ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?
With its schedule rollout, the NFL shows yet again why it’s the juggernaut of sports
BULLS OF THE WEEK
There is more than just the number of downs separating the NFL from the CFL as the novel coronavirus pandemic enters its ninth week. The NFL — at least so far — is not only reflecting the adage that timing is everything, but that the rich only get richer.
After a virtual NFL draft that generated blockbuster television ratings two weeks ago — with an average national audience of 15.6 million Americans and another 188,000 Canadians tuning into conventional TV for the first round — the league rolled out its 2020 schedule on Thursday and owned the day as far as sport television, sport radio and social media were concerned.
It was yet another example of the payoffs of the way the NFL does business. The appointment television and fan engagement the NFL drives under regular circumstances seems to matter even more during the unprecedented disruption of the COVID-19 crisis.
The league is expected to hold its draft during the third week of April each spring. It is expected to release its regular-season schedule the first week of May each year. That schedule begins the first Thursday after Labour Day Weekend every year. And the games on that schedule are expected to cluster around any given Sunday throughout the fall.
It’s that consistency which makes the NFL such a social phenomenon among the major professional sports leagues in North America. It’s why there’s more betting and fantasy extensions in the NFL than in the other big five leagues combined.
So here is the NFL, taking a business-as-usual approach and dominating the airwaves with regularity, while the NBA, MLB, NHL and MLS figure out their next steps, desperately hoping to complete, resume or — in the case of baseball and MLS — begin seasons that have been suspended on account of the COVID-19 outbreak. The NFL is intent on kicking off as scheduled — on Thursday, Sept. 10 — with an opening doubleheader front-ended by the Houston Texans and the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. There might not be fans in the stands, but it matters not as the NFL’S television income alone is more than the total revenues for the next two biggest sports — the NBA and MLB — and more than two times the overall revenues of the NHL.
When your average franchise value is US$2.86 billion (according to Forbes) and the Dallas Cowboys are at US$5.5 billion
— more than 36 times what Jerry Jones paid for them when he became owner in 1989 — you have a rather large cushion if your franchise carries the NFL shield.
BEARS OF THE WEEK
That cushion is simply not there if you’re a CFL franchise owner. With TV representing less than one-fifth of team revenues and ticket sales and concessions more than half of team budgets, the CFL business model is not as pandemic-safe as the NFL’S television juggernaut.
That’s why the CFL is pitching the federal government on between $30 million and $150 million in bridge funding. Without it, as CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie told a House of Commons committee on Thursday, the CFL may be forced to forgo its 2020 season.
Even worse, the league may not look exactly the same when it comes back for another kick at the can in 2021. Unlike the NFL, the CFL stands to lose more by operating without fans in the stands than not operating at all. That’s certainly a red flag.