All Four Major US Sports Leagues Playing at Once

[GooooMarquette]

I have to think this is the first time we have ever seen all four major US sports leagues playing regular season and/or playoff games at the same time, right? It will be interesting to see how the ratings pan out with NHL and NBA playoffs competing against late-season MLB games and the start of the NFL.

My gut tells me that the NHL and NBA suffer the most. Normally, their playoffs only compete with the early portion of the MLB season. This year, the MLB is approaching the final stretch of the regular season, and the ratings juggernaut of the NFL is just getting started.

Should be interesting to see the ratings numbers for the next few weeks....

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

The last couple of years, for about 10-14 days in mid to late October, all four leagues have been playing at once.  MLB's postseason has been going longer obviously, and the NBA and NHL are just kicking off their seasons.

I think the difference is that the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup have never gone up against the NFL.  And I agree that those are going to be what is hurt most if they go head to head.

[Not A Serious Person]

My gut tells me that the NHL and NBA suffer the most. Normally, their playoffs only compete with the early portion of the MLB season. This year, the MLB is approaching the final stretch of the regular season, and the ratings juggernaut of the NFL is just getting started.

Should be interesting to see the ratings numbers for the next few weeks....

Ok, one data point is not a trend, but the “juggernaut” bombed Thursday night.

https://deadline.com/2020/09/nfl-ratings-down-season-kickoff-kansas-city-chiefs-coronavirus-houston-texans-nbc-1234575251/

UPDATED, 12:25 PM: The game ended over 12 hours ago and now the final numbers are in from last night’s NFL season opener. The primetime matchup between the victorious Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans snared 19.3 million viewers on NBC.

That’s a fumble of 12.3% from the Green Bay Packers-Chicago Bears opening game of the 2019-2020 season on September 5, 2019. With racial justice center stage at the beginning of last night’s game, the contest between the reigning Super Bowl champions and the Lone Star state team is up just a touch over the nine-year low of the weather-delayed 2018 season opener in total sets of eyeballs.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Ok, one data point is not a trend, but the “juggernaut” bombed Thursday night.

https://deadline.com/2020/09/nfl-ratings-down-season-kickoff-kansas-city-chiefs-coronavirus-houston-texans-nbc-1234575251/

UPDATED, 12:25 PM: The game ended over 12 hours ago and now the final numbers are in from last night’s NFL season opener. The primetime matchup between the victorious Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans snared 19.3 million viewers on NBC.

That’s a fumble of 12.3% from the Green Bay Packers-Chicago Bears opening game of the 2019-2020 season on September 5, 2019. With racial justice center stage at the beginning of last night’s game, the contest between the reigning Super Bowl champions and the Lone Star state team is up just a touch over the nine-year low of the weather-delayed 2018 season opener in total sets of eyeballs.

I know the people who inject politics into everything, such as yourself, like to push this point of view. But sports ratings overall were higher on Thursday then they were last year on the same Thursday.

The reason the NFL ratings were down is because of more competition. Not because people are boycotting the NFL.

[Not A Serious Person]

Fluffy

I know the people who inject politics into everything, such as yourself, like to push a point of view.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Fluffy

I know the people who inject politics into everything, such as yourself, like to push a point of view.

I’m not the one injecting politics into a topic where politics aren’t relevant. So...

[Not A Serious Person]

I will repeat, one data point does not make a trend.

That said, Thursday’s ratings bombed.  Should, repeat should, this be the case for the next few weeks, the reason cited will be political.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

I’m not the one injecting politics into a topic where politics aren’t relevant. So...

If you dont think that politics has become center stage in most major sports, i don't know what to tell you.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

If you dont think that politics has become center stage in most major sports, i don't know what to tell you.

If you think that's what I said, I would take reading comprehension classes.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

I will repeat, one data point does not make a trend.

That said, Thursday’s ratings bombed.  Should, repeat should, this be the case for the next few weeks, the reason cited will be political.

Again, the reasons NFL rating were down Thursday wasn't politics.  It's because it was up against the NBA playoffs and NHL playoffs, not to mention college football, US Open tennis, etc.

https://twitter.com/mulvihill79/status/1304462583160659968?s=20

"Overnight ratings for nationally televised sports. NFL opening night:

2020 - 17.4
(NFL + NBA + US Open + NHL)

2019 - 16.9
(NFL + US Open)"


Anyway, the ratings for this game were always going to be down compared to last year because its was Packers v. Bears.

[dgies9156]

Anyway, the ratings for this game were always going to be down compared to last year because its was Packers v. Bears.

Possibly in Wisconsin and in the Chicago metro region but do you really think someone watching in Charlotte, Amarillo, Seattle, Bangor or Modesto gives a rat's backside about the Chicago Bears or the Green Bay Packers?

