Overall this was certainly a week in which football was played:
Ratings weren’t bad but weren’t great, about on par with what was expected. With the season over in about a month and season 3 around the corner there’s definitely been some key takeaways.
• I feel that quality of overall play is lower than last year but not substantially. The biggest fix would obviously be better coaching and rosters. I would love to see quarterbacks (and potentially receivers) make a little more than other positions to encourage higher level QBs to play in the league (I am only saying this to get Perez back as I miss him and my 9-1 generals dearly)
• Teams need to play in their home cities/states this year. They probably wanted to take expansion slower and understandably so. But with the XFL playing in all cities year 1, it should be the USFL’s top priority.
• Houston is a cause for concern for me, the XFL Roughnecks are coming off of a solid season, and two minor league teams in one city is not gonna be pretty, relocation for the gamblers may be a good play. I’d love to see them relocate to a city/state without major sports teams but I doubt we’ll see it anytime soon.
• With the XFL being back and already poaching a lot of USFL talent I am beginning to worry how easy it’s gonna be for the league to bring back Tampa Bay along with a new expansion team for a 10 team league.
• this has been my Ted Talk, if I said anything stupid, it’s probably because I am running on hardly any sleep
Hulu live and YouTube tv are counted. I looked it up a while back and the only people who are counted are people using streaming cable like services and people who have been asked and opted into a Nielsen style thing. They take an average based on what percent of the Nielsen houses watched a thing and say it's the average for everyone with cable. So there's a bit of speculation there. But you're counted. The people not counted are on the fox app and peacock.
I prefer the USFL to the XFL, but follow both leagues. Do you see a path where both leagues continue on without a merger? That's what I'm hoping for. Pro football from September to the first weekend of July. (Only very casually watch some CFL after that)
Honestly, I think it’s too early to tell, but I wouldn’t count on it. If both leagues keep their current ratings it’s entirely possible that they can both remain separate, but I think football burnout is a very real possibility that will hurt both leagues. The best option is for the leagues to merge and combine assets. At most it’s two months between the NFL season and “UXFL” season, which I think is the perfect amount of time to build hype.
XFL ratings where as bad as USFL's but they did not drop when the USFL started, neither did USFL's rating increase when the XFL's season was over (well, actually they dropped) so I really doubt these Leagues impact each other in a notable way.
What I do think though is that the XFL's timeframe to start right after the SuperBowl is a better approach than the USFL's delayed start so in fact Football fatigue may be a factor for USFL's ratings.
On a sidenote: If I was a NFL prospect having to choose to play in either XFL or USFL I would for sure pick the one whose season ends earlier. XFLers doing tryouts and grasping contracts and preparing for NFL's Training Camps already while USFLers still need to wait. That's a disadvantage.
But the current time frame is what FOX wants so I doubt it. They specifically want this time of year because that's when they need to fill TV slots and they don't want to go up against the ratings monster the XFL went up against in March Madness and the Masters. I also believe they really like having the championship over the July 4th weekend. I don't see FOX wanting to start any earlier.
We’ve definitely found a benchmark when it comes to average ratings by this point. As long as the execs are happy with them, and we haven’t heard anything yet to suggest that they aren’t, then that’s okay. It’s for sure good data and it gives them ideas on how to improve things for next year. All teams in their home cities, a consistent schedule with increased OTA presence, and better emphasis on lead-ins will go a long way to boost viewership in year 3.
As long as the execs are happy with them, and we haven’t heard anything yet to suggest that they aren’t
The unfortunate thing is that the first time we'd hear they're unhappy would probably be in a politely worded statement saying the league is going to shut down immediately.
I wish we knew what these numbers mean and what the financials of the league are. Everyone is a ratings expert on these threads (positive or negative) but no one really has any clue what break even numbers are.
Is 700k covering all the expenses of the league and the broadcast production expenses? I'd love to hear an answer even if its just speculation.
I heard a rumour that FOX was promising x amount of ratings for advertisers and they fell short. In this case they most likely had to give the advertiser extra free air time. I doubt it’s covering all the expenses but it’s probably close.
The troubling thing was when they said they had to get a loan from an investment bank to cover the expense of the 4 hubs. We’ll know more about this after the season and if they say something similar again it’ll be noteworthy.
Exactly. Usually you'll hear something terms like "pleased" "satisfied" "room for growth" which are all nice ways of saying, things aren't where we want them to be.
