Does the NFL really have a millennial problem?
The NFL has had a hard time attracting the younger fan base, despite best efforts to brighten its image.
One of the growing narratives of this NFL offseason has been that the NFL has a problem attracting millennials. It’s created a space for speculation by writers and paranoia for league execs, a bogeyman that rears its head in NFL media every time there’s a slow news week.
Possible reasons why run the gamut. Explanations range from millennials viewing football as detrimental to its players’ health (valid), the NFL as a sleazy organization (probably valid), the online life most millennials lead, or the growing fan bases of the NBA and European soccer leagues.
While the narrative changes daily, the reality has sent league front offices scrambling to come up with solutions to grow a younger viewer base. From in-stadium apps to digital media forays, the NFL is trying its damnedest to break into the millennial consciousness, and it is making some positive steps.
If it’s simply a matter of medium, the NFL is ahead of other major sports in web presence, with the possible exception of Major League Baseball. Last year, Twitter streamed ten Thursday Night Football games which attracted millions of online eyeballs. This year, Amazon replaces Twitter, making the NFL online streams available to all Amazon Prime subscribers. Of course, both Twitter and Amazon are already Leviathans of the internet world and not exactly anticipatory of where millennials will flock next, it’s at least a start.
If it’s an image issue, the NFL is taking makeshift steps to address this problem. On the field, a nod to player safety has again been made this year with rules changes that enact greater fines and suspensions for dangerous hits. A nod to fun — long a word without a place in the rough-and-tumble world of (baritone voice, now) ‘professional football’ — was made last week with the announcement of relaxed rules on player celebrations. Though the league still has major issues off the field, such as its haphazard and incongruous attempts at penalizing domestic violence, it’s at least trying in the public relations department.
Of course, the most honest folks in the sports world will admit that no one really knows why NFL viewership is dipping across the board and among millennials in particular.
The real issue may be less complicated and likely something the league would refuse to admit: it’s possible the NFL has simply peaked. Until last year, NFL ratings had increased every year since the mid-1990s. In 2014, a staggering 73% of American men and 55% of American women watched the NFL regularly. The same fall, 45 of the 50 most popular television programs were NFL games. Last year’s precipitous dip in ratings may be less a sign of problems with the league and more a sign of a league that has reached the limits of growth in its own market.
Compounding this issue are indicators that show that sport in general might be of declining interest to millennials. YouGov’s BuzzIndex reported in April that the NFL was generating less internet chatter among millennials than it had been at the same time the previous year. Perhaps more alarming is that the NBA, long-considered the favored American sport of millennials, was also garnering less millennial interest — even in the throes of the first round of the playoffs, arguably its most exciting time of the year. In fact, all North American sports were.
And if that is the case — that televised sports are generally of less interest to the young people of today than past generations–what can the NFL possibly do?
For the regular NFL viewer, those already hooked like you and me, it doesn’t mean much.
It’s possible, after all, that the NFL will rebound this fall and all this hand-wringing might just be filling column space until training camp opens in July.
Additionally, it’s worth noting too that poor performance with millennials today doesn’t necessarily spell doom in the future. Generational studies often have a hard-time predicting the future activities or interests of a group of people. They satisfy humanity’s never-ending need to sort and categorize things, while forgetting the more obvious realization that every generation, likely since middle-aged caveman starting puzzling over their teenagers, has failed to understand the one that comes after.
So, cheer up, NFL. What may seem like a problem today may not be one in a few months’ time. Millennials may not be watching you now, but wait until they have kids and are too exhausted to move from the couch on Sunday afternoons.
