What recent data shows about Cowboys popularity

[Hagman]

First, TV networks are not infallible. AT&T shelled out tons of money for DirecTV which shelled out billions for NFL Sunday Ticket. DirecTV is losing money on Sunday ticket, and losing subscribers, and AT&T is losing money on DirecTV. If NFL ratings are truly declining as some speculate, then the networks will suffer from reduced revenues - though this does not mean they will not still make a profit. If ratings drop, at some point advertisers will refuse to pay the asking rates for commercial time.

There are surveys showing that football popularity is in decline in the US. There are multiple reasons given, including the discussions about football injuries, and the NFL covering up concussion data. In some parts of the country, kids are not participating in football programs at the same rate they used to. This is clearly an early indicator of things to come. There are other reasons fans are leaving I cannot get into here. What we do not know yet is if the results of these surveys will translate into lower TV ratings and revenues. The NFL claims the lower ratings were from 2020 being an election year and COVID drawing everyone's attention. Perhaps, and maybe the networks are buying those excuses. I am sure the NFL presented them with some marketing strategies showing how the NFL will grow it viewership and boost revenues for the networks, and I am sure network lackeys did the same for network executives. Time will tell who is right but TV and streaming viewership for the Super Bowl in 2021 were the lowest since 2007. The Super Bowl was post election. I don't see how COVID could possibly effect TV viewership other than to boost it. I think the problem is there were two small market teams playing and not much fan interest. It is the lack of fan interest for its biggest game that should concern the NFL

I look at what happened to baseball and I think the same thing can happen to the NFL. Baseball was once the most popular sport by far in the US. But it was overtaken by the NFL. Baseball lost its audience. For me it became too boring. The games got too long. The time between pitches increased to an excruciating delay in the game. Baseball still draws millions of fans but it is clearly not as popular as it used to be.

In fact almost every major sport has had a peak in popularity followed by a steep decline. Bowling, tennis, basketball, hockey, and soon golf, once Tiger Woods retires, have all seen significant declines in popularity after record popularity. I don't think the NFL is immune to this same phenomenon. Some of these sports have been completely dropped by the major networks.

The NFL is attempting to build its markets by promoting American football overseas. Maybe it works. Professional baseball is immensely popular in Asia and in parts of Latin America. Major League Baseball has attracted some international attention by signing foreign players to MLB contracts. The NFL is toying with that too but there are few foreign countries where American football is played so integrating foreign players into the league is less of a possibility. Instead, the NFL is bringing the American players to other countries hoping the glimpse of American football will create some interest there. I don't see how that benefits US TV networks, but maybe they know more about that than I do.

In any case, I do not believe the Networks shelling out the money they have is a foretelling of the future of the NFL.

Good stuff. Plus, IMHO, The NFL just is not as much fun to watch anymore. It’s over regulated and over refereed. It’s painful to watch a lot of the games that are nothing more than a flag fest on the part of the officials.

 

[CouchCoach]

First, TV networks are not infallible. AT&T shelled out tons of money for DirecTV which shelled out billions for NFL Sunday Ticket. DirecTV is losing money on Sunday ticket, and losing subscribers, and AT&T is losing money on DirecTV. If NFL ratings are truly declining as some speculate, then the networks will suffer from reduced revenues - though this does not mean they will not still make a profit. If ratings drop, at some point advertisers will refuse to pay the asking rates for commercial time.

There are surveys showing that football popularity is in decline in the US. There are multiple reasons given, including the discussions about football injuries, and the NFL covering up concussion data. In some parts of the country, kids are not participating in football programs at the same rate they used to. This is clearly an early indicator of things to come. There are other reasons fans are leaving I cannot get into here. What we do not know yet is if the results of these surveys will translate into lower TV ratings and revenues. The NFL claims the lower ratings were from 2020 being an election year and COVID drawing everyone's attention. Perhaps, and maybe the networks are buying those excuses. I am sure the NFL presented them with some marketing strategies showing how the NFL will grow it viewership and boost revenues for the networks, and I am sure network lackeys did the same for network executives. Time will tell who is right but TV and streaming viewership for the Super Bowl in 2021 were the lowest since 2007. The Super Bowl was post election. I don't see how COVID could possibly effect TV viewership other than to boost it. I think the problem is there were two small market teams playing and not much fan interest. It is the lack of fan interest for its biggest game that should concern the NFL

I look at what happened to baseball and I think the same thing can happen to the NFL. Baseball was once the most popular sport by far in the US. But it was overtaken by the NFL. Baseball lost its audience. For me it became too boring. The games got too long. The time between pitches increased to an excruciating delay in the game. Baseball still draws millions of fans but it is clearly not as popular as it used to be.

