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SBJ Football: Significant Discussions On Tap For NFL Meetings

My wife and I are close to adopting a brother-and-sister pair of gray kittens. Any ideas for football-themed names? My former feline roommate was the Bus, who eventually just became Jerome after his namesake retired.

 

ON LOCATION, NEW STADIUMS AMONG FALL MEETING TOPICS

  • NFL owners and top league execs will gather at the Ritz-Carlton in Ft. Lauderdale on Tuesday and Wednesday for their fall meeting. There will only be a couple of final votes, according to a preliminary agenda I’ve seen, but a ton of significant discussions are planned. For starters, updates on the Las Vegas and Inglewood stadium projects are listed under the Finance heading, just days after two separate reports that the Chargers’ PSL sales are lagging well behind expectations.

  • The future of On Location Experiences is on the agenda as well. With putative buyer Endeavor retrenching after its aborted IPO, at least some owners see an opening to reconsider the overall strategy for the hospitality firm. Also, owners will hear a presentation on the notion of letting teams control certain international markets (see SBJ Football from Sept. 27). And there will be talk of adding more international games, targeting Germany in particular, sources said.

  • Regular updates on players’ union talks are scheduled. Also, there will be updates on financials and injury rates from the preseason, adding fuel to the expectation that the league plans to cut at least one game. In-venue pyrotechnics -- which were temporarily banned after an accident in Nashville in Week 2 -- and officiating are two other newsy items also on the agenda. 

  • The league appears ready to give final approval to a new minority investor in the Steelers, who would take some portion of the stake held by David Tepper before he divested as a requirement of buying the Panthers. Also, owners may vote on new funding for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which is trying to make progress on the second phase of its ambitious expansion plan in Canton.

 

XFL PUTS EMPHASIS ON AFFORDABILITY

A look at pricing for Tampa Bay Vipers games at Raymond James Stadium in 2020
  • The XFL’s eight charter teams released season-ticket pricing this week, which gives new insights into the league’s local strategy. The top line: Cheapest package is $100 for a full-season (five games) package everywhere except the NYC market, where it’s $125, with the highest posted price ranging from $400 in Dallas to $575 in NYC. Every venue has either six or seven price points, not counting premium offerings.

  • Eventellect CEO Patrick Ryan, whose firm advises on ticket distribution and pricing strategies, told me the scheme strikes him as “very smart, very simple.” But, he says, the teams would be wise to make the lowest-priced zones general admission -- that way fans fill the seats front-to-back, minimizing awkward gaps created by the segmentation. “By having a class of fan that doesn’t have an assigned seat, it gives you flexibility to manage those people to fill the building a little more strategically,” Ryan said.

  • What’s a reasonable expectation for season tickets to a startup? Even the most established brands see growing skepticism. “You have to give it a legitimate try,” Ryan said. Finding add-on benefits that really impress buyers -- exclusive field access maybe? -- will be crucial. There will be a certain number of intrigued fans at the start; the make-or-break sales challenge is “getting that person who wanted a $20 ticket to the $40 tickets."

  • We won’t have too much insight into how XFL season-ticket sales are going until single-game seats go on sale, Ryan said. The league says that’s coming later this month. But combining this week's ticket pricing with today's news on player costs and you can start to get a real sense of XFL teams’ P&L situation at launch.
 

JAGS' KHAN CHIMES IN ON CHINA

  • Nobody could escape the NBA’s troubles in China this week. Jaguars owner Shad Khan yesterday spent 20 minutes on stage at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit, but every headline came from his brief remarks on China.

  • Khan was careful with his words, but seemed to indicate that Rockets GM Daryl Morey made a mistake by weighing in on Hong Kong, and that the league was right to distance itself from Morey's remarks. Khan linked arms with his players during the national anthem controversy in 2017, but says there’s a big difference between domestic politics and China’s situation. “We’re American citizens, I think we have a social civic responsibility to be active in causes we believe in. Do we have that same responsibility to really opine on sovereign matters in other countries? I think that’s the critical issue.”

  • The NFL has big plans for China too, but so far has moved gradually, and is still years away from anything like the NBA’s preseason appearance this week. For now, the Patriots are the leading NFL brand in China, but the Rams and Steelers are working it hard too.
     
     



A LOOK AT NFL 100: UNDER THE HOOD

  • Rule changes have been a staple of the NFL since the league's inception. Per Stuart Miller in SBJ, the league broke free of the college rule book after the 1932 season. Not surprisingly, the first changes were responding to a controversial play in a crucial game. Sound familiar? The NFL this season has allowed challenges to review pass interference in what was deemed a necessity after the Rams' controversial win over the Saints in the NFC Championship. Six weeks in, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is already lamenting the change. Appearing on Dallas airwaves this week, Jones said, "Be careful what you wish for. ...  The one that started this rule was egregious and should have been reviewed. But to have it on every play is ... not as succinct as I’d like to see officiating.” 



