NFL Owners in disarray as Goodell is losing control of the league

robertweathers said:

Great insights and questions that I also have.

There are a number of reasons which IMO NFL ratings will continue to decline.

-Soccer: Interesting take here Future of Soccer vs Football - GoalNation.

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Over 100 million Americans watched the Super Bowl. Roughly 1.1 million people in this country watched the most recent MLS final, which represented a sharp decline from the previous year (despite all the silliness that the 2014 World Cupnwouod propel soccer to even new heights in the US).

Football has nothing to fear from soccer in this country, nor will it anytime in our lifetimes. People have been writing articles like this for about 40 years now, ever since Pele joined the Cosmos.

People need to stop romanticizig the "good old days." The quality of games is no worse today than they were 20, 30, 40 years ago. The difference is the mass media, the fact that far more games are televised (so we see more clunkers), the fact that we have exponentially more outlets to dissect and analyze games, and the technology to see super slo-mo high def images of every single play.

If you could somehow magically take the 1980 season and recreate it perfectly here and now (but with today's social media, internet, technology, sports radio, etc), people would still be saying how much the quality sucked, how many poor games there were, how bad the refereeing is, how things used to be so much better, etc.

XLIX said:

Over 100 million Americans watched the Super Bowl. Roughly 1.1 million people in this country watched the most recent MLS final, which represented a sharp decline from the previous year (despite all the silliness that the 2014 World Cupnwouod propel soccer to even new heights in the US).

Football has nothing to fear from soccer in this country, nor will it anytime in our lifetimes. People have been writing articles like this for about 40 years now, ever since Pele joined the Cosmos.

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MLS yes....World Cup is a different story

Men

Sunday’s 2014 FIFA World Cup Final on ABC – a 1-0 victory in extra time over Argentina to secure Germany’s fourth World Cup title and first since 1990 – ranks as the most-watched Men’s World Cup Final match ever among viewers. Based on Nielsen fast nationals, the ABC telecast averaged 17,324,000 viewers and a 9.1 US HH rating for the game window (3-5:44 p.m. ET). It also ranks as the third most-viewed World Cup game – men’s or women’s – in the United States behind ESPN’s coverage of this year’s USA vs. Portugal match ever (18,220,000 viewers) and the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final on ABC (USA vs. China with 17,975,000 viewers).

In addition to ABC’s telecast, the final match on WatchESPN generated 1,800,000 live unique viewers, 112,100,000 live minutes viewed and the highest time spent per viewer (63 minutes) of any match of the 2014 World Cup. Sunday’s final on WatchESPN provided a four percent lift to the English-language television viewership on ABC with an average minute audience of 657,000 viewers.

At its highest point, the ABC telecast averaged 20,781,000 viewers and an 11.0 US HH rating from 5 to 5:30 p.m.

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2014 World Cup Final on ABC: Most-Watched Men’s World Cup Championship Ever - ESPN MediaZone

Women.

While some 17 million American viewers tuned in to the 7 p.m. ET start of Sunday's game, that number quickly grew to 21.86 million an hour later — and reached 22.86 million at 8:30 p.m. ET, according to preliminary data from industry website TV Media Insights.

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The final drew "a prodigious 15.2/27 metered market household rating/share" from 7-9 p.m. ET, Fox says, citing data from the Nielsen ratings service. The network adds that the audience "peaked at 18.3/31 from 8:45-9:00 p.m. ET," as more Americans tuned in to watch the celebrations in Vancouver.

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U.S. Women Shatter TV Ratings Record For Soccer With World Cup Win

While it is still way short of the Super Bowl, the popularity of soccer and watching it on TV is not as minuscule as you make it sound.

If the US Men every win a World Cup it will come damn close to Super Bowl levels.

chasa said:

im going to suggest that goodell has NOTHING to do with it.

unless roger goodell invented fantasy football that is.

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In fact I think if they would have hired someone more competent than ****dell they would be making more money....

Could have hired a 4 star restaurant manager and surrounded him with the right people and the league would be making just as much

Wrath Mania said:

This. Even if Goodell was thrown out, suppose someone like this Grubman character replaces him, another league brown-noser. Nothing changes.

The fear of LA gangs wearing Raiders gear is probably the most out-of-touch, moronic "BRAND" fear I can imagine. No wonder this league is so clueless. Some bum in Damascus is probably wearing a Raiders Starter jacket, and you're worried that some mean folks of color in LA are gonna soil your image?

Pretty much amazing how the CEO of Disney can come off like the meek party.