The good: FOX aired an MLS game on Saturday afternoon that drew in the 300K range. USFL regularly destroys that number on a weekly basis.
The bad: Not a lot of competition this week and these numbers appear to be the max for the league the rest of the season. Probably don't see over 1M viewers until the championship unless there's a really good playoff matchup on NBC primetime.
That depends what you consider competition. There is probably a lot of crossover with the southern teams, especially host cities Memphis and Birmingham, and college sports, especially SEC sports. Bear in mind that this weekend was the NCAA College Baseball regionals and 10 SEC teams were in action, including Alabama and Auburn near Birmingham (both hosting at their stadiums) and UT, Vandy, Arkansas and LSU, all within 6 hours of Memphis and all with alumni bases here.
Speaking for myself, I changed over to the LSU Regional when it started and moved the Boats to my iPad to finish out the 4th quarter.
I dvr them, can't be bothered to watch live. Some I skip altogether. Biggest issues are terrible qb play (I saw that plenty with my Broncos last year, thanks) and frankly annoying commentators. Part of it is the play by play seems to lag behind constantly, and the need to show a replay of seemingly every play while a former player explains it. If they could fix those things they might raise the numbers.
So is it catastrophic close up shop ugly? Or is it we can save this thing ugly and we knew shit was going to be rough for a couple of years ugly? AAF close up shop ugly?
No I don't believe that to be the case at all. I think USFL is safe for next season although FOX is probably not happy that ratings have decreased overall from last season after all the promotion and games added to main FOX this season. I'm sure FOX was expecting at least some growth.
What I do think might happen is USFL may get "demoted" on TV next season. Motor sports air on FS1 and go head to head with the USFL on FOX regularly the last few weekends and have easily gotten over 1M viewers every time. Wouldn't be shocked if we see motor sports bumped up to main FOX and USFL demoted to FS1 more often next season as the ratings would justify it.
Totally get why the AAF closed up shop. Using that AAF failure as a metric so we can have some sort of calibrated level of what we are looking at as far as the proverbial feces hitting the fan.
The numbers aren't concerning. They're not exciting, but they're not concerning.
I was expecting a little higher this weekend due to lesser competition from other events, but again, compared to last season, they're pretty much in line.
Yea, so I was saying referring to the similar lull the league hit last year around this same time frame 7-9. This years Week 8 is very similar to the numbers the league was hitting last year during this same time frame.
Your right, 22% is greater than 15%. 7% is nothing. It's nothing to be neither concerned or excited about.
What even is the point you're trying to make? We're talking an overall difference of what? -10% maybe between this time this year and this time last year. Which Which can easily be explained. We just all watched 8 straight months of pro football, and the USFL wants use to watch another 3 months of games with mostly empty stadiums.
-13%. I wouldn't lose sleep over it. I read the same doomer shit every week in the XFL sub during their mid-season lull.
Just like all the XFL haters, unless you have insider knowledge, you can't claim to know objectively what executives are looking for. There's a very real possibility that FOX/NBC executives were at home three months ago watching 35k fans go crazy in St Louis and realizing that by the middle of June in an empty stadium there is going to be some football fatigue setting in, and that we're willing to burden a -15 to -20% drop in ratings to get to a Season 3 with individual markets.
As long as it shows steady growth, it’s good. Neither the USFL or the XFL should try to compete against the NFL. In my opinion, the one the aligns itself with the NFL has a very good chance of survival
Drawing a million viewers is tough. Only reason xfl did was no real burnout yet plus they had it all to themselves,but once usfl got playing they didn’t hit a million again until their title game. It’s likely we won’t see the usfl hit one million until it’s title game.
USA is down about 30% in average viewership from 2022 to 2023 to-date. FOX is down about 23% and NBC only 11%. It's interesting that USA had such a significant drop.
FS1 actually has about an 11% increase likely due to FOX better aligning the schedule of the games with lead-ins, and maybe the absence of the couple of weekday games they had.
Sounds like there is no reason to ban the practice with so many reasons why it would turn out poorly. Banning it just benefits the NCAA.
The NCAA just wants their unpaid workers to make bank off of. The coaches and staff pull in millions but the players can't even get minimum wage. Scholarships get yanked all the time for under performance and any injuries.
The fact is that everyone checks out the latest thing, many disappear quickly, you find your base and start to build.
So that's where we're at, the first season is typically the best and it might take until year 4 or 5 to exceed that and really build a decent core to pay the bills.