SPEED READS

  • The 2019 version of the NFL U.KSeries got started last weekend with Bears-Raiders. Something new for the NFL’s 13th season across the pond -- games at Tottenham Hotspur’s new north London stadium. The venue and game apparently impressed the London Telegraph: “The late drama was fitting of a brilliant, chaotic first day of NFL action at the new Tottenham stadium, and capped one of the best games of American Football this country has seen ... The crowd was raucous -- deafening at times -- and more partisan than London has been used to." The paper on Wednesday, looking ahead to this weekend’s Panthers-Buccaneers tilt, went with the header, "Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Allows NFL To Have A Home In Britain, Rather Than Simply Visiting Rights."

  • Meanwhile, DAZN’s Pat McAfee shed light on the player experience for a London game on his podcast this week. McAfee back in 2016 was a punter for the Colts when they lost to the Jaguars at Wembley Stadium. “The London trip for me from beginning to end was not good, and I think that happens for a lot of NFL players. It’s just a complete break from routine -- it’s not fun, you have to fly back, you’re playing in a soccer stadium. … I don’t like to judge anybody off those European trips because everything’s different.”

  • It should come as no surprise that the NFL commands the priciest 30-second commercials in prime time. As Ad Age put it, NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” which holds the top spot again, simply "hasn't seen the same erosion as broadcast's entertainment programming," while Fox’s "Thursday Night Football" – ranked No. 2 -- was one of the "biggest price gainers of the season." Viewership thus far also continues to justify those ad rates. “SNF” is up 4%, while “TNF” -- when Fox is carrying the game -- is up 16%.
  • The drama continues at Redskins Park. NBC Sports Washington’s Mitch Tischler took team President Bruce Allen to task for his press conference after Jay Gruden was fired earlier this week, particularly after Allen insinuated that many season-ticket holders had sold tickets on the secondary market to Patriots fans in Week 5. Tischler: “The fans have put up with the play on the field for a long time. They’ve been characterized as bad fans, but the fans that are season-ticket holders go to the game, largely. Those aren’t the tickets that are available on the secondary market. To take a shot at the people that are actually going to the games is misguided. That’s the core fan base and the people you want to applaud when the product on the field is as bad as we’re seeing right now.”

  • A belated congratulations to NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, who celebrated 25 years at the league on Oct. 3.
Brian McCarthy recently celebrated 25 years working in PR for the NFL

 

 

Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ College with Michael Smith on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and SBJ Media with John Ourand on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Something on the football beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (bfischer@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).

SBJ Football: Takeaways From A Peaceful Deal For NFL Refs

I watched a screening last night of the Olympic Channel’s “Running in North Korea” at N.Y. Road Runners’ HQ. The documentary followed two Olympians -- one Brit and one Swiss -- as they visited the Hermit Kingdom for its annual marathon. The film is spellbinding -- equal parts uplifting and disconcerting.

 

NFL-REFEREE RELATIONSHIP IN A GOOD PLACE

  • The NFL Referees Association recently ratified a seven-year contract by a vote of 102-3, with 17 abstentions. Unlike the calamitous 2012 lockout (shout-out Packers fans!), these negotiations were quiet and easy. No numbers were published, but NFLRA head Scott Green said the vote count is a good indication the refs like their raises.

  • The entire process carried a “totally different tenor” compared to 2012, Green said. Negotiations never flagged, and the NFL clearly wanted a deal promptly. “There’s definitely been a change,” Green said. “Whether it’s specific, and can totally be put on what occurred previously, or the advantages they see financially in moving forward and getting these things done, I don’t know.”
  • It’s risky, but tempting, to draw conclusions about the future of talks with the NFLPA based on the officials’ resolution. The NFL is on a winning streak right now, and that seems to happen naturally when fans are focused on actual football, not everything else that causes headaches on Park Avenue.

  • Training/development was a dominant issue at the table for the refs. A big problem is that football just doesn’t have many places for young officials to get full-speed reps. Enter the XFL? A league source says there have been serious internal discussions about using the startup league as a referee training ground. Green said he’s all for it. 

 

ENDEAVOR'S FAILED IPO LIKELY STALLS OLE DEAL

  • There is nothing about Endeavor’s aborted IPO that necessarily precludes finalizing a purchase of the NFL-founded hospitality outfit On Location Experiences (OLE). However, headwinds are getting stronger, and those headwinds suggest that no deal is forthcoming for the private-equity backed OLE -- with Endeavor or anybody else -- until after the Super Bowl at the earliest.

