Uh Oh - "Apres nous le deluge"

[weams]

When I was a kid it was Orioles then Redskins then... nothing. Well, I'd watch college basketball in the dead of winter. Now? Orioles, then several soccer teams, Virginia Tech football but not nearly like 15 years ago. Mixed in there are my kids' sports, which actually go above the O's. Then if it's Sunday and I have nothing better to do and the Redskins are on I'll watch some of the game.

I think the NFL's hypocrisy plays a role, including injuries. The whole bit about how they deeply care about the players but have hundreds or thousands of retired players who can't walk or think straight barely (or not at all) able to pay their bills. NFL films selling DVDs of the NFL's Greatest Hits, with the 15-yard penalties and ejections airbrushed out. 70-year-old guys demanding that 23-year-olds unemotionally hand the football to the ref after a huge play that just won the old guy's weekly fantasy league game. 15-yard penalties for pretending to shoot a bow and arrow.

Also, for me, a lot of it is Dan Snyder. Who makes Peter Angelos look like Branch Rickey or Connie Mack or something.

I think football is really taking a hit.

[weams]

I think football is really taking a hit.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/nfl/la-sp-nfl-week-8-farmer-20161029-snap-story.html

[atomic]

The polls all say it is because of the Anthem Protests. But for some reason people are looking for other reasons.

[Can_of_corn]

The polls all say it is because of the Anthem Protests. But for some reason people are looking for other reasons.

We know what the reasons are, folks just don't want to acknowledge them.

[SteveA]

The polls all say it is because of the Anthem Protests. But for some reason people are looking for other reasons.

Just seems so hard to believe. Only a few teams have had players protest during the anthem, and the vast majority of casual fans can probably only name one of the players.

I don't recall anyone on Dallas or Philly protesting (please correct me if I am wrong). Do you honestly think that if the ratings for tonight's Cowboy/Eagle game show 5 million fewer people watching than a comparable game last year, that it is because some players around the NFL are protesting the anthem? Just doesn't ring true to me.

[atomic]

Just seems so hard to believe. Only a few teams have had players protest during the anthem, and the vast majority of casual fans can probably only name one of the players.

I don't recall anyone on Dallas or Philly protesting (please correct me if I am wrong). Do you honestly think that if the ratings for tonight's Cowboy/Eagle game show 5 million fewer people watching than a comparable game last year, that it is because some players around the NFL are protesting the anthem? Just doesn't ring true to me.

People are not watching the games because they are boycotting NFL over it. I don't see why when people say they are going to boycott the NFL and there are a lot less viewers for the games and when the people say they are not watching games because of anthem protests you say it doesn't ring true. Seems you are denying facts for some reason. Maybe you can explain why you are denying a straight forward cause effect.

All the other reasons have been there before. I haven't been boycotting games. If the Ravens aren't playing I usually don't watch.

[oceanicvoyage]

Thought this article was good: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-10-27/nfl-ratings-slide-doesn-t-mean-we-ve-reached-peak-football

Author argues NFL ratings are down due to over supply - Thursday night, Sunday morning (London game), Sunday 1 & 4, Sunday night, and Monday night. Plus college all day Saturday.

I doubt baseball will have a huge crash. Baseball seems to be more proactive about serious issues and has more innovation going on within the game. But, I'm more of a baseball fan writing in a baseball forum - so I'm obviously biased.

[Barnfather]

I can't really weigh in on this too much, being from the UK

What I will say is that traditionally football (soccer) has been my primary sport. In terms of watching live it will still be, although now with access to MLB.TV and the ability to watch every game, I would say that Baseball has now nudged ahead to be my favourite 'watching' sport. I really hope that TV coverage of baseball doesn't suffer from some slide in ratings, as without that I'd be totally in the dark. That said, I'm sure I read that whilst attendances at OPACY were down this past season, the TV ratings were up. That doesn't seem to scan with the view that people are turning off sport due to 'cord cutting'.

I can't comment too much on NFL. I have an NFL Now subscription and watch Ravens games when I can, but for me its much more a social activity than baseball is, ie. I prefer to watch WITH someone. It's certainly growing in popularity in the UK but still has a way to go. I'm surprised if in the US the ratings stay dropped off for too long though...there are so few games per season that they are such an 'event'. People may find the sport cynical or that it's lost it's soul, I hear the same about soccer every year, but it doesn't usually correlate to a persistent drop off in viewing figures for long, so I'm sure it will be fine.

[atomic]

Thought this article was good: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-10-27/nfl-ratings-slide-doesn-t-mean-we-ve-reached-peak-football

Author argues NFL ratings are down due to over supply - Thursday night, Sunday morning (London game), Sunday 1 & 4, Sunday night, and Monday night. Plus college all day Saturday.

