Egan, Minnesota — NFL Finally, the Thursday night flex schedule was forced into the broadcast slot. Let’s hope the league never has to use it.
On Monday, 24 owners voted in favor of a schedule mechanism that would allow the league to (or not) flexibly participate in “Thursday Night Football” games. Matches are limited to Weeks 13-17 only, and decisions are made up to 28 days before a match, with a maximum of two Thursday night games that can be changed from five options and, of course, if the match is changed. You must ensure that
For this to happen, strict conditions are imposed. And the league implies it could be a bad idea by pointing out that this is a “one-season trial of a modified scheduling policy for flexible scheduling associated with the Thursday Night Football package.” I admit it within
The league was keen to get the bill passed at its annual meeting in March in Arizona. The league then had to give each team 15 days notice instead of 28 days. I hear the floor was almost evenly split on the resolution until Giants co-owner John Mara stepped up and called it an “abuse.”
Of course he is right. I still haven’t spoken to an NFL player who publicly and privately said he likes playing football on Thursday nights. The NFLPA is certainly not in favor of this.
But more than that, the NFL encouraged fans to buy tickets as soon as the highly-produced schedule was announced two weeks ago. Fans plan well in advance, so the prime-time games in the second half of the season are definitely something that fans, both home and away, want to attend.
Travel costs money. Air tickets are expensive. When there’s an NFL game in the city, hotel rates skyrocket. Telling fans of any team competing in the five potentially affected contests that their plans may be worth nothing in a few months is the ideal of Football Is Family promoted by the league. seems to be against
“We’re incredibly focused on our fans in stadiums, and on screens and televisions elsewhere,” NFL executive vice president and chief operating officer Hans Schroeder said Monday. I am paying attention,” he said.
“I don’t want to think that we’re not sensitive to that at all. We’re going to do our best on how we communicate, how to do it as quickly and clearly as possible. But we’re also trying to do that. “On the other hand, it’s also about the balance of having the right game in the right window. And that’s something we always focus on.”
It’s meant to be a hit for all standalone NFL games. But I’ve been arguing since our meeting in March that if Al Michaels hadn’t been so openly complaining about the bad matchups he’s demanding, Flex probably wouldn’t even have been on the ballot list. .
No one wants to eat lemons during prime time, but it happens. And what do you think? Either way, everyone tunes in next week.
Between flex-out and flex-in games, more than 100,000 fans influence the plan. This leaves four teams whose football operations staff will need to readjust. This means that the two host stadiums and cities will have to change their staffing plans, including concessions, hotels and restaurants.
This is not the Sunday night flex everyone is used to. The ups and downs of the game on Sunday don’t negatively affect the overall operation on the ground, as it inevitably happens Sunday through Thursday.
But the decision the league and owners have made is that the number of all of the above affected people across these teams and cities is far less than the number of people who will be watching on screens somewhere. . And the numbers matter.
“It’s a very important point,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Monday when referring to the inconvenience to fans. “Every owner in that room lives and breathes sensitively to those fans. But only 7% of our fans have ever been to the stadium. 7.%. It means there are a lot of fans, and the majority of the fans have been to the stadium.’ Out there, this is good for them. ”
Here are the games currently scheduled for Thursday nights Weeks 13-17:
This is a pretty decent calendar that the NFL schedulers put together and gifted us all. Let’s hope the NFL doesn’t screw it up.