  • Sources tell me Endeavor remains the only suitor that’s engaged in recent, substantive conversations with OLE. In the wake of its IPO implosion, Endeavor is struggling with a range of urgent strategic questions. Other possible suitors, like LiveNation, have been on the sideline. OLE Chair Eric Grubman: “We are a free agent and looking at various possibilities.”

  • If OLE does cut bait with Endeavor, the timeline gets tough in the short term. The NFL wants the firm’s focus on the Super Bowl, even if partners Redbird Capital, Bruin Sports Capital and Carlyle Group would like to exit. Throw in Thanksgiving and the December holidays, and you’ve got a tight window.

  • The dust is still settling over Endeavor’s bad news, so it’s too early to predict how it will proceed from here, or how fruitful OLE’s “various possibilities” are. But either way, the status quo appears to be the best guess for now.

 

WHAT DOES NFL COMMITTEE SHAKEUP MEAN?

  • Last week, I reported on important changes to NFL committee assignments. So what are some of the bigger implications? Mark Wilf, Shad Khan, Jonathan Kraft and Art Rooney are four team execs who now carry more clout in leaguewide decisions than they did this time last year. Katie Blackburn and Arthur Blank have gone the other way.

  • Khan now chairs two committees whose influence seems poised to grow: business ventures and legalized sports betting. Meanwhile, Wilf took over the stadiums committee from Rooney, but Rooney added chairmanships of Compensation and Workplace Diversity. While Kraft lost a chairmanship when the digital media committee was disbanded, he will stay involved in media and added a newly empowered committee -- Fan Engagement & Major Events (formerly Super Bowl & Major Events). 

  • Blackburn went from two chair spots to none (she was on Super Bowl/Major Events and Workplace Diversity). Blank also is without a chair spot, as he leaves Compensation under a previously reported arrangement and is stepping into a rank-and-file role with the Audit Committee. One other change worth noting: the Buccaneers’ Joel Glazer replaces Clark Hunt atop the international committee.

  • To be clear, changes are not necessarily related to performance or merit. But whatever the reasons, chairmanships come with power and direct lines to senior league execs.
     
     

A LOOK AT NFL 100: PALEY CENTER OPENS ITS DOORS 

  • The Paley Center for Media in Manhattan opened its NFL 100th season exhibit this week, hoping to blend a museum visit with live fan experiences around football. With help from the NFL and the Pro Football HOF, visitors can see the Lombardi Trophy, all 53 Super Bowl Rings, play trivia and watch Jets and Giants games live in the center’s theater. The coolest part was the video library. You can watch the original TV broadcast of every Super Bowl, including the commercials. I’ve seen NFL Films' highlight package from Super Bowl III dozens of times, but yesterday was the first time I saw Curt Gowdy’s lime green blazer and the rudimentary on-screen graphics from 1969.
Visitors to the Paley Center for Media can catch a glimpse of the Lombardi Trophy

 

SPEED READS

  • I knew that last night’s Rams-Seahawks game was not going to be on NFL Network for Dish Network and Sling TV subscribers as part of a carriage battle with Fox. But I was surprised that the league-owned network was also blacked out everywhere, including Comcast, DirecTV and Cox. What gives? My colleague John Ourand fills us in: NFL Net’s agreement with Dish mandates that NFL Net cannot show different programming to Dish subscribers than it shows to other distributors. When Fox decided that NFL Net could not simulcast last night’s game -- and it was Fox’s decision -- the network was forced to take it down everywhere, not just for Dish Network and Sling TV subscribers. In its place, NFL Net showed NFL 100 programming.

  • SBJ Daily on Thursday did a great job rounding up tributes to late Cardinals Owner Bill Bidwill. Eight decades in any industry is an incredible feat.
  • Keep an eye out for Terry Lefton’s column on Monday. Football has been dealing with a decline in youth participation for years, but there’s a silver lining. More girls -- around 2,400 -- are playing high school football than ever, according to the National Federation of State High Schools Associations. Meanwhile, AntoinetteToniHarris earlier this year became the first female non-kicker to be granted a college football scholarship, and Jon Butler, the executive director of Pop Warner, thinks a female head college football coach is “inevitable.”

  • Commissioner Roger Goodell made a few appearances today in London ahead of Bears-Raiders on Sunday He toured the newly opened NFL Academy in north London and watched the players practice with Raiders alumni. Then he toured the new Tottenham stadium with the EPL club's chair, Daniel Levy.

