17 game season is official

[davidjc]

This happened because the NFL is now in a position where it has to negotiate new network contracts with very poor viewership numbers. A 17th game is probably what is being demanded to keep contracts favorable. I will let everyone draw their own conclusions on why viewership is down. But I suspect this will let the NFL make a new contract deal and try to wiggle it's way out of poor viewership numbers over the next few years.

 

[davidjc]

17-game NFL season will challenge these Patriots records | RSN (nbcsports.com)

Passing Yards: 5,235 -- Tom Brady (2011)
Passing Touchdowns: 50 -- Tom Brady (2007)
Rushing Yards: 1,635 -- Corey Dillon (2004)
Rushing Touchdowns: 18 -- LaGarrette Blount (2016)
Receptions: 123 -- Wes Welker (2009)
Receiving Yards: 1,569 -- Wes Welker (2011)
Receiving Touchdowns: 23 -- Randy Moss (2007)
Sacks: 18.5 -- Andre Tippett (1984)
Interceptions: 11 -- Ron Hall (1964)
Field Goals: 38 -- Stephen Gostkowski (2013)

I think the bolded ones have a better than 50% chance of being beaten by 2030. The rushing yards and TD record is probably 20% or so- Harris can do it if he's healthy but I don't know if the offense is going to work that way.

I don't think Brady's or Moss's records will ever be beaten again.

​

Honestly with an extra game now no one is legitimately beating any of those records. They need to average stats and do it per game now like the NBA.

 

[jmt57]

So is the NFL starting Labor Day weekend or are they pushing back the Super Bowl right away for this first year?

EDIT: Never mind. Super Bowl is pushed back a week

Let's see what happens when the Super Bowl is played on Valentine's Day.

 

[jmt57]

It's stupid to not have it on a Saturday night on Sunday on Presidents' Day weekend now. I don't get why they wouldn't have it on a day where most people including kids don't have to work the next day. it would expand their audience.

See the PFT article. Money talks. Advertisers pay more for Sunday nights not on holiday weekends because more people will watch the commercials.

It's also all about the host city receiving the most tourist revenue possible. One more day of money for local businesses, and taxes for city/county/state governments on hotel rooms, auto rentals, restaurant and bar tabs, t-shirt sales, etc. If not for that extra day of cash flow then having the game on Saturday would make sense every year for fans.

These host cities bend over backwards in order to win a super bowl bid in how much expense they put forth (overtime for police, trash, traffic, etc) for all the events over those two weeks. Add to that other other revenue lost from normal conventions, etc. that stay away during that time period, since it is the super bowl. These cities lose millions, but hope that the publicity and clips of how wonderful their area is will make up for it.

The lost revenue from that one extra day for the late arrivals would make it not worth it. God forbid the NFL and the owners pay for all those events rather than the local municipality.

 

[jmt57]

Honestly with an extra game now no one is legitimately beating any of those records. They need to average stats and do it per game now like the NBA.

They never did it to adjust for 12 or 14 game seasons. And let's not get me started in how rule changes have affected stats.

Tracking a potential record-breaking season has long been a way for the NFL/networks to generate interest in their sport. I wouldn't count on it happening.

 

[mgteich]

QUESTION
Will more people watch the 17th regular season game, compared to the 4th pre-season game.

Or to be clear, will the change increase or decrease the number of fans who will watch the NFL during this season?

 

[skinnydog]

The NFL takes a step toward being more about avoiding/surviving injuries than putting a talented team on the field.

 

[Zarozzor]

 

[PScottman]

So is the NFL starting Labor Day weekend or are they pushing back the Super Bowl right away for this first year?

EDIT: Never mind. Super Bowl is pushed back a week

It's going to be the new March Madness - just give it a couple more years.

 

[PScottman]

The NFL is not going to arrange the biggest annual sporting event on the planet around the schedules of children so young they can't stay up past 9:00. Nor should they.

Good businesspeople would factor it in. The better your product can create multi-generational interest, the more stable, predictable, and growable it is over the long term.

Marketing to Sports Fans: Viewership & Demographics [Infographic] — The Shelf Full-Funnel Influencer Marketing (2017)
"The average Major League Baseball fan is 53 years old; only 29 percent of MLB fans are between the ages of 18 and 34. The NFL is in a similar situation - the average game viewer is 47 years old and fans of professional hockey are also about 50 years old, according to MarketWatch.
I don’t think that would be so alarming if the numbers were holding steady, but between 2006 and 2016, the average age of an NFL, MLB, NBA, MLS, and NHL fans increased significantly. Suffice it to say professional sports leagues and TV networks are scrambling to get games in front of younger audiences who have all but abandoned television in favor of devices."

That said, interestingly baseball was a huge grower last year - MLB Sees Local TV And Streaming Viewership Up Over 4% For 2020 (2020) especially in valuable young market demographics that will be moving into peak earner status soon.

So while they shouldn't make the product revolve around or cater to kids, it should be a factor; where the commercials, the pre-game, the half time show, etc account for both younger, and non-fanatic watchers of the game to try and get eyes on the actual product and grow that "fanatic" demographic bringing them back in future years because that's the key to long term monetary growth - continual ability to get new consumers of the product across multiple generations, regardless of class/race/gender/age/etc.