Neither is a true national team (though the Packer backers may disagree).

You want big ratings for opening night? Try the Dallas Cowboys against the Tom Brady Buccaneers. Or the San Francisco 49ers against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Possibly in Wisconsin and in the Chicago metro region but do you really think someone watching in Charlotte, Amarillo, Seattle, Bangor or Modesto gives a rat's backside about the Chicago Bears or the Green Bay Packers?

Neither is a true national team (though the Packer backers may disagree).

You want big ratings for opening night? Try the Dallas Cowboys against the Tom Brady Buccaneers. Or the San Francisco 49ers against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

But those games didn't happen.  (You think the 49ers have a large fanbase?)

Yes the Packers and Bears have larger fanbases than the Chiefs and Texans.  And Aaron Rodgers is going to draw similar eyeballs to Tom Brady (although Tom in a new uniform would be a draw.)

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

https://bearswire.usatoday.com/2019/09/06/chicago-bears-green-bay-packers-week-1-television-ratings/

"Thursday’s NFL Kickoff Game delivered a 15.3 overnight rating, which is up 14 percent from last season. It was the league’s highest-rated NFL Kickoff Game since 2016 and the best for any sporting event since Super Bowl LII."


Anyway, this is funny.  Here are the ratings from two years ago when the Eagles played the Falcons to kick off the season.

https://deadline.com/2018/09/eagles-nfl-kickoff-game-ratings-down-falcons-nbc-1202459228/

"Snagging 19 million viewers on the Comcast-owned network, the late starting Eagles winning kickoff game fell 13% in broadcast audience from last year’s NFL opener with the New England Patriots and the victorious Kansas City Chiefs."


So it actually looks like ratings were down this year not only due to competition, but because last year offered a more ratings-friendly match up.  Last Thursday's game actually OUTDREW the kick off game from two years ago.

Politics had little to do with it.

[GooooMarquette]

For what it’s worth, a recent statistical analysis determined that the Packers and Bears have the sixth and eighth largest/most loyal fan bases in the NFL. That seems pretty national to me. And given that the New England Tom Bradys are number two, I suspect they will be moving up to fifth and seventh soon.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2019/06/24/nfl-fan-rankings-best-cowboys-patriots-rams/1550146001/

I found it interesting that the Chiefs came up at 31st out of 32 teams, even after winning the Super Bowl. Most definitely not a national following.

[shoothoops]

But those games didn't happen.  (You think the 49ers have a large fanbase?)

Yes the Packers and Bears have larger fanbases than the Chiefs and Texans.  And Aaron Rodgers is going to draw similar eyeballs to Tom Brady (although Tom in a new uniform would be a draw.)

49ers have a very large fan base. It isn't just a Bay Area fan base. Chicago, Green Bay and yes, KC do as well. The Texans won't have as big of a regional, national, international fan base as those, but, Houston is the nation's 5th largest market and Texas is the 3rd largest populated state.

The overall point is that sports ratings are not down because of social justice protests. That is just a talking point memo for tribalists to regurgitate.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

If you think that's what I said, I would take reading comprehension classes.

Misread your post.

Carry on.

[GooooMarquette]

49ers have a very large fan base. It isn't just a Bay Area fan base. Chicago, Green Bay and yes, KC do as well. The Texans won't have as big of a regional, national, international fan base as those, but, Houston is the nation's 5th largest market and Texas is the 3rd largest populated state.

I agree with you on the Packers, Bears and 49ers, but the Chiefs do not have a large national fan base. I’m sure it will grow if they continue their recent success, but they have a ways to go.

[shoothoops]

I agree with you on the Packers, Bears and 49ers, but the Chiefs do not have a large national fan base. I’m sure it will grow if they continue their recent success, but they have a ways to go.

They have a large Regional fan base in the Midwest and Plains states.

[GooooMarquette]

They have a large Regional fan base in the Midwest and Plains states.

Agreed. But that is very different from large national fan bases that stretch from coast to coast...especially given the relatively sparse population in the midwest/plains compared to the east and west coasts.

No question their fans are loud and dedicated...there just aren't nearly as many of them as quite a few other teams.

[Not A Serious Person]

Disagree... football is the only national sport and the chiefs are the Super Bowl champions with the marquee player in the league.

The population and location of the franchise is largely irrelevant in football. If it was, Green Bay would have been the Milwaukee Packers by the 1980s.



No need to stand on your head, Thursday was a bad set of TV ratings.

Will it be repeated Sunday and in the following weeks?

[tower912]

We can only hope.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Disagree... football is the only national sport and the chiefs are the Super Bowl champions with the marquee player in the league.

