Is the NFL on the verge of causing its fans to suffer football fatigue?

College is a better product.

 

I can't take college football seriously when peoples' voting plays a part and teams pad their schedules with cupcakes.

 

"Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered."
--Mark Cuban

I'm not happy with the streaming, the international games, or the move to a 17 game season, and I'll like an 18 game season even less. I'm very averse to businesses, once they've made it to billion dollar a year income status, continuing to do things to go for every dollar rather than doing what's best for the game even if...horror of horrors!...it might mean doing things that DON'T bring in more money.

I think much of what they do makes things harder on the players from Thursday night games to international games to a 17 game season. You guys made $23 billion dollars last year. Just sit back, stop f u c king with the game, and let the billions roll in.

 

I don't think they'll get fatigue.

But I do think that more and more people will turn to piracy because of the massive fragmentation of games.

 

I don’t watch the Thursday night, Sunday night or Monday night games. Not that i’m tired but more because i don’t have time to spend that many hours in front of a TV.

 

I do understand what you mean when you say cupcakes. I don't think the blue bloods of college football should be scheduling directional schools, NE whoever, southern what's it U, etc. Either play legit programs or stick to your own conference cupcakes.


I hate the separation of power 5 and group of 5 schools however. I honestly believe the winner of those conferences have earned the right to play in the playoff. Does not matter if they get walked over. They earned the right to play. The 3rd/4th best team in the SEC or BIG10 may be the better team, but they did not earn a playoff spot by placing 1st or 2nd in their respective league. That's my opinion.


Every other level of college football goes by that. Division 1 football should as well. If not for the benefit of all programs, then do it for the benefit of all the athletes. Many mid-major schools put HoF players into the NFL every year. Take the voters and the computer rankings out of it. Decide on the field who gets their shot.

 

The OP question is ridiculous

 

I just got tickets today, not sure if it was the game, but my tickets were significantly higher than last year…I don’t think I can really afford if the go higher than that.

 

I worded the thread title wrong I meant the fans getting fatigued not the league.

 

No.

 

That is along the lines of how I feel. I used to watch multiple games and I had the NFL Sunday ticket. But each year, my watching games that are not Steelers drops a little more. This last year, I even missed a few Steelers games because I was not going to subscribe to some random streaming service to watch a single game. I know that I could sign up and cancel on a few of them and I realize that the cost for that streaming was far less than going to a game or even to a bar to watch it......but it was a principal of the matter for me.

I hate the NFL's push to sell of broadcast rights to every streaming service they can get to sign a contract. Thursdays go to Amazon.....except for thanksgiving games. Sundays go to YouTube Sunday ticket......except for the late games that go to someone else. Monday goes to another service. Playoff games are somewhere not above. There were 9 different streaming/broadcasting channels that you had to subscribe to in 2025 to see any game. Ridiculous.

If it gets to much more onerous, I will be reading about the game on the internet instead of watching it.

 

I don't think fans will get tired of watching / following / gambling / or playing fantasy football any time soon.

I do think fans will get fatigued of paying ridiculous sums of money to watch some sliver of games.

I got the Ticket the first time it was available on youtube. I think it got me access to 3-5 Steelers games. In part because where I am (Bills country) seems to view the Steelers as a secondary market. In part because the ticket only gives us Sunday games at 1 and 4. And every year there are fewer and fewer of them. Especially toward the end of the season. In the year I had the ticket (purchased specifically to watch the Steelers), I think we only played a Ticket game once in the last 5 weeks (I think a Thursday game, maybe a Sunday night, and two Saturdays).

And not having them be on the Ticket meant that I couldn't "record" them and play them later in the week. This is rediculous IMO. Rewatching a game on Wednesday doesn't impact the original broadcaster at all IMO. Not including this only hurts the customer.

I think part of this is also that the last time I had the Ticket I lived in Canada. And it was awesome because (1) I think this was before Thursday games...at least some of the years I had the ticket and (2) living in a place with no local market meant that there were more games to choose from.

The league has only fragmented the games more since then. So this problem is only getting worse. And I'd imagine the price of the Ticket didn't go down to reflect the reduction in the number of games they include.

I think that the ridiculous way the league runs the ticket and all the streaming services getting games will push fans to piracy. But I don't think it will reduce demand.

But I do think a reduction in demand for all sports is coming. I think young people don't care as much about sports as we did when we were young. So as older people die off, younger people just watch other stuff.

 

The league is incredibly greedy and arrogant at this point, but they certainly won't pay the price for it... They'll even be rewarded even though they don't deserve it, unfortunately.

I mean, having games on Wednesdays or Fridays is ridiculous, what a shame... It's too much. And of course, the other problem is you have to pay for different streaming services to watch the game, that's too much!

 

The NFL doesn’t fatigue me. The endless blogs, YouTube "experts", and regurgitated takes that say nothing new do. I only watch Steelers games and enjoy football.

 

Football is the #1 rated TV show .

See the link:


https://ustvdb.com/seasons/2025-26/ratings/



So, no, the NFL is not in danger of having its fans suffer from football fatigue.


Though off target marketing on the super bowl halftime show and picking a political native are dangerous towards the NFL's health if they go far enough.

 

And then the clickbait is reposted here

 

Thanks for this. I redid the plot showing the year-to-year jump in revenue. Pre-covid the annual jumps were $20Mish.

The covid years clearly show up here with a jump of ~$40M. But there is also a confounding affect of the NFL and gambling that started around 2019. It will be interesting to see if the annual jumps of $30Mish stays that level or continues to rise.



As a comparison, here's a quick chart of inflation in the same time period... hmmm.....

 

But I think fans are going to get tired of having to subscribe to five or more streaming services to watch their team during the season.

 

college is doing the same thing and trying to get more and more out of fans. players moving where and when they want. big money for pro players. they are not just college kids, far from it. it's like a farm league for the pros. it's like anything and i mean everything in life. follow the money and you will find greed. politics, sports food, drinks, science, medical, companies, insurance, local, cities, states, etc...