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

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by alnorth

Not to get political, but we have gotten to the point where we now shrug off school massacres every few years as just an unavoidable part of life.

If dead kids don't lead to huge policy changes (not saying it should, either), then I think we can get over 1 dead or paralyzed multi-millionaire.

If something isn't part of the culture and people aren't deeply invested in something, then they can take or leave it, but once something is deeply ingrained in the culture whether its guns or football, then you can't fight culture. They aren't going to just shrug their shoulders and give up something important to culture lightly.

The NRA and American conservatives have enough clout to maintain the status quo of gun rights in the country.

I'm not so sure the NFL and USA Football (to an extent) can convert their capital wealth into a campaign effective enough to make people shrug off the shocking death of a man playing a game.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower

The NRA and American conservatives have enough clout to maintain the status quo of gun rights in the country.

I'm not so sure the NFL and USA Football (to an extent) can convert their capital wealth into a campaign effective enough to make people shrug off the shocking death of a man playing a game.

You can't blame it on the spooky NRA or "conservatives".

The American people want guns, period. They have demonstrated that they are willing to vote on the issue. We're not a bunch of braindead morons who can be easily swayed by commercials and there isn't this secret wealthy cabal influencing the rest of us, its a deeply ingrained part of the culture, and we don't want to change. If guns weren't important to us, the NRA would have no power.

The NFL won't have to "convert their capital wealth" to save the game. The game won't need saving. If we have to, we'll just say "stuff happens", having a moment of silence the next Sunday, and move on.

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by alnorth

You can't blame it on the spooky NRA or "conservatives".

The American people want guns, period. They have demonstrated that they are willing to vote on the issue. We're not a bunch of braindead morons who can be easily swayed by commercials and there isn't this secret wealthy cabal influencing the rest of us, its a deeply ingrained part of the culture, and we don't want to change. If guns weren't important to us, the NRA would have no power.

The NFL won't have to "convert their capital wealth" to save the game. The game won't need saving. If we have to, we'll just say "stuff happens", having a moment of silence the next Sunday, and move on.

I get the comparison you're making, but the right to risk life and limb crashing to other dudes at high speeds isn't codified into the framework of our laws.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower

I get the comparison you're making, but the right to risk life and limb crashing to other dudes at high speeds isn't codified into the framework of our laws.

Its more powerful than a mere law. Laws can be changed on a whim.

It is codified into the framework of our culture. The NFL is more inseparable from American culture than most other things. We want football, we won't accept flag football (and no we're not at flag football, the game still pretty much looks the same), and we will put up with death and danger to keep our football. Period.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by alnorth

Its more powerful than a mere law. Laws can be changed on a whim.

It is codified into the framework of our culture. The NFL is more inseparable from American culture than most other things. We want football, we won't accept flag football (and no we're not at flag football, the game still pretty much looks the same), and we will put up with death and danger to keep our football. Period.

It may not be up to us. If a judge starts handing out $50 million verdicts to "concussion victims", the business model doesn't work. I'm not saying it'll happen, but if we recognize that the NFL is a business, then businesses only operate when they're profitable.

I agree more with Cuban that the problem is going to be interest more than some catastrophic business change. However, it all ties together to some extent. The business of the NFL is....

...watering down the product to broaden their fan base, for the goal of chasing revenue increases.

...watering down the product to minimize legal risk.

...attempting to minimize the two impacts above by increasing their exposure.

...attempting to create new revenues streams such as TV products (e.g., RedZone and Sunday Ticket).

...attempting to create bigger stories by creating bigger stars via those new TV products.


It all makes sense from an MBA perspective. The thing that worries me is that marketing is driving the process now, and not the product. It's the same problem as any industry - if you have a crappy product with great marketing, people will still eventually figure out that it's a crappy product. And as Mark Cuban suggests, that actually speeds up the decline because you know have a broad awareness that it's a crappy product.

[Fat Elvis]

Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower

The NRA and American conservatives have enough clout to maintain the status quo of gun rights in the country.

I'm not so sure the NFL and USA Football (to an extent) can convert their capital wealth into a campaign effective enough to make people shrug off the shocking death of a man playing a game.

You haven't been paying much attention to all the brain injury suicides then and how folks just say, "meh."