In fact almost every major sport has had a peak in popularity followed by a steep decline. Bowling, tennis, basketball, hockey, and soon golf, once Tiger Woods retires, have all seen significant declines in popularity after record popularity. I don't think the NFL is immune to this same phenomenon. Some of these sports have been completely dropped by the major networks.

The NFL is attempting to build its markets by promoting American football overseas. Maybe it works. Professional baseball is immensely popular in Asia and in parts of Latin America. Major League Baseball has attracted some international attention by signing foreign players to MLB contracts. The NFL is toying with that too but there are few foreign countries where American football is played so integrating foreign players into the league is less of a possibility. Instead, the NFL is bringing the American players to other countries hoping the glimpse of American football will create some interest there. I don't see how that benefits US TV networks, but maybe they know more about that than I do.

In any case, I do not believe the Networks shelling out the money they have is a foretelling of the future of the NFL.

The nets are counting on the ad agencies to still place a premium on live events not likely to be time shifted. The universe has shrunk a little with prospects but it still has enough to support them through this next contract.

The other part of this is that the NFL has the largest audience of the week, every week, and promoting other programming to that audience still has value.

This was where the then President of NBC went wrong when he refused to pay the rights fees just based on the ad dollars generated and the profit. That ancillary benefit of promoting programming came back to haunt him and he came back. The backfire of that is that SNF is the hottest ad ticket so the promo inventory is the smallest on SNF.

Promos are why Fox went so hard and heavy after the NFL and cut CBS out, along with Booger's help. They needed to build a network and the NFL was perfect for that.

 

[erod]

Young people like soccer and basketball.

Baseball is dead already. Football is still popular, but academics, the medical community, and the cancel culture have a big target on it for it's toxic masculinity.

Football is in legal trouble. It will be litigated and voted out of existence in the coming years.

 

[Reid1boys]

First, TV networks are not infallible. AT&T shelled out tons of money for DirecTV which shelled out billions for NFL Sunday Ticket. DirecTV is losing money on Sunday ticket, and losing subscribers, and AT&T is losing money on DirecTV. If NFL ratings are truly declining as some speculate, then the networks will suffer from reduced revenues - though this does not mean they will not still make a profit. If ratings drop, at some point advertisers will refuse to pay the asking rates for commercial time.

There are surveys showing that football popularity is in decline in the US. There are multiple reasons given, including the discussions about football injuries, and the NFL covering up concussion data. In some parts of the country, kids are not participating in football programs at the same rate they used to. This is clearly an early indicator of things to come. There are other reasons fans are leaving I cannot get into here. What we do not know yet is if the results of these surveys will translate into lower TV ratings and revenues. The NFL claims the lower ratings were from 2020 being an election year and COVID drawing everyone's attention. Perhaps, and maybe the networks are buying those excuses. I am sure the NFL presented them with some marketing strategies showing how the NFL will grow it viewership and boost revenues for the networks, and I am sure network lackeys did the same for network executives. Time will tell who is right but TV and streaming viewership for the Super Bowl in 2021 were the lowest since 2007. The Super Bowl was post election. I don't see how COVID could possibly effect TV viewership other than to boost it. I think the problem is there were two small market teams playing and not much fan interest. It is the lack of fan interest for its biggest game that should concern the NFL

I look at what happened to baseball and I think the same thing can happen to the NFL. Baseball was once the most popular sport by far in the US. But it was overtaken by the NFL. Baseball lost its audience. For me it became too boring. The games got too long. The time between pitches increased to an excruciating delay in the game. Baseball still draws millions of fans but it is clearly not as popular as it used to be.

In fact almost every major sport has had a peak in popularity followed by a steep decline. Bowling, tennis, basketball, hockey, and soon golf, once Tiger Woods retires, have all seen significant declines in popularity after record popularity. I don't think the NFL is immune to this same phenomenon. Some of these sports have been completely dropped by the major networks.

The NFL is attempting to build its markets by promoting American football overseas. Maybe it works. Professional baseball is immensely popular in Asia and in parts of Latin America. Major League Baseball has attracted some international attention by signing foreign players to MLB contracts. The NFL is toying with that too but there are few foreign countries where American football is played so integrating foreign players into the league is less of a possibility. Instead, the NFL is bringing the American players to other countries hoping the glimpse of American football will create some interest there. I don't see how that benefits US TV networks, but maybe they know more about that than I do.

In any case, I do not believe the Networks shelling out the money they have is a foretelling of the future of the NFL.

Directv, and now at&t have lost millions of subscribers and customers, like myself, who was a 20 year director fanboy, because when at&t bought them out, they destroyed direct. Has little to do with Sunday ticket.

They also are losing money because people don't need to buy Sunday ticket to watch whatever game you want, just like you don't need to buy an album to listen to any songs you want to listen to.

