Mark Cuban: "The NFL is 10 years away from an implosion."
 

http://espn.go.com/dallas/nba/story/...away-implosion

10 years?

it's already a (pansy) passing league...

I know I would always listen to a business owner who is in competition with my business for advice...

I agree with him . I've steadily moved on from the NFL since 2008. I used to be die hard NFL; Sunday Ticket, Blocking out entire days for nothing but football etc. Now, I don't really give a shit. I'll watch the Chiefs, but other than that, I don't really care. A LOT of it has to do with the example Cuban had. Too many ****ing games on TV, and too many games featuring a golden boy team for that specific year ( Broncos last year).

I'd say i'm probably 10% invested in the NFL and 90% invested in NCAA football.
The NFL has become highly oversaturated in the last 6 years. Combine that with all the ****ing rule changes that have made the game a shell of its' former self, and insane contracts (yes, I know, the NFL compared to MLB and NBA is not as crazy), the NFL is nearly dead to me. Seeing a buch of millionaires running around playing a game that has become 'meh', just doesn't do it for me.

Bulls make money.
Bears make money.
Hogs get slaughtered.

I like it. I can watch football almost every day of the week.

Not living in the KC area, I watch the NFL RedZone to keep up with the Chiefs.
I haven't seen a Thursday, Sunday or Monday night game in 3 years, unless the Chiefs are on. Get up early to go to work, so in bed by 8:00 - 8:30.

I see what he's saying but the NFL has had Saturday games before. That's not new.
The Thursday night games usually don't seem very interesting to me for whatever reason. Usually because they're dogs I guess.

He just need to stay to NBA and worry about how they can beat pisses test you cant beat in the NFL

After watching League of Denial in PBS, it's possible but not in 10 years though.
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He may have a point, but then again he owns a franchise that has a 82 game regular season where NBA players loaf up and down the court night after night. He could be more introspective.

That will be the year the Chiefs win another Super Bowl; when no one cares about football anymore.

The "product" of the NFL has become watered down. 8-8 league.......and that's exactly what they want.
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8-8 league? Really? The NFL is far more polarized than that, with the Seahawks, Whiners, Donks, etc. on one end and absolutely hopeless franchises like the Faid and the Browns on the other.

I do agree with Cuban that the NFL is headed for a downturn with the way things are going. They're messing with a good product by watering the game down with senseless rule changes, blatant favoritism shown to certain players and teams, and the general year-round overexposure of the league nowadays.

Exactly. Everyone BUT the NFL it seems has heard of the common sense rule of, "If it ain't broke - DONT "fix" it". Especially when they keep "fixing" it and cause more problems. For instance they "fix" missed calls by allowing challenges - yet they have an out with the "whistle blew" rule that only allows "certain" things to be challenged. That shit goes hand and hand with blatant favoritism and allows "critical moments" in games to be controlled which can often times influence the outcome.

I agree, to an extent.

I also think that trying to expand the league out of the us is gonna be a huge logistical mistake.

Sure will. Not only that, I'm not sure the rest of the world wants it to begin with...Deal is every one of us could sit here and list many things wrong with the NFL. That wasn't the case 10 years ago...:hmmm:

What?

The NFC had about 8 winning teams and a bunch of dog$#it. You had an 11-5 team not make the playoffs in the NFC.

Cuban is a jealous bitch that wishes the NBA was anywhere close to as popular as the NFL...

I think England is a huge mistake.

I could see giving the 'Nadians a team. I'm sure with the whole of the nation they could support one NFL franchise...

Cuban is a pretty smart business man. Might want to listen to him.

If he was that smart he would have bought an NFL team...

I agree with him.

I HATE the Thursday games. I HATE the MNF double-header(s). Stick to Sunday, late season Saturday games, and MNF. Kill NFLN. They're diluting the product chasing $$$$$.


EDIT: Oh, and kill the games in Europe.

They won't let him. Good ole boys club.

Aaaaaaaaaand there's the butthurt behind the comments...

Only having enough money for an NBA franchise doesn't really mean you're not smart.

The premise behind what he is saying is absolutely correct. The only time TV shows are on every night is when their popularity has dwindled. Absolutely there would be some that would love to have football on most evenings. But the majority of people need a break or they become complacent about whatever it is. We can definitely get too much of anything, if it is a good thing we will over indulge quickly, which generally leads to a quicker end to the enjoyment.
The NFL should stop with the occasional Thursday night game for the regular season. I don't even like that because those games are generally on the NFLN only.
I also agree with others that have stated we need to stay out of Europe. Way, way too many logistical obstacles that can and will arise no matter how smooth everything looks on paper.