Also, not that his character really needed further explanation, but Jerry Jones. My God.

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Will say though that if Jerry Jones lost ownership, that would change a lot of things for the better. Unfortunately, that will take some time before we see that.

XLIX said:

People need to stop romanticizig the "good old days." The quality of games is no worse today than they were 20, 30, 40 years ago.

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I disagree with that. Overall play fundamentally has eroded over the years, particularly blocking and defensively. Bad rule changes have contributed significantly. For one thing, mediocre quarterbacks shouldn't routinely be completing nearly 70 percent of their passes.

Aßßynormal said:

Additional Articles:
Report: NFL VP tried to outbid Stan Kroenke for Los Angeles stadium land - CBSSports.com
Inside the NFL's wild return to LA


It appears Kraft lost this round, along with Deflategate.

Can you smell anything from this "blind" auction situation. Developers bidding $90m for prime land are likely to be aware of whats going on. I have no other information other than it involves the NFL, land, city officials, Unions, contractors, cash for parking and squabbling vindictive Billionaires. That's enough for me to think that a transaction rife for potential corruption needs to be looked at very, very skeptically.

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Or a cross-over opportunity between "NFL Hard Knocks" and "True Detective."
You get the game you deserve.

Goodell's job is to manage the NFL according to the wishes of those who control the league, the 32 owners.
He can't do anything that a critical mass of owners don't want him to do...the problem is that it seems that, at times, two or three owners can represent a "critical mass." It also seems that there can be conflicting "critical masses."

The whole system is completely dysfunctional.

It's clear that a critical mass of owners wanted him to "nail" the Patriots when the reports first came out, as the result of what was no doubt a "sting," that the balls had lost pressure during last year's AFCCG. They showed their disingenuity when they still wanted him to nail the Patriots even when it was shown by multiple outside experts that the balls had lost pressure in a manner consistent with the Laws of Physics. Now, they still want him to nail the Pats even after a New York judge, in a venue selected by the League, found that he had violated the CBA.

I'm trying to imagine a universe in which this would be different, but I can't as long as you have a League that is run by a bunch of owners who range from the brain dead to the highly intelligent and from low lifes to decent men from decent families, but all of whom are greedy to increase their personal net worths.

Their bottom line is the only interest they share in common. As long as that continues to go up, we will continue to have this mess. Forbes estimated that the combined Value of the 32 Franchises was $70 billion last year. That puts it well within the top 100 companies in the US, as measured by Market Capitalization. Until something happens to alter that math in a material way, not much is going to change.

robertweathers said:

MLS yes....World Cup is a different story

Men



2014 World Cup Final on ABC: Most-Watched Men’s World Cup Championship Ever - ESPN MediaZone

Women.





U.S. Women Shatter TV Ratings Record For Soccer With World Cup Win

While it is still way short of the Super Bowl, the popularity of soccer and watching it on TV is not as minuscule as you make it sound.

If the US Men every win a World Cup it will come damn close to Super Bowl levels.

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The World Cup is a once-every-4-years events which has the added impact of nationalism to help ratings, so it is a bankrupt comparison.

30 millions Americans watched Michael Phelps' last Olympic race, but that doesn't mean men's swimming is the next big national sport.

Aßßynormal said:

Can you smell anything from this "blind" auction situation. Developers bidding $90m for prime land are likely to be aware of whats going on. I have no other information other than it involves the NFL, land, city officials, Unions, contractors, cash for parking and squabbling vindictive Billionaires. That's enough for me to think that a transaction rife for potential corruption needs to be looked at very, very skeptically.

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Season 3 of True Detective?

Goodell is, as Chris Carter puts it, the NFL's fall guy

Tunescribe said:

I disagree with that. Overall play fundamentally has eroded over the years, particularly blocking and defensively. Bad rule changes have contributed significantly. For one thing, mediocre quarterbacks shouldn't routinely be completing nearly 70 percent of their passes.

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There is no doubt that rule changes favor the offense, but your other points are too nebulous to address. What is happening is you are watching way more football today than back then. That includes live action AND highlights/analysis. So you're seeing far more bad plays that just never made the airwaves back in the dark ages. There was no Ron Jaworski type analyst in 1980 on TV everyday breaking down 15 minutes of game film showing you everything everybody did wrong.

Btw, how is a league that completed roughly 70% of passes a worse thing than a league that completes roughly 60%..?? Are incomplete passes something you find tremendously exciting and you long for more??

JMC00 said:

In fact I think if they would have hired someone more competent than ****dell they would be making more money....