  • SBJ’s Austin Karp ran the numbers through the first four weeks, and NFL viewership continues to rise. Games are up 4% from the same point last season, with Fox and CBS seeing their best Sunday afternoon averages since the start of the 2016 season. As for what games caught my eye in the coming weeks, Fox and NFL Net have Giants-Patriots for “TNF” next week, while NBC headlines Week 7 with Eagles-Cowboys on "SNF." Separately, I wonder if Amazon streaming numbers get a boost with the linear "TNF" blackouts.

  • Should be a fun scene in London on Sunday as Tottenham Hotspur Stadium hosts its first NFL game featuring Bears-Raiders. Tickets are sold out, and there's expected to be a significant amount of fan experiences on offer at the $1.2 billion stadium. Here's a glimpse at the stadium's transformation below.
The 62,000-seat stadium was built with the influence of Tottenham’s 10-year partnership with the NFL

 

 

Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ College with Michael Smith on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and SBJ Media with John Ourand on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Something on the football beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (bfischer@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).

SBJ Football: NFL Clubs Could Soon Be Studying Abroad

Long trip for me today: Silicon Valley to Norwalk, Conn., for a dear friend’s wedding. But it’s a one-way flight -- I’m moving back to New York for good. Starting Monday, you can find me at SBJ offices in One World Trade Center. If you’re in the city, drop me a line and we can catch up once I’m settled.

 

NFL, TEAMS EYEING INTERNATIONAL MARKETS

The Jaguars in recent seasons have taken advantage of special rights to activate in London

  • With nine days until this year's NFL London Games kick off at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, I’ve learned that heavy discussions are underway about opening up foreign markets to NFL teams. If the plan comes together, it’d be an inflection point for the league’s global strategy, which to date has been driven out of NFL HQ on Park Avenue. Advocates believe teams and their stars are the ones who can take fan passion to the next level in these new markets.

  • Under one idea floated in recent days, teams would have the chance to lay out a strategic justification for wanting a particular market, and a plan to execute there. Key unknowns right now include whether the local rights would be exclusive, whether teams would bid on cities, regions or whole countries and how exactly the league would choose winners. As I reported last week, the Patriots are big social media stars in China, so it’s not hard to imagine the Pats being granted more flexibility in Beijing, for instance.

  • Multiple sources describe the vision as an expansion of what the Jaguars enjoy in London now: A satellite office, special rights to activate and sell locally (in categories not already sold globally by the league) and the understanding that they’d be involved in possible NFL games played there in the future. In April, the NBA allowed teams to sell international marketing rights to sponsors, but otherwise, this would be a significant first for the Big Four leagues.

  • If this doesn’t happen, it’s because the league can’t find a way to maintain “alignment” among the 32 clubs. Obviously, global brands like the Cowboys and Patriots would have more to spend, and gain, in other countries. Assurances that the entire league will benefit will be crucial. The international committee, chaired by Buccaneers co-Chair Joel Glazer, discussed all this earlier this week.

 

VIKES' NEW COO GETTING HIS NFL FEET WET

Miller replaces the widely respected Kevin Warren, who left to become Big Ten Commissioner
  • I caught up with new Vikings COO Andrew Miller this week. Like me, he’s trying to move to a new city while not missing a beat on his new job in pro football. However, the former Blue Jays Exec VP gets extra points for degree of difficulty: His third child is due between Weeks 5 and 6 this season, and his family is still in Toronto. In Minnesota, he’s also filling the shoes of the widely respected Kevin Warren, who left to become Big Ten Commissioner.

  • Miller’s biggest adjustment? Switching from baseball, where 75% of the revenue is local and there’s no salary cap, to football, where the national/local split is reversed and the hard salary cap rules all. One thing that Miller is still trying to figure out: "How does that impact the best ways to focus your efforts on the business side of things?"

  • Miller agreed that with fewer games and so few tickets available, the NFL job offers fewer obvious paths for growth than MLB jobs. But his first game at U.S. Bank Stadium underscored the NFL’s unique calling card: Outsized fan passion and fervor -- something he saw when the payers ran through the Vikings’ dragon boat onto the field for the first time, and he heard the Skol chant. "My first impression was just overwhelming in terms of the fan passion and the game presentation that goes on in the stadium,” he said.