Times have changed so drastically in a short time due to the internet that all the old ways of measuring viewership can not accurately be used.

When most of this country stops gathering for super bowl Sunday, then the nfl should worry....the "ratings mean very little.

Numbers for viewership also mean little today. The days of 150 million people all turning in to see who shot JR, or to watch the M A S H finale are OVER.

There is far too much to do for everyone that network shows will never have the power they once had. I watch Bill maher every friday.... yet I don't have HBO. I will never count in his ratings.

The articles did not say the nfl is less popular......dont equate "lower ratings," with popularity. The one article actually stated the difference between the nfl and the next guy as far as ratings actually got further apart.

Looks like the nfl hutc25 billion in generated revenue ahead of schedule.
The nfl allowing gambling isn't any show of desperation on their part. Its simply an admission that they are powerless to stop it, and if that's the case, why not embrace it and make more money off of it......the EXACT same things states have done to make money off Marijuana. They know they can't stop it, so they all started legalizing and taxing it.

 

[Scotman]

This is not great news for our resident conspiracy theorists. When the NFL starts to falter and our popularity is still declining they can't just order up a few Cowboys Super Bowl victories to jump start public interest like they did for us back in the 90s.

Lol.

After 25 years...I'll take it.

 

[CouchCoach]

Everything has a life and nothing stays on top forever. Back in the 50's, would anyone have predicted that baseball would stop being this nation's favorite pastime and get passed by other sports?

The NFL is financially healthy, and about to get healthier than ever, and I do not see it going the way of baseball. However, there are just a lot more things to do other than watch a football game and that doesn't show any signs of slowing down. Everyone is after the money.

 

[MarcusRock]

After 25 years...I'll take it.

Lol. That's what I say. As long as you don't spoil the ending for me, have at it, NFL. But if you do, let me know right when pre-season odds are released so I can bet on it, lol.

 

[Scotman]

Lol. That's what I say. As long as you don't spoil the ending for me, have at it, NFL. But if you do, let me know right when pre-season odds are released so I can bet on it, lol.

All joking aside, I've always thought the same thing. The best thing for the NFL as a whole is for the Cowboys to win it all. If the Cowboys prosper, the NFL prospers. Sure, there are probably some refs that hate us....same as any team. And I'm sure LOTS of people hate Jones. But it's probably not the other owners as a whole that hate Jones. He's helped make them a ton of money.

But a wide-spread conspiracy to keep the Boys from winning? Just doesn't make financial sense.

 

[MarcusRock]

All joking aside, I've always thought the same thing. The best thing for the NFL as a whole is for the Cowboys to win it all. If the Cowboys prosper, the NFL prospers. Sure, there are probably some refs that hate us....same as any team. And I'm sure LOTS of people hate Jones. But it's probably not the other owners as a whole that hate Jones. He's helped make them a ton of money.

But a wide-spread conspiracy to keep the Boys from winning? Just doesn't make financial sense.

This is why NFL anti-Cowboys conspiricists are loons. They'll tell you that the media uses the Cowboys for money but then promote conspiricies that take the position that the NFL hates making more money by keeping the Cowboys down. Lol.

 

[Scotman]

This is why NFL anti-Cowboys conspiricists are loons.

Don't get me wrong, when we loose...I spend several hours blaming the refs, Goodell, foreign powers, price of gold and anything else I can think of.

 

[MarcusRock]

Don't get me wrong, when we loose...I spend several hours blaming the refs, Goodell, foreign powers, price of gold and anything else I can think of.

We all get into our emotions when our team loses, but then you probably take some time and shrug the loss off. The conspiracy loons keep at it over and over again and can't turn back. It's like, there's this big, bad boogeyman that's keeping us down but yet they show up game after game hopeful that we'll overcome The Machine set up to hold us back. Then our victories are that much sweeter because we overcame "The Plan." LOL.

 

[CowboyFrog]

We all get into our emotions when our team loses, but then you probably take some time and shrug the loss off. The conspiracy loons keep at it over and over again and can't turn back. It's like, there's this big, bad boogeyman that's keeping us down but yet they show up game after game hopeful that we'll overcome The Machine set up to hold us back. Then our victories are that much sweeter because we overcame "The Plan." LOL.

All i read is you believe there is a "plan" against us... no take backs!!!!!

 

[Corso]

This is why NFL anti-Cowboys conspiricists are loons. They'll tell you that the media uses the Cowboys for money but then promote conspiricies that take the position that the NFL hates making more money by keeping the Cowboys down. Lol.

I know a lot of Lakers fans that are like that and yet the commissioner of the NBA comes out and answers the question of who would be his dream NBA Finals matchup and he says: The Lakers vs the Lakers.
Lol.