Could have hired a 4 star restaurant manager and surrounded him with the right people and the league would be making just as much

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I agree with your point and I still don't understand why so many people think Goodell is pulling the strings on any of the dumpster fires the league has lit in the past 10 years. He's the puppet not the puppeteer. He's simply an extension of 32 unimaginably rich and grotesquely irresponsible owners. He does what they tell him to do so he can keep collecting his absurd pay package and he takes the heat from the media and fans when things inevitably blows up. Anyone who thinks this guy is making any meaningful decisions is giving him way too much credit.

Tuck said:

I agree with your point and I still don't understand why so many people think Goodell is pulling the strings on any of the dumpster fires the league has lit in the past 10 years. He's the puppet not the puppeteer. He's simply an extension of 32 unimaginably rich and grotesquely irresponsible owners. He does what they tell him to do so he can keep collecting his absurd pay package and he takes the heat from the media and fans when things inevitably blows up. Anyone who thinks this guy is making any meaningful decisions is giving him way too much credit.

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I think you're, by and large, correct.

XLIX said:

The World Cup is a once-every-4-years events which has the added impact of nationalism to help ratings, so it is a bankrupt comparison.

30 millions Americans watched Michael Phelps' last Olympic race, but that doesn't mean men's swimming is the next big national sport.

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World Cup is every two years alternating between men and women.

The discussion on the table is how much you believe the viewership of soccer to increase and football to decrease. It is true that the NFL still captures incredible ratings but it is also true that since 2008 participation in football is down 28% while soccer is down 10%. Eventually that will start to coincide with viewership- potentially for both sports. Depending on how old you are that may happen over the next 30-50 years.

7 Charts that Show the State of Youth Sports in the US and Why it Matters

You do not agree- that is fine. I believe its coming a lot closer than you think.

cmasspatsfan said:

Almost got fired in 2014, why didn't that happen? life would be better now if that would have happened.

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Too bad Kraft can't go back in the time-space-continuum to 2014.

Then this post and thousands of others would disappear.

XLIX said:

There is no doubt that rule changes favor the offense, but your other points are too nebulous to address.

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They're only nebulous if you don't know what to look for, or haven't witnessed the game's evolution/de-evolution over decades confirming an erosion in the overall quality of play fundamentally. I attended my first NFL game in 1971 and have been a Patriots season ticket holder since 1994; I played a bit of football myself and know what I'm looking at.

XLIX said:

What is happening is you are watching way more football today than back then. That includes live action AND highlights/analysis. So you're seeing far more bad plays that just never made the airwaves back in the dark ages. There was no Ron Jaworski type analyst in 1980 on TV everyday breaking down 15 minutes of game film showing you everything everybody did wrong.

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Perhaps this is how it's worked for you. I go by what I see on the field, in person.

XLIX said:

Btw, how is a league that completed roughly 70% of passes a worse thing than a league that completes roughly 60%..?? Are incomplete passes something you find tremendously exciting and you long for more??

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Please. I prefer competitive balance between offense and defense. THAT is what makes the game exciting. Are you a fantasy football enthusiast, by chance?

This past season was a microcosm of what I'm talking about and when the mainstream is taking note, the league should as well:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2015/12/25/nfl-season-marked-by-mediocrity-not-parity-in-2015/77906948/#

the ESPN article paints a picture of the LA negotiations being contentious, not surprising given the egos and the money involved. i didn't really get the impression that the owners were in "disarray", though. if anything, the two factions seemed pretty well organized, with kroenke coming off as more ruthless than spanos (and davis kind of just along for the ride).

bbobbo said:

the ESPN article paints a picture of the LA negotiations being contentious, not surprising given the egos and the money involved. i didn't really get the impression that the owners were in "disarray", though. if anything, the two factions seemed pretty well organized, with kroenke coming off as more ruthless than spanos (and davis kind of just along for the ride).

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When scathing insults become a regular part of leadership's meetings, NFL executives are exposed as being in an owner's pocket after sharing sensitive insider information, cutthroat underhanded tactics divide and polarize an organization, and a party that always plays nice for the good of the league is effed over, all under a commissioner that manufactures controversies to punish teams, disarray is a vast understatement.

Just remember that the ESPN article is by Wickersham and Van Natta. And we all remember the ridiculous hit piece they did on NE, which was entirely quotes from stuff from eight years ago and completely unsourced allegations (other Mike Martz, their sole on-the-record source).

I don't see any objective reason to believe this article any more than that article.

(Google for "Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect")