Mark Cuban: NFL 10 Years from Implosion

[Matt]

During his routine pre-game conversation with the media Sunday, Cuban (when asked aboutthe NFL's television expansion) predicted the nation's most popular league will eventually burn itself out.

"I think the NFL is 10 years away from an implosion," Cuban said according to ESPNDallas.com. "I'm just telling you, pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. And they're getting hoggy. Just watch. Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. When you try to take it too far, people turn the other way.

"I'm just telling you, when you've got a good thing and you get greedy, it always, always, always, always, always turns on you. That's rule number one of business."

And Cuban, a highly successful businessman and investor, knows a thing or two about business.

The NFL in February announced a new TV deal that, with additional coverage on CBS, will expand the league's capacity for Thursday Night Football and even add a couple Saturday games late in the season.

Cuban joins the NFL's coaches and players who, generally speaking, hate the idea of mid-week regular-season games. The largest and most obvious concern from teams is the fact that players can't adequately recover from the previous week. And coaches don't have enough time to study opponents' film and prepare a solid game plan.

Players and coaches understandably don't like the idea. But commissioner Roger Goodell and the league seem to love it for obvious reasons: more nationally televised games equate to more mulah — for everybody.

NFL fans, for the most part, love the idea, too. More football is a beautiful thing, right? Wrong, Cuban says.

"They're trying to take over every night of TV," Cuban said. "Initially, it'll be, 'Yeah, they're the biggest-rating thing that there is.' OK, Thursday, that's great, regardless of whether it impacts [the NBA] during that period when we cross over. Then if it gets Saturday, now you're impacting colleges. Now it's on four days a week. ...

"It's all football. At some point, the people get sick of it."

Is Cuban concerned about the NFL television ratings' affect on the NBA's? Maybe. But his opinion on the NFL's seemingly uncontrollable popularity is interesting. Cuban's comments — combined with the public's exponentially growing safety concerns about the sport of football — present legitimate questions regarding the league's future.

Think of it this way: People love to eat food, so a smart individual invented the buffet.

But one can only eat so much. Steak is delicious, but if you eat it every day it eventually becomes intolerable.

http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/sto...ell-tv-network-thursday-night-football-league

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Thanking that post is like thanking myself.

Cuban is right, but he's a couple of years behind me in stating these things. Try to keep up with me, Mark. I've moved on to the inevitable changes that will be made to field goal kicking.

 

[KINGOFOOTBALL]

Pleaz block warner from reading this.

Also the public doesnt give a shit about NFL player safety , only lawyers do. Theyll pull their raggedy ass kids out of peewee but still watch concussion of the week highlights on Sunday night.

Obviously I agree 100pct and hopefully will save me some typing next season.

Edit : too late

 

[ram29jackson]

for the 3 months of football at its core, Give me all I can stand ! heck, I play Madden year round now too..And I am now watching the half hour retrospect of the Rams Steelers 79' Super Bowl on the NFL network !

Basketballs hip-hop-rap-ghetto culture turns me off. Theres hardly no white-American guys to identify with and root for...my nickname in high school and after Was Rambis for those who care LOL

 

[ThunderHorse]

I often wonder whether or not another football league would work if they had the finances to match some of these NFL contracts.

 

[MrBill]

Cuban isn't on an island. I've been saying the same thing since Thursday night football became a season long event and not just a special showing during the holidays.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

I agree in principle with what Cuban is saying, but in regards to the NFL, a majority of the people who watch this sport are the gen-pop (TM Larry) fans. These fans will support their team when they are winning, and tend to go away when they are losing. The only players they know are the starting QB and the players who are popular/good enough to have jerseys made for them. They will attend games each year, paying full price or more to get in, and pay for plenty at the concession stands.

They just want winning football, and that's it.

On another note, I think if you made the NFL season as long as you made it for the other major sports, I think you would be at risk for losing interest with games scheduled like that. As it is, I think it's just enough for everyone, even though I hate the Thursday games myself.

 

[Tailback U]

Implosion is a little bit exaggerated. The NFL has a shorter season than the NBA, MLB, and NHL and they are all doing fine. Neither of these other sports are going to gain massive viewership in the next 10 years and the nfl will beat them head to head more often than not.

They'll lose some viewership during the week but Sundays will be the same as always.

Like everyone has said, what Cuban is saying is supply and demand 101...nothin new here and you're not a genius for thinking the same thing. Pretty elementary stuff. Over saturate a market with any product and it's value will diminish. Mind blowing shit...not so much.

 

[EmpireWF]

Basketballs hip-hop-rap-ghetto culture turns me off. Theres hardly no white-American guys to identify with and root for..

I would have been shocked if you posted anything else about the NBA.

 

[KINGOFOOTBALL]

Implosion is a little bit exaggerated. The NFL has a shorter season than the NBA, MLB, and NHL and they are all doing fine. Neither of these other sports are going to gain massive viewership in the next 10 years and the nfl will beat them head to head more often than not.

They'll lose some viewership during the week but Sundays will be the same as always.

Like everyone has said, what Cuban is saying is supply and demand 101...nothin new here and you're not a genius for thinking the same thing. Pretty elementary stuff. Over saturate a market with any product and it's value will diminish. Mind blowing shit...not so much.

I think Cuban and the rest of us are anticipating an 18 week schedule and perhaps out of country expansion as well.
Sundays are one thing. But the rest of the week other sports can schedule and compete. If the NBA had a likeable superstar like they used to (Jordan/Magic/Bird etc) they could schedule head to head and a sports fan could easily just choose the NBA game and get his fantasy updates and be totally fine with it.
Even Sundays are at risk as more and more fans just go mobile.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

I think Cuban and the rest of us are anticipating an 18 week schedule and perhaps out of country expansion as well.
Sundays are one thing. But the rest of the week other sports can schedule and compete. If the NBA had a likeable superstar like they used to (Jordan/Magic/Bird etc) they could schedule head to head and a sports fan could easily just choose the NBA game and get his fantasy updates and be totally fine with it.
Even Sundays are at risk as more and more fans just go mobile.

