What do Mark Cuban and UltimateNYG have in common? Well, one of them is a billionaire and the other is not. But when it comes to observations about the business of professional football, both are warning about dire consequences if the path of the NFL continues.
“I think the NFL is 10 years away from an implosion,” Cuban said, via Tim McMahon of 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.”
Cuban was speaking specifically of the NFL’s expanded television package, which will put NFL games on CBS this fall on Thursdays, with the games being simulcast on the NFL Network.“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.”
Cuban is taking on the notion of more is better. Trust Cuban. And trust us. MORE IS NOT BETTER. Now obviously Mark Cuban is talking his book. He is competing directly with the NFL for the sports eyeballs. But he is 100% right, and he echoes items we have been talking about for years on this blog.
NFL Network/restricted access games.
It's a money grab, growth of revenue at any price. It's exactly what we've been talking about and it's exactly what Cuban is talking about. Cuban is a smart guy. Notice how he refers to a 10 year time frame. This is not some kind of death of the game that is going to take place overnight. But make no mistake, if you aren't paying attention, you are going to wake up one day more than a few years down the road and ask how we got here. How did we get to a land where the NFL just didn't matter anymore? How did we get to a point where games didn't matter anymore? How did we get to the point where the game no longer mattered to the younger generation?
This is the exact path that Baseball took. The playoff games that end at 1AM. The records that have asterisks. The star players that will not get into the Hall of Fame because of drugs. The nationally televised games seemingly every day of the week. Baseball became a hog and the hog got slaughtered.
You cannot dilute the game and think that there will be no unintended consequences. Fans are rabid about the NFL because 1 game per week matters. Start diluting the value of the regular season, start showing games all days of the week, get players hurt on 3 days rest… you cannot grow a 60 minute game and pull it like silly putty.
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