NFL worried as fans tune in more than turn out

New Orleans Football fans will tune in this season, but will they turn out? That's what the NFL is asking as it heads into the first weekend of the 2010 season, with TV viewership continuing to reach new heights but the league bracing for a dip in attendance for a third consecutive year.

With season-ticket sales down 5 per cent from last year, and a projected 1-2 per cent decline in overall attendance on the horizon, league officials are predicting the lowest average attendance since 1998. The average attendance last season was 65,043. That's not to say the game is losing popularity.

On the contrary, viewership numbers are up across the board. Fox, NBC, ESPN and the NFL Network all had their most-watched NFL regular-season games in 2009, and CBS had its best season since 1993.

The sluggish economy is a big reason fans are staying home — the average ticket price rose 3.9 per cent to $74.99 (Dh275) last season, according to Team Market Report — but millions of people also realise it's more comfortable and convenient to watch from their homes.

"We're still in a challenging environment," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. "We obviously see what our fans are going through. There is still a lot of uncertainty out there in our fans' minds. That's reflected in their willingness to commit to season tickets. We're having to work harder and spend more resources to get our fans to engage."

Better broadcasts

It's a situation that only stands to get worse for the league, as high-definition TVs become more affordable and with 3-D broadcasts just around the corner. What's more, the popularity of fantasy football means that millions of fans are interested not just in what's happening with their team, but what's going on all over the league — something that's easier to monitor at home.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who last season opened a $1.2 billion stadium with a colossal video board stretching from one 20-yard line to the other, said the NFL "cannot become a studio game" and maintain its popularity. "If you had a game on TV that didn't have the pageantry of the crowds and the stadiums, people see that," Jones said. "Think about if you were sitting at home watching a game with 15,000 people watching it [in the stadium]. Wouldn't be the same game."

Jones said he could have spent $400 million less on his stadium and still built a functional venue, but that he made the extra investment to enhance the fan experience.

Differing views

Not all NFL owners embrace that philosophy. "We've got owners who have stood up and said, ‘New stadiums are bad business. All they do is get everybody on the treadmill, trying to catch up'.So we've got owners who haven't been pro-marketing," Jones said.

Jones isn't the only owner with a vital interest in keeping the turnstiles spinning. There are new and renovated stadiums all over the NFL, and Sunday will mark the first regular-season game at the New Meadowlands, home of the New York Giants and Jets.

At a construction cost of $1.6 billion, it's the most costly US stadium in history. "We focused not just on the style of the architecture and the beauty of the building — honestly, that's kind of secondary — but on the amenities and services that you have to offer to the fans to enhance their experience so they want to come to the games," said Mike Stevens, the Giants' chief marketing officer.

That means improvements such as four times as many bathrooms and points of food and souvenir sales in comparison to the old stadium, better roads and parking, full-time rail service and massive HD video screens.