 


A LOOK AT NFL 100: MAKING A SPORTS MARKETING GIANT

  • DraftKings coming aboard as the NFL's inaugural daily fantasy sponsor got me thinking about my colleague Terry Lefton's in-depth look at the history of NFL sponsorship earlier this month. By signing a casino (Caesars) and a daily fantasy sponsor this year, but excluding sports betting from their rights, the NFL is getting gambling-adjacent while also establishing the precedent that each of those categories are distinct assets. As Lefton wrote, the NFL has a history of market-moving strategic decisions like that. Along with the rise of David Stern’s NBA and the commercial triumph of Peter Ueberroth’s 1984 L.A. Olympics, the NFL "helped establish much of what’s taken for granted in today’s industry by speaking the language of marketers." Consequently, NFL sponsorship have "set the pace -- and the price -- since."

 

SPEED READS

  • Fox Sports formally named its new head of NFL public relations: Claudia Martinez takes over for Eddie Motl, who recently moved over to Fox Bet. Martinez has been with Fox Sports since 2013, having guided PR for Fox Deportes. She also gets a title bump, from senior director of communications to VP of media relations.

  • For SoFi, the new NFL stadium in Inglewood that will bear its name isn’t just an expensive billboard. It will be the lender’s only permanent brick-and-mortar presence (other than its offices), and will take on a huge role in its marketing. Look for the first SoFi-branded ATMs to dot the complex, and for SoFi to use the stadium for its massive customer financial seminars, as I reported in the SBJ this week. Meanwhile, our Sports Facilities & Franchises Conference toured the SoFi Stadium construction site. Check out what attendees saw here.

  • My colleague Mark J. Burns took in Pepsi Head of Sports Marketing Justin Toman's presentation today at the Michigan Sport Business Conference. One fact that stood out: the top seven most viewed videos on the NFL's YouTube channel are of the Pepsi Halftime performance.

  • News at deadline: Per the Wall Street Journal's Joe Flint, DirecTV-parent AT&T "isn’t sure it wants to renew" the Sunday Ticket package. AT&T COO John Stankey "believes Sunday Ticket’s value to the company has peaked and that a renewal -- especially if it comes with a higher price tag -- will be hard to justify."

  • The Athletic reported yesterday that NFL owners are no longer pushing for an 18-game season during collective bargaining talks, but haven’t given up hope for a 17-game season. Over the summer, Packers CEO and Management Council Executive Committee member Mark Murphy said every team could play at a neutral site annually as part of a 17-game schedule. Logistics may be too complicated for this, but it’s hard not to think of the possibilities: Bengals-Browns annually at Ohio Stadium; Steelers-Eagles at Beaver Stadium; or even a big expansion of international games.

  • The DAILY reported last week that Fanatics saw jersey sales for Giants rookie QB Daniel Jones "skyrocket" 500% once coach Pat Shurmur named him the starter over Eli Manning. Jones' come-from-behind win over the Buccaneers only increased the hype, as he has been the top-selling NFL player across Fanatics' network since Sunday. In that same span, the Giants are the 4th best-selling NFL team.

  • In a sign of where media is headed, I reported on Monday that Roger Goodell has restructured the league’s three media committees into two. One handles all media licensing (and will oversee rights negotiations) and the other handles all owned-and-operated properties -- regardless of online or linear. Also new this year: Art Rooney II has new influence, Shad Kahn is chairing a new Legalized Sports Betting committee and there’s a “Future of Football” committee forming with a fairly open-ended remit (no chairman identified.)

  • Women make up nearly half of NFL fans, but they only hold 35% of jobs in the league office. That number drops "even lower at the team level." Good piece from the Wall Street Journal's Andrew Beaton highlighting the Eagles, the outlier within the league when it comes to hiring. More than half of Owner Jeffrey Lurie's top advisers are women. While Lurie was not focused on diversity or gender, he said that the Eagles were "looking for something else: diversity of thought."

 

 

Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ College with Michael Smith on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and SBJ Media with John Ourand on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Something on the football beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (bfischer@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).

SBJ Football: NFL Testing Prediction Games In Europe

This weekend will be my last chance to enjoy Pacific Time football -- one of the underrated joys of my family’s temporary relocation to the Bay Area. One more time, I’ll make breakfast during ESPN's "College GameDay," and then on Sunday, I’ll enjoy every second of "Sunday Night Football" and still have time for Netflix before bed. I’ll miss that.

 

NFL GETTING GAMING REPS ACROSS THE POND

  • While states gradually roll out legalized sports betting, the NFL is busy gathering data -- and ideally new fans -- overseas with new free-to-play prediction games in the U.K., Germany and Australia. The NFL hopes to learn what sticks with fans in countries whose fans may be NFL neophytes, but are familiar with legal betting, said NFL Exec VP and Chief Strategy & Growth Officer Chris Halpin. “We use different markets, and different experiences to try different things, and see what resonates with fans and constantly recalibrate,” he said.

