Changes coming to NFL Offseason (Possibly) (1 Viewer)

IMO, the Draft should be moved up to mid-March. The combine is this weekend and after the pro days, it really shouldn't need to take you much longer if your scouting department has been doing their jobs
 
They just need to stop ******* with it. They are making changes every damn year. The NFL 5 years from now is going to look completely different than the year we won the SB.
 
Player Safety? Hahahahahah! Lengthen the time players are on the field, whether it be practice or games will insure more injuries.
 
I like it how it is. The combine/free agency/draft feel like extensions of the previous season, which I enjoy. The Super Bowl isn't the end of the year, the draft is. This helps keep me somewhat invested in the ongoing NFL season even if the Saints aren't in the Superbowl hunt.

The gap between the draft and preseason also makes a nice clean "break" between the two seasons. The waiting sucks, but it builds anticipation and I'm actually excited about preseason when it comes around (hate the Hall of Fame game though). That only lasts a weekend because preseason basically sucks, but I think without the "drought" before hand I wouldn't even care about that 1 weekend of games.


Anyways. I like it how it is. I like clearly identifiable offseason, I think it's healthy for the game. Actually wish they'd compress the season even a little more, dumping the HOF game and getting rid of the regular season Thursday night lead off game. Football should start with a bang, not a whimper.
 
I like it how it is. The combine/free agency/draft feel like extensions of the previous season, which I enjoy. The Super Bowl isn't the end of the year, the draft is. This helps keep me somewhat invested in the ongoing NFL season even if the Saints aren't in the Superbowl hunt.

The gap between the draft and preseason also makes a nice clean "break" between the two seasons. The waiting sucks, but it builds anticipation and I'm actually excited about preseason when it comes around (hate the Hall of Fame game though). That only lasts a weekend because preseason basically sucks, but I think without the "drought" before hand I wouldn't even care about that 1 weekend of games.


Anyways. I like it how it is. I like clearly identifiable offseason, I think it's healthy for the game. Actually wish they'd compress the season even a little more, dumping the HOF game and getting rid of the regular season Thursday night lead off game. Football should start with a bang, not a whimper.

I agree with this post 100%.

The off-season is perfect just the way it is. I like just how quickly the combine comes after the Super Bowl and how quickly free agency starts right after that. The league needs to realize that for 20 of the teams' fans, the season ended in December. Non-playoff teams' fans are starving by the time February rolls around.

And the post draft/pre training camp time does have filler, it's called mini-camp.

Please don't change this Goodell. The formula is perfect.
 
IMO, the Draft should be moved up to mid-March. The combine is this weekend and after the pro days, it really shouldn't need to take you much longer if your scouting department has been doing their jobs

I agree. Like I said, if anything the schedule should be compressed some, not extended.

The NFL needs to protect its brand better. You can only exploit your product so much before you devalue it. One if the advantages the NFL has had over baseball and basketball is that the NFL doesn't seem interminably long. Even ardent NBA fans tend to dismiss November and December and casual NBA fans don't even pay attention until after the all-star break, if then. Then the playoffs go on for two months. This makes the NBA a significantly less valuable TV property despite being, arguably, a better sports product on TV then even football. Close to 50% of, say, the 49er games will likely be prime time next year. The Heat will only be on national tv 33% of the time this year. Because who really cares that much about game 2 of the 4 they'll play against Boston in December? You can just watch the 4th game of that series in February when it starts to count.

Anyways, the point is scarcity has been to the NFLs advantage. Every game is more important and therefore more valuable. Part of why preseason sells for anything at all is because we go months without the NFL and are willing to take anything by the time it rolls around. And part of why the draft became such an event was many fans ended the season unfulfilled and wanting more,

At some point the NFL will "saturate" the market finally, it's not inexhaustible, nothing is, and what I fear they'll find is that it's not a gradual slope down on the other side of that tipping point. It'll be a rapid crash as the property, once devalued even a little bit, creates a "sellers" market, as the media stops spending so much money and time on the NFL and fans consequently start rapidly checking out on the "experience".

They should really be much more careful
 
I agree. Like I said, if anything the schedule should be compressed some, not extended.

The NFL needs to protect its brand better. You can only exploit your product so much before you devalue it. One if the advantages the NFL has had over baseball and basketball is that the NFL doesn't seem interminably long. Even ardent NBA fans tend to dismiss November and December and casual NBA fans don't even pay attention until after the all-star break, if then. Then the playoffs go on for two months. This makes the NBA a significantly less valuable TV property despite being, arguably, a better sports product on TV then even football. Close to 50% of, say, the 49er games will likely be prime time next year. The Heat will only be on national tv 33% of the time this year. Because who really cares that much about game 2 of the 4 they'll play against Boston in December? You can just watch the 4th game of that series in February when it starts to count.

