Was 2007 was the peak of popularity for America’s passion, the National Football League? After decades of growth, the NFL racked in enormous T.V. ratings and its’ stadiums for the season were filled at 99.9% capacity. However, since then, attendance in NFL stadiums has been falling. In 2010, it is down for the 4th straight season. Stadiums are now only 95% full on average and blackouts are rising. 5 NFL teams have average attendance below 60,000 and 6 teams are averaging below 90% capacity for the season. So, is it all bad? Apparently not, because the league continues to break its’ own records for t.v. ratings. CBS and NBC games are up 10% in 2010. Fox games are up 2% and ESPN is matching their record-breaking numbers from 2009. The NFL now dominates most of the top-viewed show lists each week, according to the Nielsen ratings. So, what gives? There has been a growing sentiment over the past few years that the inconvenience and cost of attending games is not worth it. With the affordability of large/flat-screen/HDTV home televisions along with premium viewing packages such as Sunday Ticket, many now find it more comfortable to stay at home and watch all of the games on their own terms. In addition, NFL ticket prices continue to rise year after year. In 2010, average ticket prices for NFL games increased 4.5 percent to $76.47. And that doesn’t include parking and concessions. A family of 4 will drop $400 or $500 for one Sunday afternoon of entertainment. Unreasonable? Apparently, more and more are beginning to believe so. So, does the NFL have a problem? I’m not so sure that the sagging attendance figures are that much of a concern to the league at this point. 95% capacity is still pretty good. Many teams have sold very profitable PSL’s and continue to book their corporate suites at premium rates. Our mobile, transplanted cities, along with the growth of fantasy football, is still allowing the league fairly high t.v. ratings even if the local team is blacked out in places like Oakland, Tampa, and Detroit. Can the league let the attendance figures continue to dip? Not for long. The league doesn’t want all of their stadiums to be half-empty every week. Even if they could still fill the stadiums half-way with ticket prices double or triple what they are now, it would not reflect well on the sport. I believe the league is in the process of finding its’ perfect point of demand vs. supply in their stadiums. They are probably satisfied with anything from 95% up, especially as they continue to break t.v. ratings records year after year.
which numbers? the t.v. rating 'numbers' (going up even more) or the attendance 'numbers' (going down even more)?
The attendance numbers going down. There wouldn't be a need to pad the count with tickets bought by the local TV station so they can keep somewhat of a cut in the ad revenue. I wouldn't be shocked if you swore you saw a half empty stadium and the NFL declares it was close to a sellout.
yep, there are some games where there are 10-20,000 'no shows' so even if they announce the attendance at 60,000, there's actually only 40k there. early in the season, the raiders were having trouble bringing in actual attendance of 30k ............. :icon_eek:
Great read. Couple thoughts... It does seem like right around 2007 was the peak. I had very few snitches or gripes about the league. Now that Goodell has had the reins for a bit, I've got a friggin' list of stuff to complain about. Great point about HDTVs and DirecTV. I usally attend one or two Seahawks games a year and have been invited by friends to go twice, but have turned them both down so I could watch the Eagles on DirecTV. The declining ticket sales is something they really do need to worry about, but with these players making the RIDICULOUS amount of money they are, it's not like these prices are going down.
I have no idea how much average Joe is earning, but I'm pretty sure he can't afford it for all home games of his team. Not in days like these....
3 more games failed to sell out this weekend and other teams had to play some 'games' to get sold-out (local t.v. station buying thousands of tickets, etc.) in order to sell-out ................ expect actual attendance at many of the games you're watching today to be well below full ...........
