SmashMouth

Indianapolis -- The NFL is seeing the early signs of cracks in fan loyalty.

Ten weeks into the owners' lockout of the players, Commissioner Roger Goodell noted Wednesday the negative effect the labor dispute is having on pro football.
"Clearly it has had an impact on the fans," Goodell said as the owners completed their spring meetings. "We see it in various metrics. There's been a noticeable change, TV ratings were down on the draft roughly 4 million people. NFL.com traffic (is down), we see that."
Ticket sales also are down.
"Fans want certainty," Goodell added. "We can't underestimate that the fans are going through challenges just in the general economy."
That certainty isn't likely to come soon. Both sides have a date in 8th U.S. District Court on June 3 for hearings on the league's appeal to uphold the lockout. A decision probably won't come for several weeks, and while another set of mediation sessions is scheduled to start June 7, not much is expected from those discussions while the appeal is being considered.
The owners' meetings included lengthy talks about the labor dispute, but no deadlines have been set -- yet -- for the opening of training camps, which usually happens in late July. That drop-dead date "obviously is coming," Goodell said, barring a collective bargaining agreement.
"We've made it clear that (revenue loss) is current and will continue to accelerate and impact on the ability of ownership to make an offer (the players) find attractive," he said.
Owners were presented the full range of plans for opening weekend, from the first game on Thursday night at Lambeau Field to commemorations of the Sept. 11 attacks on the first full Sunday of games. Those dates are not in jeopardy yet, but the longer the impasse, the more in danger they would become, particularly with the league's marketing partners, sponsors and advertisers who must commit dollars to those events well in advance.

NFL says it's seeing cracks in fan loyalty because of the lockout | NOLA.com

It had to happen sooner or later ...

Srgt. Hulka

No **** Sherlock? It took you ten weeks for you rocket scientists to figure this out. Now that ticket sales arn't going well, you want to pay attention to the fan. You morons. We've been out here hollaring at you the whole time. But now that it's getting into your pocket books, you want to try to do something about it. If it weren't for the fans, there wouldn't be an NFL, which stand for "Not For Long" if you keep treating us like this. Get a frikkin deal done now! Because I can tell you, this "FAN" is just about fed up with it.

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, ...

st thomas

what the hell do they expect? for us to stand on our heads and clap dixie, omg, the fans are peed off omg. gees

Marlboro Man

I don't know, right now the America's Cup is going on and even though the Morons that control that event are trying to get rid of the traditional mono hulls, opting for multi hulls because our attention deficit children don't have the patience nor the understanding of strategy and tactics and can only focus on things foe extremely short periods of time and therefore the races need to be shorter with faster boats that reduce the need for strategy and tactics, but it's as interesting as football used to be.

Srgt. Hulka

I thought they outlawed catamarans after Dennis Connor kicked every body's a** in 1986 or 87, I can't remember. Now everybody is racing cats? Man, that's going to be wild.

Marlboro Man

It will sure make for some spectacular wrecks that's for sure. They've already had one capsize.