Yep. The MNF Double-Header is stupid....The owners will only stop and think when they get less money for some revenue streams. For example NFL Sunday Ticket will negotiate their price down due to less games being offered to them on any given Sunday. Anyone who has had Sunday Ticket for 6-10 years can see the effect as there are far less games available because of 2 MNF games, Thursday games, Sunday night games etc. . If DTV can't get the subscriptions, they won't pay as much to televise them. Of course the NFL will shop it but a new carrier might not want to pay a premium either as they will certainly recognize the trend. Deal is this will have to happen with several revenue streams because any single loss could be absorbed and covered by another one. When it happens on multiple levels, they owners will listen.

Yep. He applied for ownership of the Houston franchise but was denied. He had all the credentials.

The reason that doesn't happen with the NFL is because the season is so short with so few games.

The NBA and MLB saturate with an insane schedule and so the games don't really matter early in the year. No one cares.

Even NASCAR seems like it never ends. It's every week.

People aren't asking for less NFL. Compare sunday ticket subscribers to ten years ago. Compare fantasy football money.

It's all trending up...

because it takes away from his ratings...jeolous wanna be NFL owner

This...

I didn't realize he had that kind of money. But I just looked and it said he was worth more than Bob McNair. For some reason I'd always thought he was a level down from those guys.

:spock:

You're talking about a 4-month window.

That's what I was thinking.

Either that or the assbag wants his name in the news again, and here we are talking about it.

Isn't he doing some Donald Trump wannabe show where he talks about business? He's probably just trying to get some free pub for it.

Nope. In fact, he produced the most net worth and cash liquid application for the Houston franchise. He thought about filing a law suit against the NFL when it was rejected, but he knew he would lose so he decided to call it a day and walk away.

If the goal is to get more games on TV, I don't know why they can't just give both FOX and CBS doubleheaders each Sunday. I'm more likely to stay tuned in if I have more choices.

Oh and **** you guys who don't like the opening week MNF doubleheader. 6 hrs of football on a Monday night? Yes please.

I've always hated that - that both networks don't have doubleheaders on Sunday.

Say what you will, but at least the NBA, MLB, and NASCAR oversaturate with actual games/races - in other words, meaningful content. The NFL is oversaturated 24/7/365 and the vast majority of it is just media hype, usually about the same three teams every year. Do we really need wall-to-wall coverage of the combine? Plus they moved the draft to May now so the media can spend more time obsessing over that. No other sport has the year-round media cycle that the NFL does and it's really turning it into that much more of a chore while taking away from the other sports.

I'd also argue that the early games in those other sports count far more than you're giving credit for. I bet the Knicks and Nets would like to have all those early-season losses back now, for instance.

There are 4 or 5 teams every year that rise to the top, 3 or 4 teams that are absolute shit show, and the middle ~25 teams is a mess of mediocre football... and whether they end up with ~10 wins or 6 wins, there's just not much of a difference. Hell, the difference between those other 25 teams and the Broncos is Peyton Manning, and even the Tebow Broncos won a playoff game.

It's all part of the greed of the NFL... parity on steroids to hold everyone's interest, even if it makes for a watered down product.

Well, baseball used to pull the highest ratings of any American sport. I don't see an "implosion", but it isn't unreasonable to think that some other sport could surpass football's ratings and popularity (although a 10-year time frame seems too brief).

Fantasy Football and gambling will keep football popular even if the product slips.

I'm not an old bastard like all you other ****ers so I don't know (:D), but didn't the strike pretty much kill baseballs popularity?

MLB making a comeback? :P

Really??? 17 week regular season. 4 weeks of preseason. 6 weeks of postseason. The combine, the draft.
Yes there are gaps in there but that is almost 10 months of football. 6 months are actual games. But the NFL if not careful going forward could easy over saturate the market.

Yes they had a direct affect on many fans. I know a lot went back. I like others still have not recovered the true fanatical feeling for baseball.

IDK, I was a toddler back then.

Soccer? Lol, maybe one day.

Baseball for most under the age of 35 is a dead sport it seems. I don't know anyone that watches baseball under that age unless it is post season or they are in an airport or sports bar somewhere.

It certainly did until the steroid fueled home run derby era pulled people back in.

Baseball still draws a lot of fans and make tons of money. There's a reason players are getting $25 million a year.

The subsequent witch hunt turned me away. Sometimes it's not better to know certain things.

He tried to buy the Cubs too, same result

Exactly.

