N/S NFL considering moving all conference championship games to neutral sites (1 Viewer)

Rouxble

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Listening to NFL radio on the way home yesterday, Pat Kirwan insisted that neutral sites for all future conference championships was coming sooner rather than later. He said it’s pretty much a done deal already, and here’s an article I saw about it this morning:


I personally think it’s a disaster for fans of the teams playing, as the costs will be through the roof to attend, and I can’t imagine a better home game experience than a conference championship. Besides that, the incentives for regular season performance continue to go away. Before, the top two teams got a bye and one got home field advantage. Next, only one team gets a bye plus home field advantage. After this, congratulations you get a bye, which is about the same as playing the 7 seed if you get the the 2.

I hope it doesn’t happen, but knowing the NFL it seems inevitable.
 
That's always been part of the bonus for being the best team in your Conference. You get a bye week and home field throughout the playoffs. It would also be a slap in the face to that teams fan base like you said.

Feels like the NFL is slowly taking away long standing traditions.
 
That's always been part of the bonus for being the best team in your Conference. You get a bye week and home field throughout the playoffs. It would also be a slap in the face to that teams fan base like you said.

Feels like the NFL is slowly taking away long standing traditions.
Part of the payoff of being a season ticket holder is a chance to go to playoff games, NFL says not for long.

I’ve been to a playoff tailgate in Houston without tickets to the game before, I’d have to think even that becomes a thing of the past.
 
Terrible idea. Keep it as is. One of the great things about the NFL is teams earning HFA. The NFL’s greed for more $$$ is going to end up killing it in the end.

This is why I am glad to see the USFL to continue and the XFL coming back. I'm not sure if it would ever happen, but fans of football may gravitate towards a more pure game while the NFL moves towards WWE.
 
Goodell has done so many absurd things, but he keeps his job because everyone loves football and will take it however they can get it.

The league thrives in spite of him, not because of him. So of course we’ll keep doing things like moving meaningful games overseas and away from home stadiums.
 
For those that went to the NFCCG against the Vikings, how many would have been able/willing to pay for airfare and hotels and other expenses if the game was in Los Angeles? Even if you went, how many of your tailgating crew are making it out there with you?

Super Bowl has to be a neutral site because teams are ranked by conference, but if you want to go to the Super Bowl, either the win your conference or beat the best team in their house.
 
The more important question is will they avoid cold weather cities like they do with the Super Bowl.
I guess Chicago isn’t considering a dome for no reason. Might as well get taxpayers to pony up for the chance at an occasional conference championship.
 
I read the PFT thing on this and there were a few interesting points:

1) Season ticket holders buy their tickets from the teams directly, and there are basically no fees. Neutral site probably goes to ticketmaster, and enjoy paying way more for tickets, plus fees
2) The league gets most of the ticket revenue from playoff games anyway
3) Speculation is that if they do this, they will add an 8th team an eliminate the bye week.

I'm somewhat indifferent about 3---it's weird, I was fine with the bye when two teams got it, but now it feels inherently unfair. But this is likely just a cash grab by the league, which is why they will do it. The one side effect I can see, is that to a degree it disincentivizes owning season tickets--if you aren't going to have playoff tickets to the biggest game, why not just pick and choose which games you want to go to.

I suspect what would ultimately happen is you would end up with some championship games that had the atmosphere of a week 17 Panthers/Falcons game in Atlanta. If you have two competitive teams from wealthy markets, sure it would sell out, but like if you have a big underdog like Jacksonville playing KC in London or Los Angeles, are you really going to fill up the stadium?
 
Terrible idea. There is something exciting and special watching a game played in the home stadium of the one of the two participating teams.

I do favor adding an eight team to the playoffs, though I think seven teams are too many, but know that number will never reduced. The argument for an eighth team is to force the top-seeded team to play a game in the wild-card playoff round. Having a bye is too big of an advantage when the difference between the first-place and second-place team in each conference is so small and might be based on tie-breakers.
 

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