More Replays, Less Video
April 5th, 2013
Showing video from a team’s locker room, without audio, may be as boring and lame as the TV poker dweebs. At least golf has something moving and the manicured courses are pleasing to the eyes.
Only fans wearing blinders believe the Bucs are the lone team with difficulty selling out games. It’s a leaguewide issue that has been around for the past couple of years.
Joe was stunned to learn after the 2012 season that the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers, in the heart of football country with one of the largest fanbases in the nation, a supremely loyal mass of partisans, posted the worst attendance for home games in the Steel City in over a decade.
That right there reinforced Joe’s notion that attendance isn’t going to get better any time soon, surely not while this sluggish economy is stuck in park.
NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell has spoken about how the at-home product is now the preferred method for watching NFL games. Going to games as a fan, as Joe has also done in the recent past, is clearly a better and cheaper choice to stay at home.
Now Goodell is pushing owners of NFL teams to make the in-stadium experience better, and Joe hearitly encourages these efforts. A recent mandate for NFL teams to improve WiFi at stadiums so fans can monitor NFL Sunday Ticket and their fantasy teams was not just a great idea, but overdue.
Earlier this week, the NFL ordered that video from the home team’s locker room at halftime, without audio, be piped in to stadium JumboTrons.
Is this what fans are truly clamoring for?
While Joe appreciates the NFL trying to be creative and give fans better access, Joe cannot think of a more boring thing. So fans are going to buy tickets, in part, so they can see the team sit at their locker stalls, still swearing like banshees. Remember, there is no audio and surely coaches won’t allow anything like diagrams of coverages or plays to be sent out on the JumboTron.
This is about as compelling as watching the poker dorks on TV who wear sunglasses. A test pattern is more visually appealing (if not enlightening).
Locker room video will be no different than seeing a defense sit on the bench after coming off the field.
Joe has a novel concept: Rather than halftime video of the team in the locker room, how about mandatory replays of all plays, each and every play? That’s one of the main sticking points why fans stay home and watch games on their giant HDTV screens: replays. Often, fans can see more at home.
The Bucs have invested in a monster replay board. Use it, and not just for corporate sponsored ads.
Joe hears all the time how fans stay home, many times because of so few replays on the JumboTron. Joe has yet to hear anyone say they are staying home to watch football because they can’t get a peep show from the locker room at halftime.
It’s a nice effort, Mr. Goodell, but misguided. More replays, mandatory replays, less locker room peep shows, um-kay?
April 5th, 2013 at 10:36 am
Its about the product & the price…..bad product/high price…..means low turnout. Good product/low price….means better turnout. Its that simple.
Consumers were forced to cut back during the recession and found they could do without going…..Buc games suffer as do restaurants and landlines.
The money is going to smart phones/wifi/cable & direct tv…..
The consession prices don’t help either.
April 5th, 2013 at 11:29 am
@bucfan- not sure you actually read Joe’s article. The Bucs aren’t the only team with the problem- and these are all not bad teams. Concession prices aren’t that bad when compared to concessions at other “entertainment” venues like Busch Gardens, Disney, or Universal– or other sports venues. They are by no means as cheap as your local Publix, but they’re not unreasonable. It honestly comes down to game-day experience, as Joe states. I was at the Charger game and during the coach’s challenge, the video board played “who is the best dressed Buc”. I had no clue what was going on in any other league game in terms of fantasy stats, injuries, etc. I really don’t care whether the Coke pirate ship beats the Sprite pirate ship to the finish line (they played that twice) but I do care about highlights that I can see when I’m home. I also miss the analysis, insight, and sideline coverage of the reporters (when Quincy Black got hurt everyone in my section thought it was Ronde or Lavonte David until I was able to get an online blog feed on my phone). Didn’t know the scratches until I got home (couldn’t pull up Joe on my mobile phone with the crappy wi-fi at the time)
April 5th, 2013 at 11:43 am
@tamparob
Of course I read the article and realize the Bucs aren’t the only one with the problem. Bad product doesn’t necessarily refer to the W/L record. It is the oveall experience related to the price.
Comparing concession prices doesn’t make the price any more affordable. Consumers weigh the value vs cost on everything they do….even more so in this economy.
Once season ticked holders now go to 2 or 3 games.
The more the NFL adapts to new technology the better the experience and the more value consumers will place on it.
April 5th, 2013 at 12:00 pm
The owners and their poor decision making, increasing prices (up until they realized they better low them), and ripping of taxpayers for stadiums have finally come home to roost. Attendance will continue to decline because people realize that it’s not worth it to spend money to watch a bunch of overpaid Prima Donna’s….People would rather sit at home or somewhere with friends and eat good food, and drink quality beer at reasonable prices. No matter what they NFL owners try to pull as far as making the experience better it won’t work. “Better” According to Goodell: “We aren’t drawing like we used to, let’s tell these cities that we need taxpayer money to enhance the stadium,” meanwhile we’ll keep the rest of the money that doesn’t go to the stadium”…..
April 5th, 2013 at 12:13 pm
Goodell is on the right track, but in the wrong dressing room. Put the CHEERLEADERS locker room up there! Don’t need no audio for that.
April 5th, 2013 at 12:13 pm
“The Bucs have invested in a monster replay board. Use it, and not just for corporate sponsored ads.”
Wow, how long has it been since Joe has actually gone to a game in person? Our reply board is the most obsolete, pixally-impaired piece of crap there is. The Bucs should start with updating the replay boards and end with putting a giant shade awning over the cheap seats. (See the Miami Dolphin’s stadium plans)
Maybe then the element-challenged will begin to attend games in person.
April 5th, 2013 at 12:22 pm
You’d have to pay me to go to a football game. Going to a stadium is a 20th-century activity.
That said, my understanding was that the cheap seats for the Bucs games always sold out. If so then the problem is the mid-range seats being priced too high. That previous customer segment was the demographic that doesn’t enjoy the cattle car and stays home now, so you have to appeal to the other demo’s.
April 5th, 2013 at 12:55 pm
lightningbuc:
Joe can’t believe he whiffed on that one! Now THAT will sell tickets.
April 5th, 2013 at 1:51 pm
Glen has it right!
I have been a Buc fan since day 1, for the first time since the inception of the Buc’s I did not renew myseason tickets… going to a game now is like a Disney Event..fire works ..a clown running across the field before every game..beads being tossed to the ( drunk) crowd…it is no longer about the game..but about “entertainment”…Put that effort into building and keeping a winner and that will cure attendance.
April 5th, 2013 at 2:09 pm
Gbuc is 100% right. Some shade could be added to large areas rather inexpensively. And he is also right the the video boards need a major upgrade.
Last month the Buccaneers nixed the Tampa Sports Authority’s bids to replace the video boards with new boards of the same size that would have been ready for this season. Now new video boards are off the table for at least one season and maybe more. Hopefully it is because they want to negotiate for giant screens instead of replacements.
The bids that were rejected by the Bucs included an optional bid for huge screens but of course they were much more expensive. The Sports Authority is likely only responsible for boards that are the same size and would probably make the Bucs cough up the difference.
The Bucs and the TSA would be wise to make the investment in giant boards to improve the in-game experience and attract events like Super Bowls and college bowls.
Guys love big screens!
April 5th, 2013 at 3:12 pm
There is nothing worse then leaving the stadium, mad as hell and having to endure the opposing fans taunting you with their fight song. Over and over and over! All the way down the ramps of the stadium, all the way out to your car! No technology in the world is gonna help that gut wrenching ordeal! The cure is winning. For football, winning will fix the attendance in Tampa!
April 6th, 2013 at 6:24 am
Absolutely right Dreambig