 

[DarrylS]

If they are going for 17 games, they should allow all 53 players to dress.. 1 more game may add to the "NFL Season of Attrition".

Never understood the logic of paying 53 decent cash, and only allowing 47 to dress.

They also need to revamp the the whole injured reserve thing as well, seems absurd that 3 significant players get hurt the first month of the season and only 2 can come back..

 

[Patsgofor4]

Of course, we get the Cowboys....when the Bills/Fish/Jets get WFT/NYG/Philly.

At least, it's a home game for all of us...meaning we play game 17 on the road in 2022.....

I’d rather play the poorly coached Cowboys than play the Skins front 7. Their offense should be improved as well. The Giants may also be a tougher matchup than the Cowboys next year.

 

[Nellie]

I am curious to see the future plan for this. They can't rotate through the 4 divisions AND keep the home-away-home-away plan or else it would always be the same divisions hosting the same divisions.

They will probably double up the aways in year 4 and 5.....

The NFL could do something creative for the last game. Under the current schedule it seems like some years the last three games are against division teams and by the final game most divisions are set but sometimes the final game has playoff ramifications. Why not take this a step further. For the final game have all division teams play each other like a sort of play-in to the playoffs or for draft positioning.
1 v 4 & 2 v 3. The higher ranked team has the home game.

 

[Patsgofor4]

The greed of the NFL owners is unbelievable. The off-season workouts and padded practices in training camp have already been cut back too far. Now they are likely to be cut back even further, making it even more difficult for rookies to be successful year 1 and for teams to hit the ground running week 1. This must drive BB and the rest of the coaches crazy. I know that Harbaugh has publicly about the lack of time with his players during the off-season.

Just like the abomination that is Thursday night football, this is all about revenue, with total disregard to quality of the product, or player safety.... because the owners and league office know that fans will watch no matter how sloppy/dysfunctional things are on the field.

 

[patriot1136]

not sure if this was mentioned yet or not, but are they changing roster rules at all? Like maybe less game day inactives or allowing more guys to come off the IR?

 

[Triumph]

No more riding the fence gray area obscuring statistics.

Either there is a winning season or a losing season.

 

[XLIX]

Good businesspeople would factor it in.

There’s about a million things good businesspeople would factor in. East coast kids who are so young they can’t stay up past 9:00 are probably 999,998 on the list.

If you made the game any earlier, you’d lose an entire time zone out west from having any part of the game played in prime time. You really think the NFL wants to give that up for the 2 soccer mom’s at that guy’s Super Bowl who put their 5 year olds to bed?

 

[XLIX]

The NFL could do something creative for the last game. Under the current schedule it seems like some years the last three games are against division teams and by the final game most divisions are set but sometimes the final game has playoff ramifications. Why not take this a step further. For the final game have all division teams play each other like a sort of play-in to the playoffs or for draft positioning.
1 v 4 & 2 v 3. The higher ranked team has the home game.

No. Just no. A 17th game is bad enough as it is, but at least it’s just a normal game. Leave the gimmicks to the NBA.

 

[Sicilian]

If they are going for 17 games, they should allow all 53 players to dress.. 1 more game may add to the "NFL Season of Attrition".

Never understood the logic of paying 53 decent cash, and only allowing 47 to dress.

They also need to revamp the the whole injured reserve thing as well, seems absurd that 3 significant players get hurt the first month of the season and only 2 can come back..

The rule is there to mitigate the impact that minor injuries have on individual games. If Team A has 6 players that are too hurt to play a football game, but not hurt enough to go on IR, and Team B has no players like that, Team A is now fielding 47 players against 53. Yes, not every player plays a huge role, but it's still more options and a competitive advantage for Team B.

Giving each team a buffer of 6 or so players means that, unless there's a HUGE rash of injuries in that specific sweetspot, both teams are on equal terms as far as available bodies in a game.

I'm all for expanding the rosters as a result of this rule change, or at least making the IR and PS rules from last year permanent (or a variation of them at least) to help de-incentivize teams from playing injured players, but there should still be a difference between total roster count and gameday roster count.

 

[pazrul72]

There’s about a million things good businesspeople would factor in. East coast kids who are so young they can’t stay up past 9:00 are probably 999,998 on the list.

If you made the game any earlier, you’d lose an entire time zone out west from having any part of the game played in prime time. You really think the NFL wants to give that up for the 2 soccer mom’s at that guy’s Super Bowl who put their 5 year olds to bed?

First of all the suggestion was having it on a day where people have the following day off not moving back the start time. Second as a parent I can assure you its a **** ton more people then "two Soccer mom's" that have to stop doing things to put their kids to bed and its not a 30 second thing, alright little Timmy good night, doesn't work with any child I have ever heard of. Mine is actually pretty good about being on his own and likes going to bed early (gets up early too which makes me question if hes mine) and its still a 10 min ritual. Having it on a day when people have the following day off isnt about getting the moms to watch anyway, its about the kids. I will be WAY more likely to say ok you can stay up 90 mins past your bedtime if you dont have school tomorrow. Now the Superbowl is a special treat the kids look forward to, which gives them happy memories, and now the NFL has added a customer. It absolutely should be something a good business owner considers and far higher then 999,998.