The population and location of the franchise is largely irrelevant in football. If it was, Green Bay would have been the Milwaukee Packers by the 1980s.



No need to stand on your head, Thursday was a bad set of TV ratings.

Will it be repeated Sunday and in the following weeks?

My Marquette education taught me to investigate and put data into proper context.  Apparently you missed that.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

NFL Sunday Game ratings down from last year.

But the Bucs / Saints game was the highest rated Sunday game in the last four years.

Anyone making wild projections of NFL ratings at this point should probably wait.

[muwarrior69]

Disagree... football is the only national sport and the chiefs are the Super Bowl champions with the marquee player in the league.

The population and location of the franchise is largely irrelevant in football. If it was, Green Bay would have been the Milwaukee Packers by the 1980s.



No need to stand on your head, Thursday was a bad set of TV ratings.

Will it be repeated Sunday and in the following weeks?

The Packers are a unique sports franchise. I believe Green Bay owns the team which is why they never became the Milwaukee Packers and will never move. I can remember when 3 games were played in Milwaukee County Stadium each season. Not sure when that stopped.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

The Packers are a unique sports franchise. I believe Green Bay owns the team which is why they never became the Milwaukee Packers and will never move. I can remember when 3 games were played in Milwaukee County Stadium each season. Not sure when that stopped.

The City of Green Bay doesn't own the team.  It's a non-profit, stock corporation.  So it is owned by shareholders who don't receive any financial benefit from their holdings.

They could most definitely move to Milwaukee, and almost did a couple of times especially early on.  For instance, in 1939 the Packers hosted the NFL Championship Game at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds instead of Green Bay because of the crowd.  They were on a financial shoestring until the new stadium in the mid 1950s.  There was some talk as late as the late 80s about moving to Milwaukee full time if County Stadium was replaced but it was never that serious.

The Packers stopped playing in Milwaukee in 1994.  The last score was pretty legendary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C7Y-YWbry8

[naginiF]

They have a large Regional fan base in the Midwest and Plains states.

So basically the Electoral College winners of NFL ratings?

[GooooMarquette]

The Packers stopped playing in Milwaukee in 1994.  The last score was pretty legendary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C7Y-YWbry8

My dad had Milwaukee “season tickets“ from the mid 70s until the early 80s, when my parents got divorced and dropped them. I probably would have kept them myself if I had been a little older, but I was still a broke undergrad at the time.

We saw some pretty awful games in the 70s and early 80s…

[muwarrior69]

The City of Green Bay doesn't own the team.  It's a non-profit, stock corporation.  So it is owned by shareholders who don't receive any financial benefit from their holdings.

They could most definitely move to Milwaukee, and almost did a couple of times especially early on.  For instance, in 1939 the Packers hosted the NFL Championship Game at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds instead of Green Bay because of the crowd.  They were on a financial shoestring until the new stadium in the mid 1950s.  There was some talk as late as the late 80s about moving to Milwaukee full time if County Stadium was replaced but it was never that serious.

The Packers stopped playing in Milwaukee in 1994.  The last score was pretty legendary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C7Y-YWbry8

I stand corrected with a caveat: which is why they will never leave Green Bay.

The Green Bay Packers are the only publicly owned team in US professional sports. From its early years a century ago, the team has belonged not to a tycoon but to the people of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and their descendants as a non-profit corporation.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/sep/07/green-bay-packers-fan-owned-nfl-football

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

I stand corrected with a caveat: which is why they will never leave Green Bay.

The Green Bay Packers are the only publicly owned team in US professional sports. From its early years a century ago, the team has belonged not to a tycoon but to the people of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and their descendants as a non-profit corporation.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/sep/07/green-bay-packers-fan-owned-nfl-football

They won’t now. But it was definitely a possibility early on.

[Not A Serious Person]

NFL Sunday Game ratings down from last year.

But the Bucs / Saints game was the highest-rated Sunday game in the last four years.

Anyone making wild projections of NFL ratings at this point should probably wait.

Week 1 and the "juggernaut" put up some really bad numbers. (I agree it is too early to call this a trend.  For now, it's a bad week)

https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-ratings-sunday-night-football-sees-sharp-decline-in-initial-ratings-161747893.html

Initial ratings are in for the NFL’s Sunday slate of games, and the ratings decline evident from Thursday’s kickoff continued through to the league’s marquee telecast, “Sunday Night Football.” However, Fox Sports recorded its best ratings since 2016 for its Game of the Week.

There was an exception (proving again that the NFL is not really a regionally driven sport)

Sunday afternoon’s marquee game pitted two of the NFL’s most notable players, Tampa Bay’s Tom Brady vs. New Orleans’ Drew Brees. They played in an almost exclusive window as only two other games were airing at the time. The result was a major payoff for Fox.

