NFL Football continues to show its dominance in pro sports

By: Dan Canova

Baseball is America’s past time, but now it just passes time.

Numbers don’t lie, and the numbers continue to point in favor of the National Football League.

Now, let’s get to the facts.

We are a little over the midway point of the 2013-2014 NFL season, and according to Forbes, since Sept. 5, NFL football games are 18 of the most-watched television progams in the country, and 19 of the top 20 (the only other program in the top 20 was the season premiere of “The Big Bang Theory” on CBS).

The Nielsen Company, which is an American global information and measurement company, says the average NFL game telecast has drawn 16.8 million viewers this season.

These numbers are literally impossible to reach if you’re any other television program, but the NFL as a business is very powerful, and it has reached numbers the NBA, MLB, and NHL can only dream of.

However, there is just one negative.

Since people are comfortable in the luxury of their own homes, the attendance in NFL stadiums have gone down severely, dropping in five consecutive seasons.

Maybe it’s because watching a football game on television is much more convenient.  You have announcers feeding you play-by-play information, and analysts breaking down games, pregame, at halftime, and postgame.  Everything provided on television is enough, and it’s free, so why even bother go to the games?

However, the main reason why attendance is dropping each year, might be because NFL games are becoming impossible to attend.  Tickets are through the roof, and eating and drinking isn’t realistic, which is why people tailgate before and sometimes after games.

All in all, this isn’t a major problem because the NFL makes approximately $18 billion a year.  Yes, that’s “b” as in BILLION.

Back to the numbers game (Everything is according to Forbes):

• An NFL game telecast has been television’s most-watched program in each of the season’s first nine weeks (and counting)
• NFL games on CBS, FOX, ESPN, and NBC have averaged 12.9 million viewers making the 2013 season the most viewed among these four major networks through nine weeks (and counting)
• NBC’s Sunday Night Football is averaging 21.6 million viewers, and is the number one most-watched primetime show this season on television.
• ESPN’s Monday Night Football is averaging 13.4 million viewers.  The Monday Night Football opener this season between the Eagles and Redskins was the most-watched Week 1 game ever on ESPN with 16.54 million viewers.

The numbers clearly do not lie and the NFL continues to show it’s dominance in professional sports on national television all across the country.