Tag: sports

Speaking of sportswriters, Peter King is confused as to why people are watching less sports at a time when they’re spending more time at home with less to do.

I think this poll, from the Marist (N.Y.) Center for Sports Communications/Marist Poll, really surprised me: Of 1,560 random Americans at the end of September, 46 percent say they are watching fewer live sports events on TV. That goes against anything we’d normally think. In a pandemic, when people are forced indoors and forced in many instances to be isolated, wouldn’t you figure people would be watching more sports, not less? There wasn’t one dominant reason for the decline, said Jane McManus, longtime sportswriter and director of the Marist Center for Sports Communication—though 35 percent of those polled said concern about gathering with friends to watch sports was a prime reason; “athletes speaking out on political issue” was 32 percent, with the interest in the flood of news/election coverage making respondents 20 percent less likely to watch live sports. “We live in complicated times,” McManus told me. “Viewership traditions have been upended. Say you might have a tradition of watching the football game with your elderly father. Maybe now you’re staying away from your elderly father because you’re being careful about COVID-19.”

I think the one other striking point of comparison was the decline of those who consider themselves fans of football. A 2017 Marist poll found that 67 percent of respondents were football fans. The 2020 poll found that only 52 percent were. (Baseball was down, from 51 to 37 percent; basketball down from 44 to 37 percent—odd considering the poll was taken this time in the midst of exciting playoffs.) McManus said: “I don’t think you can isolate on any one thing right now, except that it seems people just have less bandwidth to deal with sports. For instance, I don’t think 67 to 52 for football is forever. Maybe you lost your job, you’re dealing with unemployment, your life is totally different than it was. I just think people’s focus is fractured, and the erosion is happening for every reason.”

The stubborn obtuseness of the social justice media is downright amusing at times. Readers have been telling Peter King for years to keep the politics out of his columns, and he has resolutely told them to take a hike if they don’t like his regular, though admittedly minimalistic, tangents about Trump, the coronavirus, gay rights, and BLM, to name a few. And to be fair, the size of his audience has not been reduced by these occasional little excursions, which may be why King finds it hard to believe that people are actually turning off the NFL due to all the anti-American political propaganda and BLM histrionics.

The key difference here is that King, although he’s never seen a left-wing cause he doesn’t instinctively support, has pretty much kept the political nonsense to a minimum. His columns are not only very much devoted to football and full of inside football detail, they are also extraordinarily long. He usually confines his political meanderings to one, or sometimes two, points in his 10 Things I Think I Think section, which is usually less than a tenth of his weekly column, and is located at the bottom. For example, in this week’s column, the overtly political content is largely limited to this:

o. Fifteen days till election day. From the sounds and looks of things, voting early is the best plan. It’s my plan.

And you know, if a veteran sportswriter wants to devote 21 words out of nearly 12,000 to his personal politics, he’s earned the right to indulge himself. Even if he was promulgating rank heresy about the God-Emperor, that little aside is nothing that can’t be easily skipped. But what King does, however irritating one finds it to be, is both qualitatively and quantitatively different than what the professional sports leagues are presently inflicting on their long-suffering and increasingly-distant fans. The non-stop political propaganda, the relentless insults to the flag and the anthem, and the ignorant chatter of the commentators completely ruins the experience for the average spectator.

Which, of course, is why, like more than a few other lifelong NFL fans, I haven’t watched a single minute of an NFL game or NFL coverage this year. Then again, from what I’ve read, this appears to be an excellent year for Vikings fans to assiduously avoid watching them play.

 Woke, broke, and soon to get smoked:

CNBC’s Jim Cramer told TheStreet.com that Disney’s reorganization plan announced this week is writing on the wall for ESPN. “I think it’s really about getting rid of ESPN,” Cramer said of the plan to accelerate a direct-to-consumer strategy. The main focus for Disney going forward will be streaming, streaming and more streaming….

“ESPN used to be this unbelievable thing and now it’s just a really expensive thing they are having trouble monetizing. ESPN is no longer the precious place that it once was.”

“ESPN went from slightly over 100 million cable subscribers in 2010 to slightly over 80 million earlier this year,” Outkick’s Ryan Glasspiegel wrote this week when the Disney news was announced. This affects every cable network. Cable news has been thriving in viewership for a number of reasons, but it is still facing the subscriber declines of the rest of the industry. The issue for ESPN in particular is that they have by far the biggest subscriber fees of anyone in the business.

“This is the rough math: Between ESPN and ESPN2, the subscriber fees total about $10 a month. They’ve lost about 20 million subscribers, which is $200 million a month, which is about $2.4 billion a year in lost revenue.”

No matter how rich and powerful a corporation is, events will eventually overtake its situation sooner or later. 