  • In Australia, the prediction game is part of a broad deal with Tabcorp, which was also named the league's official wagering partner down under. Tabcorp will bring NFL Network and RedZone Channel programming during Sunday games (Monday morning in Australia) to a network of 4,400 pubs, clubs and agencies. Tab will also promote nflpickem.com.au, where the grand prize is a trip from Australia to the Pro Bowl in Orlando.

  • The free-to-play games are more about engagement than gambling, and the league thinks these games are an easy way to keep fans a little more invested in the action. In Germany, the NFL is promoting the pick ‘em game with Proseiben, its media partner for Sunday games, while in the U.K., the NFL runs the pick 'em game under its own brand. The big prize in Germany is a trip to a London Series game in 2020, and the U.K. grand prize is a trip to the Pro Bowl -- though weekly winners get a free Game Pass Int'l subscription. After only two weeks of the season, it's too early for conclusions, Halpin said.

 

 

49ERS-SANTA CLARA FIGHT GETS UGLY

  • How serious is the city of Santa Clara’s move to strip the 49ers of their authority to operate non-football events at Levi’s Stadium? You could call it a blessing in disguise, considering the early curfews and other operating restrictions at the venue. The 49ers also ended up clearing $750,000 on non-football events last fiscal year after expecting closer to $5 million. But a change to the city-team relationship would no doubt be a challenge. Naming-rights partner Levi’s and major sponsors like Intel and United Airlines were sold on a heavily used, all-purpose venue and a team operation that’s much more than just an NFL squad. Renewal prices might look very different if this goes badly.

  • The Niners today are responding to Santa Clara by filing suit vs. going to arbitration. The move suggests they expect to win and backs up a forceful statement issued by 49ers VP/Public Affairs & Strategic Communications Rahul Chandhok, who called it a “self-destructive” process and a “petty political vendetta.” Insiders on both sides are seeking a fight, believing years of bickering with Mayor Lisa Gillmor won’t end unless a judge intervenes.

  • Even if Santa Clara prevails, then what? Santa Clara would have to find another entity to manage non-NFL events there. The 49ers retain veto power over any new manager. Also, how many bidders would come? It would be a part-time gig, with the Niners still running the show from August-December. And a 10:00pm weekday curfew would still be in effect. Changing managers wouldn’t alter the stadium’s increasingly problematic reputation in the events business. The Rolling Stones’ site promoter said just last month it is "no longer worth the effort” to play Levi’s because the process is so “restrictive and dysfunctional.”

  • After all the legal proceedings, the Niners are likely to be left with a frustrating status quo -- continued authority to run events, albeit under city-imposed conditions that frustrate the club's vision.

 

A LOOK AT NFL 100: WEST SIDE STORY

  • Over the past quarter century, nearly $22 billion has been earmarked for NFL-related venue construction, according to SBJ research. But what about projects left on the drawing board? In 2004, the Jets unveiled a plan for a $1.5 billion, 75,000-seat stadium that would have been built on the west side of Manhattan and positioned it as part of N.Y.'s bid to host the 2012 Olympics. The stadium would feature a retractable roof and generate power using wind turbines. To entice N.Y. to back the project, the NFL awarded the stadium the 2010 Super Bowl. But the project fell apart when the city lost its Olympic bid and the Jets couldn’t secure public funding.

 

A Jets stadium was proposed for the site that has become the Hudson Yards real estate development

 

SPEED READS

  • It's tough to read too much into the Browns' first primetime audience this season on "Monday Night Football." The matchup, which saw the Browns win 23-3 over a reeling Jets squad, was down 1% from a more competitive Seahawks-Bears game in Week 2 last year. A bigger test comes this week, as a tougher and more popular Rams squad visits Cleveland for NBC's "SNF."

  • Which NFL team is winning in China? Digital sports agency Mailman -- a contractor that has run team sites on Chinese social media giant Weibo since 2016 -- sent along a few stats. The top five teams in total engagement over the past three months were the Patriots (by a lot), Rams, Seahawks, Cowboys and Steelers. The top five by growth in total followers in that same time frame were the Cowboys, Rams, Patriots, Texans and Steelers. Look for my story in Monday’s SBJ about some of the tactics teams are trying out in China.

  • The future of NFL Sunday Ticket was up in the air before this week's Wall Street Journal report that AT&T is "exploring parting with its DirecTV unit." AT&T could ultimately decide to keep DirecTV in the fold, but this development is likely to figure in the calculus that the league office is doing as it tries to chart a path forward for its popular out-of-market package.
     
