NFL, You Are Breaking My Heart
As a huge sports fan, I will be heartbroken if there is no NFL season this year. And as a competitive person, I won’t be able to root for my husband to win Fantasy Football either – even more disappointing. However, besides my broken heart, there is way more at stake if there’s a NFL lockout.
Taking into account lost TV ad revenue, sponsorships, canceled fantasy football leagues and websites, empty sports bars and out-of-work stadium personnel, over $12 billion dollars would be at stake.
NFL games also attract massive audiences to the networks that air them. This is one of the reasons that ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” and NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” are some of the most expensive shows to advertise in. These games drive a lot of revenue for the networks and allow the networks to promote their other shows to a very broad audience.
Putting all of this aside, I believe the thing most at stake in a missed football season is the brand image of the NFL. Did they not learn anything from the 1994-95 MLB strike? Fans were upset and they weren’t afraid to show it. Attendance plunged 20 percent the year following the strike. Ten years later, the attendance average had still not gotten back to its pre-strike level.
For my sake, and the sake of the NFL, I truly hope an agreement is reached so that I may enjoy my Sunday afternoons on the couch watching the games. If not, the effect of a strike on the NFL may be the worst in 2011, but the disappointments, negativity generated and the damage to the brand image of the league will last much longer than that.
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