Whereas the NBA has already reached Stage Three, the Bargaining phase of the Kübler-Ross model, the NFL is evidently still in Denial:

Sports Business Journal recently reported that NFL media operations man, Brian Rolapp, sent a memo to all the teams to allay their fears over the consistently bad ratings. Rolapp reasoned that both presidential politics and coronavirus hysteria was naturally diverting the attention of fans and resulting in fewer viewers.

“The 2020 presidential election and other national news events are driving substantial consumption of cable news, taking meaningful share of audience from all other programming,” reporter John Ourand claimed that Rolapp told the teams. “Historically, NFL viewership has declined in each of the past six presidential elections.”

Rolapp also pointed to the coronavirus as another reason for the lower ratings.

“The pandemic has caused several major sports to postpone their schedules, resulting in an unprecedented fall calendar,” Rolapp said. “The result is a crowded content marketplace driving a bifurcation of sports viewers across multiple events.”

Rolapp noted that the NFL season’s portion during the 2016 presidential election that put Donald Trump in the White House also took a significant ratings hit. And this year, the NHL and NBA have encroached into traditional football time because COVID pushed their seasons later in the year. That, Rolapp added, also took viewers from the NFL.

Rolapp, predictably, did not mention the players social justice protests as a cause for the ratings drop,

The most recent ratings for the league showed that Week 3 lost more than one million viewers over Week 2. Thursday Night Football’s game between the Miami Dolphins and the Jacksonville Jaguars, for instance, fell to 5.3 million viewers, a drop from the 6.67 million that last week’s Thursday Week 2 game.

It never ceases to amuse me how long SJWs are able to deny the obvious. Apparently a 50 percent decline is necessary before they’re able to begin contemplating reality.

They haven’t learned anything. But they desperately want the beatings to stop.

Rachel Nichols: The NBA has certainly been the most visible billion-dollar organization championing social justice and civil rights. As you noted in your press conference the other day, though, that has not been universally popular. How committed are you to being that going forward?

Adam Silver: We’re completely committed to standing for social justice and racial equality and that’s been the case going back decades. It’s part of the DNA of this league. How it gets manifested is something we’re gonna have to sit down with the players and discuss for next season. I would say, in terms of the messages you see on the court and our jerseys, this was an extraordinary moment in time when we began these discussions with the players and what we all lived through this summer. My sense is there’ll be somewhat a return to normalcy, that those messages will largely be left to be delivered off the floor. And I understand those people who are saying ‘I’m on your side, but I want to watch a basketball game.’

Translation: “We still hate you and want to destroy your nation, your culture, and your faith. But we’ll stop rubbing that hatred in your face, for the time being, if you’ll just come back.” And the sports fans whispered, “no”.

Case Study: NBA

The NBA took another L Wednesday. This time, in the NBA Finals on ABC with the Lakers and LeBron James. Only 7.41 million viewers watched the industry-hyped matchup. Per Sports Media Watch, this is the least-watched Finals opener since … on record.

Game 1 is down an unheard of 44{5274a41d3bd2aa3d5829764fe19e8a7ecbc79c108731aad5f1ff2d292e60e2b4} from last year’s matchup, which featured a team from Canada. During last year’s Finals tank-job, media members yelled “one team is from Canada,” and “there is no LeBron.”

The NBA is taking tanking to never-before-seen depths. If LeBron and the Lakers in the Finals can’t save this collapse — nothing will. This is the best-case scenario. Imagine these numbers when the Nuggets finally win the West and the media has to push that over the NFL.

Compared to 2018, the last Finals with LeBron, Game 1 is down 58{5274a41d3bd2aa3d5829764fe19e8a7ecbc79c108731aad5f1ff2d292e60e2b4}. That kind of slide is what gets TV shows canceled and showrunners chased out of the business.

Usually it takes ten years for a converged company to lose 50 percent of its audience. The NBA has managed to do it in two.

This is why it’s time to bring back the blasphemy laws. Free speech was always a false flag flown by the Jesus-hating Children of the Lie:

Team Trek-Segafredo has suspended 19-year-old Quinn Simmons for what it’s calling “divisive” comments. There were apparently two tweets that sent Team Trek-Segafredo over the edge, including a tweet where Simmons wrote “bye” and included a dark-skinned waving emoji on a tweet from Dutch journalist Jose Been that read “If you follow me and support Trump, you can go.”

In another tweet, Quinn responded, “that’s right [American flag icon]” to a guy who determined Quinn to be a “Trumper.” 

And it is officially ON in the world of cycling. People are picking their sides and the woke cycling community is full of rage towards Quinn, who won the 2019 world junior road race championships.

“Trek-Segafredo is an organization that values inclusivity and supports a more diverse and equitable sport for all athletes,” the team said in a statement. “While we support the right to free speech, we will hold people accountable for their words and actions.

“Regrettably, team rider Quinn Simmons made statements online that we feel are divisive, incendiary, and detrimental to the team, professional cycling, its fans, and the positive future we hope to help create for the sport.

“In response, he will not be racing for Trek-Segafredo until further notice.

