You're the commissioner: Thursday Night Football

[Dave Gray]

What should be done with TNF?

Should they ditch it?  Dial it back?  Work it around bye weeks?  Do it overseas?  Keep it as is?

[Run Ricky Run]

It all comes down to money. Im sure it is way too expensive to get rid of it.  Can't move it to Wednesday night because that is even worse. Can't do it on Friday bc of college football.  I think it is here to stay.

[fyo]

I don't have a huge issue with TNF. I do think scheduling around it would make a lot of sense, although there aren't enough weeks with bye weeks for those to be a complete solution. Avoid SNF (and MNF, of course) and keep the travel light.

There are rumors that the league might consider scaling back TNF. In that case, it would make sense to schedule the games around the bye weeks. There are currently 8 weeks with teams on bye, so that very nicely gives each team a TNF game every other year. It's a fairly substantial reduction in the package, though, as there are currently 18 TNF games.

A different angle to take on the issue would be to address the issue of unpopular teams.

One last addition... is TNF really that unpopular in terms of ratings? I looked up the numbers and, boy, numbers have been brutal across the board this year, but when good teams play TNF, the games are more popular than MNF. The Monday Night games get around 10-12 million viewers, with a couple just passing the 13 million mark, including the Packers/Eagles game last Monday. Thursday Night games are all over the map, with far deeper lows than MNF, but there have been many 13+ million Thursday Night games this year. There's still a gap up to non-cable national games (mainly SNF) which regularly gets up into the low 20s.

However, teams do matter: The Houston/NE game on Thursday Night in week 3 garnered 17.5 million viewers. Indy/Houston three weeks later on Sunday Night managed only 13.6 million viewers.

The following page is a great overview of the ratings for each slot of each week and how that compares with last year:

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/nfl-tv-ratings-viewership-nbc-cbs-fox-espn-nfln-regular-season-playoffs/

[DaLittle B]

I would have an opening weekend Thursday night game, And extra Thanksgiving night game...Maybe,just Maybe Weeks,16,or 17.

IMO Football used to be an event because it was Sunday,and a Monday night game. It feels too much,I rarely watch any games outside of Miami games.

[Dave Gray]

I think that scaling it back to about half of the time makes sense.  Do it to open the year, like B says, and then manage the rest around BYE weeks.

Side note: I'd like for MNF to be the premiere game again.  The MNF games are 2nd choice AND you can't flex into them, so you have a fair share of turds.  A better solution is to allow the MNF game to be 1st choice, but to allow SNF to flex.

[Run Ricky Run]

I don't understand the complaints about the Thursday night games. If you don't like the game don't watch. It's not like if jags-titans was on Sunday instead thirsdat you would actually watch that game.

[Baba Booey]

They aren't getting rid of it. It makes too much money. John Madden can bitch all he wants the Thursday game isn't going anywhere

[BuccaneerBrad]

Dial it back to opening week and the weeks after Thanksgiving once college football is done.   

[Spider-Dan]

I don't understand the complaints about the Thursday night games. If you don't like the game don't watch. It's not like if jags-titans was on Sunday instead thirsdat you would actually watch that game.

On Sunday, there are multiple other games to choose from.  On Thursday night, it's the only game on.

[Run Ricky Run]

On Sunday, there are multiple other games to choose from.  On Thursday night, it's the only game on.

Exactly. So why say they should get rid of Thursday night games just bc you don't like the matchups. It doesn't hurt you bc you wouldn't have watched that specific game anyways. And if you do want to watch the game then it benefits you bc you wouldn't have to decide which game to watch on Sunday.

[Spider-Dan]

The specific complaint is that the Thursday night games feature horrible matchups.

They are almost always divisional games, likely to prevent a competitive advantage in the division from one team having to play on short rest.

[Run Ricky Run]

The specific complaint is that the Thursday night games feature horrible matchups.

They are almost always divisional games, likely to prevent a competitive advantage in the division from one team having to play on short rest.

Yes those same horrible matchups wouldn't be watched on Sunday either. So what difference does it make if they are on Sunday or Thursday.

[fyo]

Yes those same horrible matchups wouldn't be watched on Sunday either. So what difference does it make if they are on Sunday or Thursday.

The fear (and risk) is that they undermine the perception of the product and thereby drive down ratings over the longer term, even if it increases the ratings of that particular game.

The first thing the NFL needs to do if they want to bolster ratings and the general perception of their product is to get the people who sell the product to consumers (e.g. Madden) to stop criticizing it all the time. Who wants to watch something they are being told is shit?

[BuccaneerBrad]

The specific complaint is that the Thursday night games feature horrible matchups.

They are almost always divisional games, likely to prevent a competitive advantage in the division from one team having to play on short rest.

Short rest is the operative word.   A lot of teams hate Thursday nights because it causes injuries

[Dave Gray]

The traveling team on Thursday is grossly disadvantaged.  There just isn't enough time to heal, prepare, and travel.  That extra time for the home team makes a lot of difference.