I doubt baseball will have a huge crash. Baseball seems to be more proactive about serious issues and has more innovation going on within the game. But, I'm more of a baseball fan writing in a baseball forum - so I'm obviously biased.

There was the same over supply for years. And viewership kept going up. People really seem to not want to believe the real reason. Which is a mystery to me.

[atomic]

Thought this article was good: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-10-27/nfl-ratings-slide-doesn-t-mean-we-ve-reached-peak-football

Author argues NFL ratings are down due to over supply - Thursday night, Sunday morning (London game), Sunday 1 & 4, Sunday night, and Monday night. Plus college all day Saturday.

I doubt baseball will have a huge crash. Baseball seems to be more proactive about serious issues and has more innovation going on within the game. But, I'm more of a baseball fan writing in a baseball forum - so I'm obviously biased.

Also baseball has long ago crashed. Back before they shutdown the season that one year baseball and football were equally popular. Baseball is so unpopular even most of the playoff games aren't even on network TV. And how many regular season games are on network TV?

[MDtransplant757]

When I was a kid it was Orioles then Redskins then... nothing. Well, I'd watch college basketball in the dead of winter. Now? Orioles, then several soccer teams, Virginia Tech football but not nearly like 15 years ago. Mixed in there are my kids' sports, which actually go above the O's. Then if it's Sunday and I have nothing better to do and the Redskins are on I'll watch some of the game.

I think the NFL's hypocrisy plays a role, including injuries. The whole bit about how they deeply care about the players but have hundreds or thousands of retired players who can't walk or think straight barely (or not at all) able to pay their bills. NFL films selling DVDs of the NFL's Greatest Hits, with the 15-yard penalties and ejections airbrushed out. 70-year-old guys demanding that 23-year-olds unemotionally hand the football to the ref after a huge play that just won the old guy's weekly fantasy league game. 15-yard penalties for pretending to shoot a bow and arrow.

Also, for me, a lot of it is Dan Snyder. Who makes Peter Angelos look like Branch Rickey or Connie Mack or something.

It's a miracle people still pay top dollar to go to VA Tech games, even though they've either been bad or massively overrated for years now. The NFL is turning into the No Fun League. I think if you celebrate after a good play like they did at the U back in the day, then that's ok. But college has driven it out, and now the NFL is doing the same thing the NCAA did but with more malice than the NCAA. The people who run the NFL are ruining their product, thinking it's unkillable, but as we are seeing this year; the NFL has a soft underbelly and a noticeable weakness with the whole stupidity of the kneeling thing and the fact that the league isn't as fun as it was even a year ago. The NFL should give a good amount of its proceeds to the players who can't do anything anymore, who helped make the league into the juggernaut it is during the 70's. They are making billions of dollars, shouldn't some of that money go to the players to make sure they are taken care of? Dan Snyder would have ruined football for me due to how awful he was as an owner (I was disillusioned with the Angelos ownership for years to the point to where I didn't say I was an O's fan due to how awful they were), but hasn't ruined the skins for my brother somehow. There were nights when the skins were bad (around 07-09ish) where my brother would pray that Dan Snyder would sell the team and the Redskins would no longer be awful.

[DrungoHazewood]

It's a miracle people still pay top dollar to go to VA Tech games, even though they've either been bad or massively overrated for years now.

I think that's an overstatement. Demand for tickets is down. But I see it as 1990s Braves syndrome, where people get so accustomed to success that only winning it all really matters. And in college football there are 120 teams trying to win it all. It's odd/funny that a team that's been to some kind of bowl every single season since the year after I graduated (1993) is called "bad or massively overrated". If Tech is bad what would you call Maryland football?

[MDtransplant757]

I think that's an overstatement. Demand for tickets is down. But I see it as 1990s Braves syndrome, where people get so accustomed to success that only winning it all really matters. And in college football there are 120 teams trying to win it all. It's odd/funny that a team that's been to some kind of bowl every single season since the year after I graduated (1993) is called "bad or massively overrated". If Tech is bad what would you call Maryland football?

Maryland football was never relevant like Tech, but Maryland's program isn't doing bad this year. Usually, I'd put it at the "extremely low to non existant expectations" or compare it to a dumpster fire. That and I'm not a Maryland fan. I'm an ODU fan where we have 0 expectations for our team and we really don't care that our small program isn't all that good.

[Woody Held]

Yes, Football has over-exposed itself, Thursdays , Mondays . Too many broadcast and not enough good announcers to cover them. You get awful broadcast on the non-prime games.

I am so sick of all the in game advertisements for this Thursday show of the week. And Graphics overtop the game with some ad

The players no longer tackle it's a big hit, then a 5 minute wait and 20 commercials to cart him off the field.

And they call baseball slow

[notyourbuddy]

Game Five of the World Series beat the Eagles-Cowboys Sunday Night Football game by 32 percent in overnight ratings.

Baseball generated a 15.3; football drew an 11.6.