Saints-Bucs drew a 16.2/35 overnight rating, which was Fox’s highest such rating for a Week 1 game since 2016. Fox Sports PR projects that the game is on pace to become the most-watched event of any kind since the Super Bowl, eclipsing Thursday night’s Chiefs-Texans game and February’s Academy Awards.

And the link above had this section ...

Working theories of why fans are tuning in or tuning out

Critics of the NFL who wish to use the SNF ratings as a political cudgel will contend that the ratings are diving because the NFL has taken a more socially progressive stance this season. It’s a theory that, at first blush, could hold water, since Dallas is typically one of the top draws in sports.

On the other hand, the Fox numbers seem to indicate that matchups do matter, and that NFL fans will follow a game that they want to see regardless of politics.

We’ll need more data points before we can legitimately call any movement, positive or negative, a trend, and even more data than that before we can accurately say that political protest is the sole, primary, or even a significant reason for any decline.

As we documented last week, there are multiple drivers that have an impact on NFL ratings — lack of a preseason, overall audience dissatisfaction or lack of interest in sports after the pandemic, and so on — but without more information, it’s impossible to rank the strength and validity of these drivers on anything more factual than feelings and hunches.

Regardless, expect the NFL to take a close look at the numbers and adjust its sails to account for which way the wind is blowing. Whereas Thursday night’s game featured a heavy dose of emphasis on the league’s social justice messaging, Sunday night’s — with the exact same production and broadcast team in place — gave little acknowledgement to the stances of the players or the league. Pregame shows on Sunday either placed segments on social justice in the beginning or middle of their broadcasts, well away from the 1 p.m. Eastern kickoff. We’ll have to see if that continues going forward.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

I agree with that article.  Balanced, with no hot takes.

[Pakuni]

From The Athletic:

Kaplan: The NFL’s Week 1 ratings are down, but not as dramatic as reported

NFL TV ratings, and viewership for all sports, were always going to be a political football in this crazy election year, with teams and leagues to a varying degree embracing social justice initiatives.

So when reports emerged Friday that the NFL’s Thursday night season opener shed over 2 million viewers, a double-digit percent decline, the news gained traction with headlines like “NFL Ratings Crash Over 16% for Woke Season Opener.” And similar reaction repeated itself after a report yesterday of an even larger decline for “Sunday Night Football” of more than 20 percent. President Donald Trump, who has used the NFL as a punching bag in previous years, said at a campaign rally that the NFL was “boring.”

But here’s the thing: While those earlier TV ratings reports were not “fake news,” they were incomplete. The earlier reported figures were a snapshot of the audience, and too low. The numbers weren’t wrong at the time, but it is akin to reporting vote totals before the counting has finished. When NBC’s final viewership figures came in, ratings for the season opener were down a more modest 5 percent.

“Every morning Nielsen puts out preliminary national ratings that reflect the times that entertainment programming airs,” said a broadcasting executive at one of the networks that carries NFL games. “So if ‘The Simpsons’ airs at 8 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. PT, that’s reflected in those prelim numbers … But sports obviously air live. So when an NFL game runs from 8-11 ET and 5-8 PT, what Nielsen (preliminarily) reports is 8-11 PT, which is local programming that rates much lower than the game. This happens every time there’s a major primetime sports event. The Nielsen prelim number is always inaccurate and the inaccuracy is always on the low side. It’s frustrating and it’s usually an inaccurate number that’s reported by entertainment press (for whom these prelim numbers are typically pretty reliable) rather than sports press.”

“If you were to look at a basket of rationales or reasons why the ratings are down, I think the social justice movement piece of it is not even within the top five reasons why the NFL ratings are down if it’s even in there,” said Dan Cohen, senior vice president of Octagon’s global media rights consulting division, talking specifically about football. “First and foremost, it’s about cord-cutting. And that is across the board … Number two, is because of the fact that this fragmentation of content is at an all-time high. I mean, the proliferation of new platforms is, there’s over 300 different platforms of video content to subscribe to now to watch in terms of, and that’s just, that’s not linear, those are digital platforms in the U.S.

“Eleven times this month, you’re going to have all the major sports on television the same day,” Cohen added. “That’s only happened six times in history.”

Full story:
https://theathletic.com/2068692/2020/09/15/kaplan-the-nfls-week-1-ratings-are-down-but-not-as-dramatic-as-reported/

[DegenerateDish]

The reason the Packers started playing games in Milwaukee was because of George Halas’ urging the team to do so in the 50’s, so they would survive financially. Lambeau Field existing and the Packers still being in Green Bay is due in large part to Halas.

Halas definitely had his own motivation ($$$) to keep the Packers afloat. But he is a crucial figure in Packers history.