NFL owners to vote on flex scheduling for Thursday Night Football

[Kwyn]

It is bad enough flexing from playing Sunday at noon to playing Sunday night…

I can’t imagine being flexed from Sunday at noon to Thursday night. It will be difficult on the teams, to say the least.

And, with the addition of essentially *every* prime time game/network being able to flex, and the change to allow more than one flex a year, things are gonna be a mess.

This also has a disparate impact on teams like the Cowboys who get flexed whether they are in a tight race or just fighting to get to .500

 

[Bobhaze]

The solution to Thursday night games being awful, is to just get rid of it altogether.

I hate it, and am willing to bet most NFL fans don't really care for it either.

According to Sports Business Journal's John Ourand, TNF's audience decreased by 41% from the 16.2 million viewers it had in 2021, the last year Fox had control of TNF rights. This figure encompassed viewership across Fox, the NFL Network, Amazon as well as local channels. Not that many fans are tuning in compared to other NFL time slots.

The problem is even with their lower ratings compared to Sun NFL games, they are still better than most TV show ratings on Thurs night on other channels. Most NFL fans aren’t tuning in, but that doesn’t seem to matter to NFL execs.

 

[Cowboys5217]

Seems like we are headed for a game every night of the week and full flexing of the entire game lineup week to week.

 

[Kolemmitt]

Sounds like a disaster. Leave the Thursday games to the colleges. Just kill the whole idea. I know it won't because of TV. I guarantee you the HC's are against this idea.

Yes! I used to look forward to college games on Thursday, and they have much more flexibility as to the game before, so it was usually easier on their athletes.

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

As much as I love football I wish they would do away with Thursday night games.

Definitely, except for from Thanksgiving through to the week before the last game of the season. That's when a Thursday night game makes sense. Not for the whole season.

 

[KJJ]

Definitely, except for from Thanksgiving through to the week before the last game of the season. That's when a Thursday night game makes sense. Not for the whole season.

I have no problem with Thanksgiving day games that’s been a tradition.

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

I have no problem with Thanksgiving day games that’s been a tradition.

Exactly, and I liked it when in 2006 they started the Thursday Night games from Thanksgiving until the end of the season. That was reasonable. My proposal would be that any Thursday Night flexes would be required to be entered by the trade deadline. This means it'd be about mid season, and any teams that are potentially battling for a playoff spot can have a key game down the stretch in that window flexed to Thursday Night if it appears that a critical matchup is going to be overlapped by other games and there is already a good SNF and MNF game.

 

[Reid1boys]

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Closing-Bell/2023/03/23/nfl-thursday-night-flex.aspx

that will be a disaster.

The day the schedule comes out, my daughter texts me asking which games do we wat to do. Imagine I book flights, reserve hotel room, reserve car rental, buy tickets for game, get time off work all planning on flying out to Buffalo on a Saturday morning. Then, 10 days before the game, they flex the schedule to Thrsday night. Now, the price for my flights just doubled since Ill need to change them. Instead of missing 1 day of work Id need to miss 3 days of work.

Had the game been scheduled for a Thursday, Id probably never had planned on going Id be totally screwed. This is a horrible idea.

IM confused... it said it would consider increaSING THE NUMBER OF TIMES A TEAM COULD BE ASKED TO PLAY ON Thursday AFTER a Sunday game from 1 time to 2 times in a season.

Huh? we did it 2 times last year, no? Ahhh.... I see they got around that rule to screw us over. We played on a Sunday then a Thursday for Thanksgiving.
Then we played on a SATURDAY against the Eagles followed by a Thursday against the Titans.

We will be totally screwed for sure as they will flex us every chance they get to a Thursday night game because we are ratings gold. Not good for the Cowboys for sure.

 

[Typhus]

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Closing-Bell/2023/03/23/nfl-thursday-night-flex.aspx

What are we flexing it to now...... Netflix?

 

[Jake]

I may be mistaken, but doesn't Amazon have the Thursday night contract for the next several years

Yep, 10 year contract.

 

[Jake]

that will be a disaster.

The day the schedule comes out, my daughter texts me asking which games do we wat to do. Imagine I book flights, reserve hotel room, reserve car rental, buy tickets for game, get time off work all planning on flying out to Buffalo on a Saturday morning. Then, 10 days before the game, they flex the schedule to Thrsday night. Now, the price for my flights just doubled since Ill need to change them. Instead of missing 1 day of work Id need to miss 3 days of work.

Yeah, just another reminder that TV contracts take precedence over traveling fans. They act like two weeks notice makes it okay, ignoring everything you said.