 

[ESisback]

They are living off olds. Most young people view them as a joke. In Dallas, they take a back seat to Luka and the Mavs with the youth.

It evens out, because I view most youth as a joke!

 

[MarcusRock]

I know a lot of Lakers fans that are like that and yet the commissioner of the NBA comes out and answers the question of who would be his dream NBA Finals matchup and he says: The Lakers vs the Lakers.
Lol.

Wow, honesty. Refreshing!

 

[ESisback]

He just posted data that showed it has not happened all over the country, your sample of 4 notwithstanding.

Nothing he posted said the Cowboys don't have fans. It said the fan base has grown older, which makes sense given the lack of success the past 25 years. Kids don't give a hoot about what Dallas did in the 90s.

No, they DON’T give a hoot. Most kids give up on stuff fairly quickly that doesn’t give them what they want right away.

 

[conner01]

When you look at the top 10 highest rated games in any NFL season, the Cowboys are normally in 5-7 of those games.... no matter what the teams record for that season is.
When you look at any after market ticket vendor, Cowboys road games are SIGNIFICANTLY higher than any other teams road games. I just looked up ticket prices for my seats for the Saints game.... we paid $230 per ticket for our seats. The game 3 weeks earlier against the Falcons, same section and actually 2 rows lower than our seats is $149 per ticket..... that is unfortunately the curse us traveling Cowboys fans have.

In addition to those prices, Cowboy's "Road," games often have a significant portion of the stadium filled with Cowboys fans. The playoff game in LA 3 years ago had more Cowboy's fans in the stadium than Rams fans. Without a doubt, the team's popularity is not dropping. I grew up a Cowboys fan and I have 4 kids... ALL Cowboys fans. You think that same thing hasnt happened all over the country?

The biggest draw and biggest fan base
Less jumper on’s but that changes with SB wins
Win a SB and everyone’s a fan
But the ratings don’t lie
The cowboys almost always have the best ratings

 

[ESisback]

Well I certainly agree with you that casual fans come and go usually depending on if the team is winning. I don’t consider my sons to be “fair weather fans”. Their giving up on the Cowboys hasn’t been based on wins and losses. It’s been based on their lack of respect for who’s running it. My sons have stayed very loyal to the Mavericks through thick and thin. Why? Because they believe the people running it are doing things the right way.

Can you show us any data on football staying as popular? You seem confident, so I assume you have some evidence.

Your kids sound like the exception. Most kids wouldn’t care if Forrest Gump or Pee Wee Herman were running things, as long as they were winning.

Most 17 year old Raider fans won’t dress up the like The Road Warrior or Gwar at football games

 

[john van brocklin]

meddling is what people do when they try to put themselves into SOMEONE ELSES business.

Jerry owns the team... him making decisions is not meddling.

Call it what you will, his constant involvement in the team is hurting its overall success.
Do you see any other successful teams with such owners involvement?

 

[Diehardblues]

In 1979, NFL Films famously created the moniker “America’s Team” for the Dallas Cowboys because of their tremendous popularity across the entire American landscape. Over 40 years later, the Cowboys are still enormously popular. Every Cowboys road stadium still contains a significant number of Cowboys fans. For decades, the Cowboys have usually continued to be a big draw for national TV ratings.

Despite 25 years of mediocrity and only 4 playoff wins- none beyond the wild card round- the Cowboys have remained popular. It’s a testament to the power of its brand that had been built since the success of the team in the 70s and 90s.

However, looking at some recent data from a couple of studies done at Murray State University and Emory State University about the popularity of sports teams, shows the Cowboys national popularity dipping. Among the all all important demographic of 18-34 year old fans, the Cowboys have dropped from their once dominant position.

Here’s some interesting data collected on the popularity of the Cowboys comparing its popularity in 1996 to 2020. Some interesting tidbits:

• In 1996, the Cowboys were the most popular pro football team for fans in the 18-34 demographic. That year, a whopping 25% of fans listed the Cowboys as their favorite football team. The 49ers were a distant 2nd at 11.4%.
• By 2020, the Cowboys were still in the top 5 most popular football teams, but their popularity among 18-34 year olds had dropped to 7.5%. (The pats were #1)
• The NFL as a whole has become less popular among younger fans, although the reasons are not as clear.

Again, the Cowboys are still a very popular team in America. It shows the power of the iconic brand built over 60 seasons. If this team can ever get another deep playoff run going again, imagine how popular they would be. Winning cures all ills.

Here’s a link to the article that has a lot of this info. Most of the stats are toward the end.
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/the...Y8xyvYZ1621y0zhBep6eJDkEIEZBGydRHsOUp5mVlPbOD

In the end it might be the Jone$ greatest legacy that he ran the franchise football operations so far in the ground that we were no longer America’s Team.

At least there’d be something of value worth decades of frustration