, MLB and NHL.

who gives a crap about the NFL.

don't get me wrong, i like watching football. it's easy to be a football fan when you live in NE. but i have been protesting watching football since the concussion issues. i just can't support a company that knowingly lets their employees get hurt and goes out of its way to accuse people who try to help those employees (watch the movie/documentaries).

the anthem bullcrap doesn't help them either. but rednecks are going to be rednecks. the nfl really fumbled this (pun intended). they easily could have met with KAP right away, said "what can we do to help resolve the issue", had every team host meetings with local law enforcement. idk, seems like they thought it would just blow over.. which it probably was about to, until trump got involved. haha

it's all about the NBA right now. the nfl has slowly gotten more and more boring.

it started with getting rid of celebrations, then the addition of commercial breaks (seriously, who stops a game for commercials).

bye bye, won't miss ya.

yeah, those crazy 'soccer countries!'

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

I pray that it does crumble. Way back when the NFL had a strike and the X-FL was way better form of entertainment. Next best alternative is Arena football!

Don't get me wrong, I am the largest sports fan and in my lifetime I got tired of wasting money on apperal and tickets so thes guys could be political, no way.

Here...