The 18 game schedule, if it replaces pre-season games, won't lose people. We are already used to dealing with those games, so actually having more games that matter in the same time frame won't hurt. The expansion outside of the US, especially if you have to cross the Atlantic to play games in London is something that could hurt. If more than one team expands out of country and it involves major travel time, that makes it even worse.

 

[Atom1]

my nickname in high school and after Was Rambis for those who care LOL

Thats ironic cause they called me Greg Kite :yep:

 

[cmnelson87]

Look how popular the first couple weeks of NFL free agency is. Look at how popular the NFL combine is. Look at the draft. And fantasy football. People can't get enough of the NFL. It isn't going to implode.

I also find it ironic that he is saying this now when he expressed interest in being an NFL owner just a short time ago.

 

[Hasselbeck]

Look how popular the first couple weeks of NFL free agency is. Look at how popular the NFL combine is. Look at the draft. And fantasy football. People can't get enough of the NFL. It isn't going to implode....

That's.....

his.....

point.......

The NFL is over-saturating their own market. They own sports in North America. Adding games to a Tuesday, Wednesday .. taking home games away from teams to cater to London fans who will never rate the NFL over English soccer .. expanding the season to 18 games, expanding the playoffs to 14/16 teams etc etc is watering down your own brand. It's letting greed take over.

Will it "implode"... ? No .. but it will kill interest from the casual fans. I am a die-hard NFL fan and even I think this shit goes over the top sometimes.

 

[cmnelson87]

That's.....

his.....

point.......

The NFL is over-saturating their own market. They own sports in North America. Adding games to a Tuesday, Wednesday .. taking home games away from teams to cater to London fans who will never rate the NFL over English soccer .. expanding the season to 18 games, expanding the playoffs to 14/16 teams etc etc is watering down your own brand. It's letting greed take over.

Will it "implode"... ? No .. but it will kill interest from the casual fans. I am a die-hard NFL fan and even I think this shit goes over the top sometimes.

How is adding more viewable games going to chase away the casual fan? That's what the casual fan watches. The casual fan doesn't watch the combine or draft, they watch games.

Fans want more NFL. That's why the popularity of offseason events continues to grow.

And the games in England aren't hurting teams, it's helping them. They take home games away from teams that struggle to sell tickets. It eliminates a game from being blacked out. It is one less game that team has to pay to staff an empty stadium.

 

[spursup]

How is adding more viewable games going to chase away the casual fan? That's what the casual fan watches. The casual fan doesn't watch the combine or draft, they watch games.

Fans want more NFL. That's why the popularity of offseason events continues to grow.

And the games in England aren't hurting teams, it's helping them. They take home games away from teams that struggle to sell tickets. It eliminates a game from being blacked out. It is one less game that team has to pay to staff an empty stadium.

Eventually, if the NFL starts having games on Tuesday or Wednesday nights, people are going to get bored of watching the same stuff every day and the NFL would start losing ratings.

The games in England aren't helping teams. They are simply losing their home fan base by giving them less games to come to.

 

[PP]

Im on the over-saturation side. I like how games were 2 days. Sunday was the focal point.I would watch 3 games no matter if it was my team. Dont need games during the week. Plus the short week with less practice/injury rest waters down the shit.

 

[cmnelson87]

Eventually, if the NFL starts having games on Tuesday or Wednesday nights, people are going to get bored of watching the same stuff every day and the NFL would start losing ratings.

The games in England aren't helping teams. They are simply losing their home fan base by giving them less games to come to.

The teams losing the home games can't get fans there to start with. That's why they are doing it. What is going to cost you more fans: keeping the game in your city and forcing fans to either go or not see the game (blackout), or moving the game to England and allow the game to be shown on tv? If it was hurting teams, they wouldn't be happy to get those games.

 

[Hasselbeck]

How is adding more viewable games going to chase away the casual fan? That's what the casual fan watches. The casual fan doesn't watch the combine or draft, they watch games.

How is taking away what is believed to be the best Sunday matchups and playing them on a shorter week helping the product? The Thursday games are typically shit. Not to mention, how often do the "best teams" from the year prior continue that the following year with all the roster turnover and injuries that happen in a typical season.

Fans want more NFL. That's why the popularity of offseason events continues to grow.

What offseason events are really popular now that weren't 10 years ago? The draft has always been big for football fans.. free agency during the salary cap era has been exciting to follow for football fans..

The scouting combine though? The schedule release? Yeah.. I guess it gets some pop, but the large percentage of NFL fans probably don't care too much.

The NFL right now is almost at a point where it cannot really go further up the mountain anymore, and now when you begin to oversaturate your own market, you start taking away from that amazing amount of interest that it has.

And the games in England aren't hurting teams, it's helping them. They take home games away from teams that struggle to sell tickets. It eliminates a game from being blacked out. It is one less game that team has to pay to staff an empty stadium.

You say this now, just wait until Goodell decrees every team will be playing a game in London during the year.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

The London thing is what gets me. As it stands right now, some teams require you to pay a license fee for season tickets that doesn't even factor into the price per game. I only know what the Redskins do, but I imagine most other teams do it, but when you purchase season tickets, you also HAVE to buy the pre-season tickets in your package as well.

So, if you are requiring those extra purchases, how are you going to explain to season-ticket holders that you are going to take a game away from them?