Rodger Goodell done after 2023

[Dr LBC]

On 12/15/2017 at 9:04 AM, disaacs said:

Tags' major flaw was that he allowed thuggery to happen throughout the NFL and also was one of the primary people in the concussion coverup.  However, he did a lot more good than bad in his tenure.  He began the international expansion talk, brought the league to 32 teams, had a fairly harmonious relationship with the player's union, and most of the new stadiums were built under his tenure.  He certainly wasn't perfect, but Goodell has reaped a lot of what Tags' sowed.     

Moreover - and, hopefully, this will answer the point to which FourThree was speaking - Tagliabue was steered by a different Power-5 (may really have more been a case of Power-4 in his time) owners.  Have to remember that the likes of Lamar Hunt, Red McCombs, and Ralph Wilson were the equivalent of Goodell's Kraft, Jones/Richardson, and Mara; and if I'm not mistaken Paul Brown was one of the guys to really push to get Tags seated as Commissioner to succeed Rozelle.  Now some of the same guys who were the Inner Circle to whom Tagliabue and Goodell answered to most immediately are/were the same: Rooney, Adams, Benson... but they've tended to be drowned out and kept at arm's-distance by the Power-5.  And meanwhile, a lot of the new owners brought into the fold haven't been what I'd call "boons to the sport" (e.g. Haslam, Ross, jury's really still out on Kroenke).

[tmass006]

40 minutes ago, The LBC said:

 And as much as people threaten to quit the product (no, the "ratings drop" is no indicative that this is happening, 

 

Sorry this is not true. Fans burning NFL gear in effigy... I guess didn't happen. Empty stadium seats? Must be photoshopped..... I know many 'die hard' fans that will never watch another game.. ever. 

[Dr LBC]

4 minutes ago, tmass006 said:

Sorry this is not true. Fans burning NFL gear in effigy... I guess didn't happen. Empty stadium seats? Must be photoshopped..... I know many 'die hard' fans that will never watch another game.. ever. 

Does it exist?  Yes.  Does it exist to the size you want to make it out to be?  Hell no.  Sorry, you're allowing a myopic viewpoint on a couple issues cloud your view of the macro.  The cases you've illustrated are exceedingly minor in relation to the slumping ratings.  Sorry, they just are.  Nielsen ratings as a measure of modern NFL viewership (where streaming is quite prevalent and Nielsen ratings show a very low preponderance of intersecting with households that have specialized NFL cable/satellite packages) are pretty much obsolete.  To suggest that that's "not true" is just to demonstrate that you don't have a grasp on modern business.

[Shanedorf]

1 hour ago, The LBC said:

 Nielsen ratings as a measure of modern NFL viewership are pretty much obsolete. 

Agreed. But the challenge is that the 3 hour telecast is / was the cash cow for both the networks and the league. Ad revenue averaged around $40 million/ game on the broadcast networks ( some higher/lower)

Streaming isn't delivering that kind of revenue, yet. The NFL is still King, but the rate of revenue growth is declining and so is the amount of time a fan invests in "viewing" an NFL game. The days of fans sitting like zombies for 3 hours of ads are numbered

From SI: Fans explain ratings decline

REDZONE, FANTASY AND SOCIAL KILLED THE THREE-HOUR BROADCAST

"The NFL and the networks changed the rules and the conduct of the game to make it all about scoring in an effort to boost ratings and attract the casual demographic. And so these new NFL fans and fantasy fans only care about scoring. There is no need to watch an entire broadcast when all you care about is, “Who scored?”

With the RedZone channel, Twitter, highlight shows and a hundred fantasy outlets saturating the airwaves, ratings are down for traditional broadcasts, and they will continue to decline because it’s a lousy way to consume NFL football. The old-timers watched an entire game but are tired of all the commercials, while the newly minted fans happily consume the NFL in short bytes from non-broadcast sources. Why would anybody sit through three hours of commercials when they can get all the scoring plays with an investment of 15 minutes?

The owners, league and networks fell in love—not with their best, most loyal customers, but with the people who weren’t their customers yet. That was a strategic mistake on their part, thinking they could keep the fans they already had AND change the game enough to win over the new set of fans.

It’s kind of ironic that the NFL went hard after the casual fans and got exactly that; casual fans who won’t bother with a three-hour broadcast. The game is still popular, but the gravy train that drives the revenue; network broadcasts, are on the way down. And they’ve got no one to blame but themselves."

https://www.si.com/mmqb/2016/10/27/nfl-ratings-decline-football-fans-explain-viewership

 

This aligns with your comments about Nielsen becoming obsolete. But measuring viewership doesn't move the needle, they still have to capture $600 -700 million per weekend in ad revenue and the shift from broadcast toward streaming isn't going to be seamless...or painless for the NFL.

[DontTazeMeBro]

I see this theory all the time. Why would these successful businessmen pay $40 million a year for a figurehead who has no power and does nothing? How does that make any sense? 

The owners don’t agree on everything and they don’t have time to vote on every single day-to-day issue. Hence the need for a commissioner. Which is important 

[DontTazeMeBro]

On 12/13/2017 at 3:10 PM, iknowcool said:

NFL fans 10 years from now - "Man, I really miss Roger Goodell."

I miss Tagliabue because I barely knew he existed. That’s what I want from a commish

[swede700]

13 hours ago, tmass006 said:

Sorry this is not true. Fans burning NFL gear in effigy... I guess didn't happen. Empty stadium seats? Must be photoshopped..... I know many 'die hard' fans that will never watch another game.. ever. 

I can guarantee you that 80% of those "fans" burning NFL gear in effigy were watching it 2 weeks later.  If there's anything we know, most normal Americans have the attention span of a gnat.  They did it for the social media attention and then sat back on their couch and turned on the game.