Anyways, the point is scarcity has been to the NFLs advantage. Every game is more important and therefore more valuable. Part of why preseason sells for anything at all is because we go months without the NFL and are willing to take anything by the time it rolls around. And part of why the draft became such an event was many fans ended the season unfulfilled and wanting more,

At some point the NFL will "saturate" the market finally, it's not inexhaustible, nothing is, and what I fear they'll find is that it's not a gradual slope down on the other side of that tipping point. It'll be a rapid crash as the property, once devalued even a little bit, creates a "sellers" market, as the media stops spending so much money and time on the NFL and fans consequently start rapidly checking out on the "experience".

They should really be much more careful

Yep, less is more. It's like a TV show that always ends with a cliff-hanger. You should aim to leave your audience wanting more. That's one of the biggest things that makes the league great.
 
he already ruined part of the draft by dragging it out over 3 days. I used to love watching from early morning to late at night on a Saturday

Ruined it for me too.. Use to love those two days in April.. Would have the grill going all weekend... Who Dats over... Beer... It was like a Holiday or something with perfect weather.

Joe
 
Goodell's greed and power hungry ego will destroy what we know as the NFL. He can't make enough money. He is already messing the game up. I won't surprised if he makes flags and panties part of the NFL uniform eventually. I hate that guy!
 
Ruined it for me too.. Use to love those two days in April.. Would have the grill going all weekend... Who Dats over... Beer... It was like a Holiday or something with perfect weather.

Joe

Yep, I miss my full, all-weekend draft coverage, grill, crawfish, etc. It just isn't the same anymore. First of all, you're at work all day on Thursday, tired by the time the night rolls around, not to mention the distraction at work and you can hardly watch any of the pre-draft coverage Then, on Friday, they start it even earlier, at 6:00, and you have to bust your butt to get home before it starts. It's horrible.
 
NCAA 64 is another example of scarcity making a property more valuable. The NCAA receives about $771 million a year for just the NCAA tournament, by contrast the entire NBA television contract is only worth $930 million. Despite the fact that its the same game, just played at a significantly higher level with broad international appeal and highly recognizable media figures at the NBA level? Why?

The NCAA tournament is an "event". The actual NCAA season in basketball begins in December, but no one cares. Regular season contracts for TV, handled at the conference level, as incredibly minor. It's not that people care about college basketball more than NBA. Attendence is paltry in comparison, regular season media rights are nearly given away in comparison. It's the tournament that is valuable.

I truly believe its scarcity. It's a lot of games in a very short period of time. It's an easy to share and follow event overwhelmed with excitement. The first round is a blizzard of games begging for large numbers of people to deeply immerse themselves in it, and because its such a contained period of time, people don't "wear out" the excitement level. This is similar to what football has had.

By the same vein, I consider the attempts to expand the NCAA highly risky moves which will potentially damage the product. People want more, sure, but it's an advantage to leave them wanting more. Actually satisfying the craving only devalues the product,

Its kind of like a bottle of champagne. Part of why champagne carries an exclusive cache about it is because you can't get it by the glass. You pop the bottle, the bottle has to be drank, and quickly. You had to do it with friends and the entire bottle must be gone. There is no "have a glass or two at dinner tonight and save the rest". Those types wines often end up being used for cooking after a few days in the fridge anyways.
 
My God is the NFL that hungry for more money?

can you blame them?? As much as we hate Roger the NFL is more popular now than it has ever been. Hes trying to expand the product as well and make it year round. Even our Saints are popular in Europe (notice the location on some of the posters here.)

If he would not have been such a tool we as fans of football would love him.​
 
Ruined it for me too.. Use to love those two days in April.. Would have the grill going all weekend... Who Dats over... Beer... It was like a Holiday or something with perfect weather.

Joe

Great call. Excellent example. The draft was a great property because the compressed schedule, "all-day" type nature, etc made it an "event". Something to plan around. The one game Super Bowl as opposed to the 7 game World Series or 7 game NBA finals are other examples. Tons of people who care not one whit about football watch the Super Bowl. Why? It's an "event". It's a neatly compressed product to be planned on, pumped up, executed, then it's done. Finished until next year.

It'll be interesting to see what the ratings do this year. In 2010, the first year of the 3day format, the ratings were 5.4. In 2011 they dropped to 4.3, but many assumed the large drop was due to the labor problems. In 2012 they rebounded, but only to 4.8. If they stay around 4.8 or slide, then we have clear evidence the NFL is over saturating that event and, in the process, devaluing it.
 

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