Yep, and the Astros...:hmmm:

REGULAR SEASON.

September thru December.

You are an odd outlier. MLB's popularity has not dipped at all, the fans have pretty much declared with their wallets that they don't really give a damn about the PED controversies.

Regarding the OP, Mark Cuban's statement is self-serving, utterly ridiculous, and will not come close to panning out.

A few people who have their own agendas (unhappy with this or that rule, usually) have jumped on it, but there is no rational reason to believe that the NFL, even with the expansion into more days, is anywhere close to saturation. If anything, the market will probably easily absorb an 18-game season if the owners ever went that far.

That's fine. I like being an outlier and all.

As last season unfolded I felt like they had it maxed out. What I don't like is starting the season on Thursday with the concerts and the all day party BS. It's to much. I hate the whole London thing to. What a turn off. They've got their league rolling though so they're marketing the hell out of it in an attempt to maximize revenue and profits. They shouldn't be so obvious about it but they've gotten such a big head at this point that they're losing some of their periphery.

I hope he's right! I suspect as they decline they'll right the ship before it goes down.

yup

Worked for the Titanic.

Yeah because that is the only time that there is football games on TV.

On the one hand, Cuban's a smart guy.

On the other hand, he's kind of a blowhard and he owns a team in a league where games are on several nights a week and is essentially a competitor to the NFL in October through January.

I agree with him. Oversaturation and fantasy football are ruining it for me. I've gone from a season ticket subscriber watching every single game to a casual observer of the Chiefs games and sometimes watching the other games if I'm bored. I also record MNF and watch it in about an hour instead of committing my entire Monday evening to it. I usually don't like recorded sports but I liked adding 2 hours to the end of my day better than I liked watching commercials and dufuses analyzing every play for 3 hours.

This is where I'm at too.

I would agree with you about fantasy football. That concept went from a fun little aspect of the game to taking it over and putting way too much focus on individuals.

What hurt baseball's popularity wasn't the strike, but the ADD nature of society. Football is an excellent sport for this society, because you only have to pay attention for six seconds at a time, and you always get some kind of outcome. The increase in scoring via the neutering of defenses is just another way to add flashing lights to keep the masses interested.

I basically make it a point to watch the Chiefs. Other games, maybe, but I never stay up late to finish the Monday Night Game, and the Thursday NFL Network games, I don't even bother with them. And I have NFL network!

I dunno if it's the NFL or just me, but I don't care nearly as much as I used to.

Yep. The NFL is going to keep giving it to us until it shows signs of not working anymore and can you blame them? They just keep making more and more $.
So what if, at some point its to much, then they scale it back a little and boom!

I've heard it said that NFL players lost out because they didn't get to market themselves because of all the gear they wore, well compared to the NBA I think that has helped the NFL. Look what happened when Sherman was able to take off his helmet and show is face and be himself? That's kinda what the public sees all the time from the NBA players and right now except for an elusive few the NBA isn't doing so well.
If I were Cuban I would stick to trying to figure out how to fix his league.
Well, he probably does have ideas, but the rest of the owners and commish aren't going to let him do any of them cause he is such a smart ass. Like the D league idea, which I think is good.

The only time right now I see it where the NBA is #1 in sports is maybe May because of the Playoffs and the first part of June for the Finals.

That let in Shahid "Shad" Khan?
We aren't talking about the 60's anymore with the NFL and AFL.

I agree, NO EUROPE!!!!!

I tend to agree with him. I don't want the NFL to be in every night of the week. The Thursday games are usually garbage anyway.

Khan is an American, same as you.

Nevermind. You missed my point.

The NFL is already a bubble waiting to pop. Shad Khan paid 300% more than the previous owner just 15 years ago. In Jax!

He should buy the Browns.

They should be on sale for about 19.95 by now.

Hardly.

Ratings keep going up.

Until that changes, the league will continue trying to expand its market.

I don't get the bitching about MNF and fantasy football.
MNF has been on for 45 years. If you don't feel like watching it anymore or don't want to stay up that late, then don't.

There's been Sunday night games for 25 years. So Thursday night has been the only real semi-recent expansion. I think it is a bit unfair for the teams to have such a short week, but no one is forcing me to watch.

I understand not wanting to participate in fantasy football, but I don't understand how its existence makes anyone less interested in football or to like it any less.

Most of the complaining seems to be of the 'grumpy old man' variety. It's not exactly how it used to be, so you don't like it.

The death rattle for NFL is going to come when sarah mclachlan on a commercial for brain damaged nfl players.