  • It's not NFL all the time with this newsletter. News from beyond The Shield this week comes via SBJ's Terry Lefton: The XFL has tapped Dallas-based Connect Partnership Group and Chicago-based Navigate Research to help boost sponsorship sales. Expect Vince McMahon's XFL reboot to ramp up a sponsorship roster ahead of the Feb. 8 debut.

  • Executive turnover continues at Redskins Park. Senior VP/Communications Tony Wyllie is the latest to depart Dan Snyder's organization, leaving for a management position with the Special Olympics. Over 40 employees have now left the team since former President of Business Operations & COO Brian Lafemina's exit in December.

  • A report from USA Today on domestic violence issues found in background checks on three current NFL assistant coaches. The piece from Rachel Axon concludes that both the league and team officials have "fallen short of the type of thorough background checks they claimed they do to hold employees to a higher standard when it comes to violence against women."

  • It's not all negative news with Levi's Stadium and its neighbors. Meena Sanghera, owner of Curry Roots in San Jose, is now in her second season as a vendor at the venue. Sanghera said that gameday revenue is not extraordinary, but it has introduced her to wealthy suite owners and local businesses who've turned into catering clients.

 

Sanghera with mascot Sourdough Sam during a food and beverage showcase prior to this weekend’s 49ers home opener

 

 

Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ College with Michael Smith on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and SBJ Media with John Ourand on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Something on the football beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (bfischer@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).

Introducing SBJ Football with Ben Fischer

Welcome to the first edition of SBJ Football! Glad to have you reading. It’s been a busy week for me: Launching this newsletter, narrowly beating my wife Mandy in a fantasy league matchup (because she has Antonio Brown), and today I’m apartment hunting in Brooklyn as we return to NYC. Thoughts and prayers, please.

 

NFL OFFERS MORE HELP TO CLUB MARKETING

  • A soup-to-nuts revamp of the NFL's marketing department continues, as CMO Tim Ellis, now in his second season, has brought on Taryn Hutt -- a former colleague from his days at Activision Blizzard -- as senior director of club marketing. It's noteworthy that Ellis is bringing in someone with a gaming-community mindset, and it also shows that the league wants to improve its collaboration with teams. Hutt will be a liaison between league-level marketers -- often focused on big brand initiatives -- and clubs, where the work is more about this weekend’s turnstile and tomorrow’s activations. Insiders say there’s a lot to be gained by making those conversations a regular thing.

  • The NFL’s club business development division has been aiding teams for years, but this is an interesting expansion of the concept. At HQ, Hutt will work with both Ellis' marketing team and club business development’s account managers, who are assigned directly to teams. One source speculated that others inside the league's Park Avenue offices are seeing how effective the division has been and want to have more of that back-and-forth with the teams in their own offices.

  • Along these lines, the NFL has bought a license to software that will be given to each team to help them recruit and hire local influencers. Social marketing experts say it probably will identify the most popular and demographically desirable social celebrities in each market. Clubs can use that data to hire influencers, ideally turning them into boosters. Look at what the Chargers have done with YouTube star Blake Wynn as an example.



DOLPHINS' REBUILDING PLANS NOT WITHOUT RISK

Most fans had left Hard Rock Stadium by the end of the Dolphins' 59-10 loss to the Ravens
  • In a Week 1 full of wild storylines, the Dolphins’ dilemma after losing 59-10 to the Ravens stood out. In December, owner Stephen Ross said the team would go into an extended rebuild -- meaning a new front office structure, new coach and revamped roster. Fans in South Florida welcomed it -- they don’t like perpetual mediocrity. Success stories like the Astros and 76ers in other sports have made “rebuilds” more palatable.

  • Will this rebuild strategy work in the NFL? A lot of smart people say "trusting the process'" is extra risky in a sport with just eight home games and so few chances to give fans a reason to get behind the team. Miami Herald columnist Armando Salguero: "The same fan base that was cheering the strategy to tank this season up until a few days ago was also booing the team after only two offensive series.”

  • What does a team market when there’s not much to sell? “Hope,” said former Eagles and Browns exec Joe Banner, who also referenced incentives and lower ticket prices. “The hook is, ‘We’re going to be really good, and by the time we get good, you may not be able to get in.'" Sunday’s game at Hard Rock Stadium was technically sold out, and the Dolphins have booked the overwhelming majority of premium seats and sponsorships. But no-shows are going to be a problem without some wins. “They’re generating parking revenue, concession revenue -- hopefully merchandise revenue -- so even if you’re sold out, there’s a series of revenues that are immediately going to be affected,” Banner said.