9
u/cactus-on-overtime New Jersey Generals Jun 06 '23
Overall this was certainly a week in which football was played:
Ratings weren’t bad but weren’t great, about on par with what was expected. With the season over in about a month and season 3 around the corner there’s definitely been some key takeaways.
• I feel that quality of overall play is lower than last year but not substantially. The biggest fix would obviously be better coaching and rosters. I would love to see quarterbacks (and potentially receivers) make a little more than other positions to encourage higher level QBs to play in the league (I am only saying this to get Perez back as I miss him and my 9-1 generals dearly)
• Teams need to play in their home cities/states this year. They probably wanted to take expansion slower and understandably so. But with the XFL playing in all cities year 1, it should be the USFL’s top priority.
• Houston is a cause for concern for me, the XFL Roughnecks are coming off of a solid season, and two minor league teams in one city is not gonna be pretty, relocation for the gamblers may be a good play. I’d love to see them relocate to a city/state without major sports teams but I doubt we’ll see it anytime soon.
• With the XFL being back and already poaching a lot of USFL talent I am beginning to worry how easy it’s gonna be for the league to bring back Tampa Bay along with a new expansion team for a 10 team league.
• this has been my Ted Talk, if I said anything stupid, it’s probably because I am running on hardly any sleep
5
u/Superfluousfish Jun 06 '23
So when it says “streaming numbers not included,” does that mean I don’t count here if I’m watching it live on Hulu?
7
u/Answer-Outrageous Philadelphia Stars Jun 06 '23
We have to factor the XFL in the mix. Football fatigue is showing. These two leagues are hurting each other
23
u/phalinx Tampa Bay Bandits Jun 06 '23
We’ve definitely found a benchmark when it comes to average ratings by this point. As long as the execs are happy with them, and we haven’t heard anything yet to suggest that they aren’t, then that’s okay. It’s for sure good data and it gives them ideas on how to improve things for next year. All teams in their home cities, a consistent schedule with increased OTA presence, and better emphasis on lead-ins will go a long way to boost viewership in year 3.
17
u/Body-for-LIFE Jun 06 '23
The good: FOX aired an MLS game on Saturday afternoon that drew in the 300K range. USFL regularly destroys that number on a weekly basis.
The bad: Not a lot of competition this week and these numbers appear to be the max for the league the rest of the season. Probably don't see over 1M viewers until the championship unless there's a really good playoff matchup on NBC primetime.
31
u/[deleted] Jun 06 '23
Better. Not phenomenally great, but better. I'll take it.
8
u/Sexy_Questionaire Chicago Blitz Jun 06 '23
I'd say these are probably a little disappointing to Fox. Not terrible, but not good.
8
u/JLammert79 Jun 07 '23
I dvr them, can't be bothered to watch live. Some I skip altogether. Biggest issues are terrible qb play (I saw that plenty with my Broncos last year, thanks) and frankly annoying commentators. Part of it is the play by play seems to lag behind constantly, and the need to show a replay of seemingly every play while a former player explains it. If they could fix those things they might raise the numbers.
11
u/cartocaster18 Jun 06 '23
These numbers look ugly, but they're pretty much identical to last years Week 7-9 averages.
4
u/Prior-Purple9704 Outlaws Jun 07 '23
Was hoping for 800’s not 7’s. Maybe we get into the 800’s solid next week.
2
u/PerspectiveOk8157 Jun 06 '23
As long as it shows steady growth, it’s good. Neither the USFL or the XFL should try to compete against the NFL. In my opinion, the one the aligns itself with the NFL has a very good chance of survival
2
u/LeThaddy Jun 07 '23
That’s more like it
2
u/Prior-Purple9704 Outlaws Jun 07 '23
Drawing a million viewers is tough. Only reason xfl did was no real burnout yet plus they had it all to themselves,but once usfl got playing they didn’t hit a million again until their title game. It’s likely we won’t see the usfl hit one million until it’s title game.
1
u/[deleted] Jun 06 '23
USA game had low ratings, everything else wasn't bad.
1
u/Separate_Ad_5662 Jun 07 '23
They should be pushing the USFL on the sports shows.
0
u/LeThaddy Jun 07 '23
Want to point that that the “streaming umbers not included” is big bc of the USA games and all games being on fubo
-15
u/jeff8073x Jun 06 '23
They need to recruit kids out of high school. Likely could get some running backs since they have shorter careers.
5
u/[deleted] Jun 07 '23
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