Football season: why it can’t come fast enough.

It's the Monday after the long 4th of July weekend and many



sports fans would say this is the slowest time of year for




sports.



I mean yes, you've got MLB with the MLB All-Star



game next week, NASCAR, WNBA, golf has the Open



Championship next week, the US Open series in tennis and



MLS soccer as well as international soccer.



Nothing against these sports, they have their



stars. MLB has Tigers OF and reining AL MVP Miguel Cabrera



as well as rising stars such as last season's AL Rookie of



the Year, Angels OF Mike Trout, Mets P Matt Harvey and



Dodgers OF Yasiel Puig. NASCAR has Dale Earnhardt Jr.,



Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne, and reigning



Sprint Cup points champ Brad Keselowski. WNBA have rookies



Phoenix Mercury's Britney Griner, Tulsa Shock's Skyler



Diggins and Chicago Sky's Elena Delle Donne. Golf has Tiger



Woods, Rory McIlory, Phil Mickelson among others. Tennis



has Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic, Maria Sharapova and



Roger Federer. Soccer has Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore,



Lionel Messi, and Christiano Ronaldo.



But let's compare ratings for these sports to the



NFL and college football last season. Here in Chicago



ratings for the Cubs and White Sox are down 13% and 24%



respectively on CSN Chicago. In New York, the Yankees' YES



Network are down 40% while Mets' TV ratings are down 22%.



Nationally FOX'x ratings went through a slow start but has



rebounded (thanks to the NBA and NHL playoffs ending) and



ESPN has seen a slight uptick as well. NASCAR's ratings



have had a slight decline but the Coke Zero 400 on TNT did



get 5.2 million viewers Saturday night. WNBA's ratings



have been miniscule at best and some have called for their



demise. But the league is hoping that rookies Griner,



Diggins, and Della Donne can give the league a much needed



boost. Griner's debut game did give the league it's best



regular season ratings (455,000 viewers) in years and ESPN



and NBA TV signed new TV deals with the league. But will it



lead to anything only time will tell. Golf, well let's



keep this short, if Tiger's not in contention or even in a



tournament, ratings are cut by a third at least. Soccer,



this past Confederations Cup, it which Brazil was your



winner, saw nearly 900,000 viewers in the US. That's not



counting the MILLIONS that watched in other countries,



despite it being the no. 1 rated sport in other countries



it isn't at that level here in the States.



Now to football's ratings for this past season,



let's start with college football, obviously the bigger the



team and conference the bigger the ratings. Michigan will



get about millions more viewers than Utah St. and Alabama



will get about millions more viewers than Tulsa and Notre



Dame (especially if they're good) will get millions tuning



in. The BCS Championship game between Alabama and Notre



Dame (despite Bama blowing them out) got a solid 26 million



tuning in on ESPN. It'll be interesting to see how the



conference shuffling (see previous blog: NCAA Conference



Musical Chairs) effect ratings this upcoming season.



Now the NFL's TV ratings, where to begin. NBC's



Sunday Night Football telecasts for the 2012-2013 TV season



finished at no. 2 in overall ratings only trailing CBS's



hit Tuesday night drama NCIS by less than a million



viewers. ESPN's Monday Night Football did hit a 4-year low



(mostly because of bad match-ups) but millions still tuned



in. In fact, last fall, 31 of the top network 32 TV



programs were NFL games on FOX and CBS(the Macy's



Thanksgiving Parade was the other one). Super Bowl 47 where



the Ravens beat the 49ers on CBS garnered over 108 million



viewers, making the third highest in television history.



Super Bowl 46 where the Giants beat the Patriots on NBC



holds the overall record with just a little over 111



million viewers.



Now there are many reasons for the monster ratings



for the NFL, fantasy football, the Red Zone Channel on



cable where it makes sure you get a chance to see great



plays, Directv's NFL Sunday Ticket where subscribers get



access to all the games and you can pick and choose the



game you want to watch. Not to mention expense, it's



cheaper to watch an NFL game on the 70 inch screen with



snacks and friends, than it is to go to the stadiums, which



is why stadium attendance is down, but I am sure the



NFL knew this would be two-fold.



No wonder for some football season can't come start



enough. Patience my friends.
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