And they are fine with it being that way. The NFL is ok with lower attendence as long as tv numbers stay up because that drives the increase in TV contracts which is where the money comes from. There are other shockwaves but the only one that really bares mentioning is that the NFL will not do anything that will jeopardize it's tv viewership because that is the golden goose. Individual teams and owners may be concerned over attendence but as a league, the TV ratings are almost all that matters.
Yes but there is a balance between attendance and tv revenue. Quite frankly people won't spend as much on advertising if the stadium is half full. We hear this all the time locally with the Raiders how the NFL is constantly on the Raiders to take steps to improve attendance. They don't like the local blackouts for one thing.
I would add, the NFL doesn't get extra tv revenue, nor do they lose it, from games watched online. that's built into the contract because the NFL figured they'd eventually get sued by someone if they continued to try and force people to get DTV to get Sunday Ticket while freely allowing people in Canada and Mexico to see the games without Direct TV. They are required to offer a way for fans who can't get Direct tv, to get Sunday ticket. That's what started Ticket to Go. Then they decided to create Sunday Ticket Max so they could charge 300 bucks.
They are essentially doing an actuarial computation trying to figure out how to maximize their profits by creating a balance between attendance and ease of people to watch the games on tv or the internet.
I assume at some point in the future we'll have PPV games, it seems like a pretty likely model. They're simply pricing the average fan out with the cost of tickets these days.