If someone supports Biden or BLM or the ADL or any other Promethean project, eject them without hesitation. Don’t think twice, just do it. They have made it perfectly clear that there is no place in their society for us, which means there is no place in our society for them. 

Think about it: all this young man did was support the current President of the United States of America. If that is beyond the pale, what isn’t?

I haven’t watched a single minute of the NFL this season, but I’m moderately well-informed because I read Outkick. Jason Whitlock, who has been on a roll lately, astutely observes why the Saints are unexpectedly underperforming this season:

Brees has never been the most talented NFL QB. His intangibles, particularly his leadership, are what made him great. The guy’s reputation was impeccable. 

He was the guy New Orleans and the Saints rallied around. Jenkins and Thomas ruined that when they publicly criticized Brees because Brees had the audacity to defend standing for the national anthem. 

Brees is no longer the leader of the Saints, who fell to 1-2 Sunday night. He’s a player on the team. It’s a tragedy what Jenkins and Thomas did to Brees, the NFL’s modern-day Walter Payton. If the Saints miss the playoffs, blame Jenkins, Thomas and the media race hustlers.

Leaders have to lead. Leaders have to face down challenges to their authority. Leaders who back down and submit to the demands of their followers also give up their leadership. Once a leader abdicates his position, especially if he does so under duress or out of cowardice, he is very unlikely to ever get it back, even if his leadership is in everyone’s best interest.

Drew Brees had an obligation to the team to stand his ground and stare down his critics. Because he failed in his responsibility to do so, his teammates no longer have confidence in him or his leadership.

 For He has made his enemies ridiculous:

The Katie Nolan vs. Jason Whitlock Thunderdome took a wild twist Monday night when Talcum X took time out of his busy schedule to chime in on the Twitter rager that has blue checkmarks up in arms. “Disgusting that this outlet is bragging about a black woman having to lock her account from online harassment,” Talcum, aka Shaun King tweeted before someone let him in on Katie being white. Really, really white.

In fairness, Shaun King has yet to realize that he isn’t black, so it is understandable that his ability to distinguish black people from white people might not be highly developed. 

America’s race wars have officially gone meta when a white man who thinks he’s black attacks a black man for criticizing a white woman the white man thinks is black. All that we’re missing is the white man who thinks he’s black thinking the black man is white and attempting to play the race card on him.

The early results are in and they do not bode well for the NFL:

Despite two teams with big national followings, SNF snared a 4.7 in early ratings among adults 18-49 and 14.81 million viewers last night. In numbers certain to change, that’s a fall of 28{5274a41d3bd2aa3d5829764fe19e8a7ecbc79c108731aad5f1ff2d292e60e2b4} in the demo and a hard decline of 23{5274a41d3bd2aa3d5829764fe19e8a7ecbc79c108731aad5f1ff2d292e60e2b4} in sets of eyeballs from the early numbers of the the September 8, 2019 SNF season debut. 

More precisely, the decline was from a 7.5 rating among 18-49 and 22.21 million viewers… of a game that New England beat Pittsburgh 33-3. That’s a loss of up to 7.4 million viewers. 

 The NFL opener was reported to be “down about 12 percent” last night:

In the latest TV ratings, NBC Sunday Night Football‘s Thursday-night NFL kickoff game between the Chiefs and Titans Texans averaged 17.1 million total viewers and a 5.5 demo rating in fast nationals, down about 12 percent from the preliminary numbers for last year’s season opener.

They’ve also changed the rating system this year, so it’s entirely possible that the 4.9 million decline in viewers from last year is worse than reported.

Despite an ugly, penalty-filled game, the Green Bay Packers’ 10-3 win over the Chicago Bears averaged 22 million viewers in the finals, a 16 percent boost over the 18.98 million who tuned in last year. Streaming on NBC and NFL digital properties averaged 627,000 viewers, an all-time high for NBC’s primetime NFL package. NBC’s telecast scored a preliminary 15.3 household rating in overnight metered markets. That’s up 14 percent from a 13.4 in the overnights for the 2018 season opener, and also bests the 14.6 for the first game of the 2017 season.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wouldn’t a drop from 22 million to 17.1 be a 22.3 percent decline? Perhaps they’ll find another 2.26 million viewers in time for the final ratings. Outkick claims the decline is more like 16 percent.

In early numbers, the Chiefs win scored a 5.2 among adults 18-49 and 16.4 million viewers between 8-11 p.m. ET. While the number will adjust some upward later to 11:30 p.m., right now it’s a 16.1{fb585635b9f6189e33442b25caac15ec2544d7054f182b4f92840c6cee65accd} drop. In fast affiliates, last night fell the same 16.1{fb585635b9f6189e33442b25caac15ec2544d7054f182b4f92840c6cee65accd}.

A 12 percent decline would be massive. Remember, this is a league with economics built on the assumption of revenues increasing by $2.3 billion every year. The very real possibility of losing one-quarter of the fans would be a nightmare.