  • Insiders think the Dolphins are well insulated thanks to the efforts of CEO Tom Garfinkel. This is a business side that is known to be among the smartest in the league, from using advanced data to set prices to maximizing effectiveness in the sales department. The attendance decline will sting, but the Dolphins enter this rebuild from a position of strength.

  • Coping tactics will probably include delaying the season-ticket renewal cycle until after the 2020 NFL Draft. Hosting this season's Super Bowl will help. But there’s still risk, Banner said, because the Dolphins are cutting deeper than other rebuilding teams have. Disillusion and apathy don’t take long to set in if you’re totally noncompetitive, and the team will have to find ways to stay relevant in the Miami-area zeitgeist.

 

RAIDERS FANS BRING IN FINAL SEASON IN OAKLAND

Manuel Villa Sr. (l), Mike Nino (c), and an unidentified friend pose before the Raiders’ "MNF" win
  • I spent Monday afternoon in the parking lot of RingCentral Coliseum, chatting with Raiders fans tailgating ahead of what was likely the final "Monday Night Football" game at the Oakland venue. Over and over again, I was struck by two things: 1) How much they’re taking the relocation to Las Vegas in stride; 2) How few hard feelings there are.

  • “Business is business,” said 23-year-old Juan Chavez of Salinas. Rob Gonzales, 35, of Sacramento, matter-of-factly noted owner Mark Davis’ relative lack of wealth compared to other NFL owners. “He probably needs [the new Vegas stadium],” he said. If they blamed anyone, they blame Oakland politicians, not the team or the NFL, and every fan said they’d at least try to get to Vegas for Raiders games.

  • Manuel Villa Sr., a season-ticket holder from Riverside, said he’ll also go to Vegas, where they know what awaits: A shiny new stadium where the bathrooms don’t overflow, the concourses are wide and there’s WiFi. But the venue just won’t be the same as the Coliseum. “We go to road games, and we see the other stadiums and say, ‘oh wow, this is nice,’” Villa said. “At the same time, you love this place. You love everything that comes with it, the tailgating, the costumes, the camaraderie.” 

 

 

A LOOK AT NFL 100: SHIFTING THE LEAGUE MAP

  • Each week in this space, we'll take a look a piece of history around NFL 100, the celebratory effort going on all year as the league hits its 100th season. My experience tailgating this week with Raiders' fans got me thinking about a piece by Erik Spanberg in SBJ about franchise relocation and expansion. The relocation game began in the 1920s, when the Decatur Staleys moved from central Illinois to Chicago and became the Bears. Since that time, Spanberg noted, some relocations have worked out better than others.

 

SPEED READS

  • Never underestimate the power of a great moustache. Jaguars QB Nick Foles got injured early in Week 1, and in stepped rookie Gardner Minshew II. After an impressive showing in relief, the Jags quickly sold out of men’s jerseys for Minshew, forcing Fanatics to hustle and get more in stock for Jacksonville fans.

  • 5% TV viewership increase for the NFL after Week 1 was a great way to kick off the season. The high-profile windows saw gains, despite some blowouts. All of this is music to the ears of NFL execs, with league media rights coming to market soon. Looking at Week 2, Fox gets an NFC Championship rematch in the Sunday national window (Saints-Rams). The New Orleans market showed it was ready for football in Week 1, drawing a 56.2 local rating for "Monday Night Football." The Browns also get their first primetime test of the season on Monday night -- albeit against a Jets team without QB Sam Darnold. Still, the Browns' blowout loss in Week 1, part of CBS' singleheader, drew a 35.4 rating in Cleveland-Akron, so the enthusiasm is clearly high in northeast Ohio. 
     
  • This piece on the Chargers' plans for suite owners by Forbes' Michael LoRé is worth a click. The team, set to move into the new Inglewood stadium next year, will offer a premium membership program called Chargers LUX, which "connects suite owners to the Los Angeles lifestyle through exclusive access to high-end hospitality, business and entertainment benefits year round."

  • Facebook renewed with the NFL for two more years on Thursday, and that got me thinking about a Q&A I did with Commissioner Roger Goodell, when he told me he sees media as a co-equal leg of the league's international strategy, alongside games and partnerships. Facebook exec Rob Shaw also has said the NFL sees a lot of traction with groups on the platform in the U.K. and Germany. Makes me think: Do we pay too much attention to four games in the U.K. every season, and not nearly enough to how often Germans take to Facebook to debate American football?
Goodell emphasized the media angle for international growth during a chat at NFL HQ

 

 

Enjoying this newsletter? We've got more! Check out SBJ College with Michael Smith on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and SBJ Media with John Ourand on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Something on the football beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (bfischer@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).