"Go woke, go broke."
That appears to be the lesson from the NFL's season opener.
Football is a time for sportsmanship and competition.
Most people watch football to "escape" from the rigors of every day life.
They want to be entertained.
The last thing viewers want is to be preached to about politics…
Yet…
The NFL decided to promote BLM throughout its season opener.
In fact, the fans even booed during the players' supposed show of "unity."
Now…
The ratings have been revealed for the NFL's first night.
And the numbers are B-A-D.
Ratings have dropped double digits compared to the opening night last year.
More details below:
Keep in mind that we're in the middle of a pandemic.
This means more people are home than ever before.
Most activities have been canceled outdoors, restaurants are at half capacity, and many movie theaters are still closed.
People are staying home and finding ways to entertain themselves.
In any other year, you would expect a ratings RECORD.
But because of the politicization of everything, NFL ratings have PLUMMETED by 13-16 percent, depending on the estimates.
The New York Post has more details:
The NFL is back. Spread the word.
Thursday night’s season-opening matchup between the Chiefs and Texans attracted 19.3 million viewers between 8 and 11 p.m. That marks a 12.3% drop from last year’s ratings, which ended with an audience of 22 million. Deadline noted that the key 18-49 demographic pulled in a 5.2 rating, falling from last year’s 12.8 mark.
It is likely that multiple factors played into the drop, including social justice messages, which have been present, while audience sizes have reduced across all sports in recent months. An uncompetitive game — a 34-20 Chiefs win, during which they led by 24 in the fourth quarter — likely played a role. So too did unusual competition from an unprecedented sports calendar, which saw the NBA playoffs, NHL playoffs, MLB regular season, U.S. Open and college football all take place Thursday night.
Yikes.
That can't be good for business.
It makes you wonder how long the NFL will try to politicize its platform, rather than focusing on sports!
Gallup did a survey of American's approval of specific industry.
The farming industry has skyrocketed to #1.
But sports?
Well... it plummeted 15% points over the course of the year.
As of this writing, only 30% of Americans approve of the sports industry.
Perhaps the NFL should pay attention before it's too late!
According to Gallup:
For the first time in Gallup's 20 years of tracking Americans' views of various business and industry sectors, farming and agriculture is the clear leader. The former top-ranking industries -- restaurants and computers -- remain in the top four, with the grocery industry rounding out the group. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical industry's image has improved modestly since last year, and it has yielded the "worst rated" distinction back to the federal government.
[...]
The biggest slide, however, has been for the sports industry, with its positive score falling 15 points -- from 45% to 30%.
The sports industry now has a negative image, on balance, among Americans as a whole, with 30% viewing it positively and 40% negatively, for a -10 net-positive score. This contrasts with the +20 net positive image it enjoyed in 2019, when 45% viewed it positively and 25% negatively.
This slide in the sports industry's image comes as professional and college leagues are struggling, and not always successfully, to maintain regular schedules and playing seasons amid the pandemic. Professional football, baseball and basketball games have also become focal points for public displays of support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
While it's not clear how much the various challenges and controversies swirling around the industry are each responsible for its slide in popularity, it is notable that sports has lost more support from Republicans and independents than from Democrats. In fact, Democrats' view of the sports industry has not changed significantly in the past year, while Republicans' has slipped from a +11 net-positive score in 2019 to a net -35 today, and independents' from +26 to -10.
The sports industry's image has also deteriorated more among women than men, and among older adults than those younger than 35. Sports has also lost more support from non-White than White Americans, but given the extraordinarily high ratings from non-White adults a year ago, this group continues to view the sports industry positively on balance today. That is not the case with White adults, who now view the sports industry more negatively than positively, and by a 22-point margin.
Honestly, this trend has been happening over the last few years.
But things have really accelerated since the NFL has openly embraced AND promoted BLM.
It will be interesting to see how the NFL responds, if at all.
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