 

[The Fonz]

As much as I love football I wish they would do away with Thursday night games.

and Sunday night game

 

[tomokawan]

100% agree. The only reason we have Thursday night football is greed. And the only Thurs games I ever watch are when the Cowboys play.

Half the time I forget they are on unless it is Dallas.

 

[WoodysGirl]

 

[Reid1boys]

According to Sports Business Journal's John Ourand, TNF's audience decreased by 41% from the 16.2 million viewers it had in 2021, the last year Fox had control of TNF rights. This figure encompassed viewership across Fox, the NFL Network, Amazon as well as local channels. Not that many fans are tuning in compared to other NFL time slots.

The problem is even with their lower ratings compared to Sun NFL games, they are still better than most TV show ratings on Thurs night on other channels. Most NFL fans aren’t tuning in, but that doesn’t seem to matter to NFL execs.

Did you ever think that the NFL execs see the big picture and you dont? That Amazon sees the bigger picture for THEM, and you dont? There is a reason ratings dropped and it is because of the platform that the game moved to. Amazon wants to use that platform to help up the numbers on their streaming platform.

NFL execs started those Thursday games years ago and it was NFL Network only.... and they did it for a reason. They then took the Thursday night game, a product that was bringing in ZERO revenue a decade or so ago and turned it into an 11 year, ONE BILLION dollar a year deal. That is not chump change. I laugh when I hear people say it is all about the greed..... no kidding. They run a business and want it to be as valuable as possible.

Just like the reason they go to London every year, now are starting into Germany, hitting Mexico City... they are playing long term.

I personally love the fact I have football on 3 days a week. Beats the heck out of watching Bachelorette or whatever else garbage the networks push on us.

NFL ratings are still king. They could air the game on Thursday night at 3am and it would still be the highest rated show on tv for the week,...... that wasnt an nfl product.

 

[KJJ]

and Sunday night game

I’m fine with Sunday night games love watching football on Sundays.

 

[CowboysLakerBamaFan]

I hate flex games and I hate Thursday games.

Me too, but the NFL could care less.

You know what's worse than Thur Night Games?

Tuesday Night Games. Brought to you by Twitter.

It's coming

 

[CowboysLakerBamaFan]

Did you ever think that the NFL execs see the big picture and you dont? That Amazon sees the bigger picture for THEM, and you dont? There is a reason ratings dropped and it is because of the platform that the game moved to. Amazon wants to use that platform to help up the numbers on their streaming platform.

NFL execs started those Thursday games years ago and it was NFL Network only.... and they did it for a reason. They then took the Thursday night game, a product that was bringing in ZERO revenue a decade or so ago and turned it into an 11 year, ONE BILLION dollar a year deal. That is not chump change. I laugh when I hear people say it is all about the greed..... no kidding. They run a business and want it to be as valuable as possible.

Just like the reason they go to London every year, now are starting into Germany, hitting Mexico City... they are playing long term.

I personally love the fact I have football on 3 days a week. Beats the heck out of watching Bachelorette or whatever else garbage the networks push on us.

NFL ratings are still king. They could air the game on Thursday night at 3am and it would still be the highest rated show on tv for the week,...... that wasnt an nfl product.

I just hate that it's on Amazon.

Couldn't they have just left it alone? Just given The People this one thing? Our NFL? And settled for their 874 trillion dollars, without that extra billion?

I mean, I know the answer is No, greed knows no bounds and what not,.. but it still sucks.

 

[Bobhaze]

Did you ever think that the NFL execs see the big picture and you dont? That Amazon sees the bigger picture for THEM, and you dont? There is a reason ratings dropped and it is because of the platform that the game moved to. Amazon wants to use that platform to help up the numbers on their streaming platform.

NFL execs started those Thursday games years ago and it was NFL Network only.... and they did it for a reason. They then took the Thursday night game, a product that was bringing in ZERO revenue a decade or so ago and turned it into an 11 year, ONE BILLION dollar a year deal. That is not chump change. I laugh when I hear people say it is all about the greed..... no kidding. They run a business and want it to be as valuable as possible.

Just like the reason they go to London every year, now are starting into Germany, hitting Mexico City... they are playing long term.

I personally love the fact I have football on 3 days a week. Beats the heck out of watching Bachelorette or whatever else garbage the networks push on us.

NFL ratings are still king. They could air the game on Thursday night at 3am and it would still be the highest rated show on tv for the week,...... that wasnt an nfl product.

Reid if you like TNF, more power to you. I don’t but it doesn’t bother me if someone else does.

 

[Kwyn]

Me too, but the NFL could care less.

You know what's worse than Thur Night Games?

Tuesday Night Games. Brought to you by Twitter.

It's coming

God help us