Worse though for the NFL is that a mere 98.2 million US residents watched the game on average. That is down 14.2% from the all-time viewing average of 114.4 million who watched the Patriots beat the Seahawks 28-24 on a bonehead call by Seattle's head coach Pete Carroll in Super Bowl 49.But as I showed in WHITHER THE SUPER BOWL? AS SUPER BOWL 53 APPROACHES, HAVE US RESIDENTS TIRED OF THE NFL AND THE SUPER BOWL, to ascertain the future health of the league, it is not the total number of viewers that count. Rather, it is the penetration rate in the total population.
What is the penetration rate? It is the ratio of viewers to civilian free ("non-institutional") population, age 16 and up in the USA.
That rate has been on the decline after the economic recovery began to take hold after one of the longest economic depressions in USA history, the Greenspan-Bernanke Long Depression, which happened after the greatest credit expansion and subsequent bubble burst, the Greenspan-Bernanke Great Inflation.
Since 1990, NFL viewership and NFL attendance has been a fairly good proxy measure for how well or not the economy is doing. For more on that, see my work: 2017 NFL TV VIEWERSHIP FALLS OVER PLAYER PROTESTS! IS NFL FANDOM AN ECONOMIC INDICATOR?
Because most look only at the meaningless total average viewership rather than the penetration rate, most fail to realize that NFL popularity has been on the wane for a long time.
Taken from my previous work based on the chart above:
Peak popularity of the NFL and its Super Bowl happened decades ago. The glory days of the NFL happened between 1978 and 1986, and most notably between 1982 and 1986, when Joe Montana quarterbacked the San Francisco 49ers to Super Bowl wins over the Cincinnati Bengals and Miami Dolphins, when John Riggins of the Washington Redskins ran over the Miami Dolphins, when Marcus Allen of the Los Angeles Raiders, yes, the Los Angeles Raiders, ran over the Washington Redskins.The NFL is only slightly more popular now than it was 43 years ago in 1976!
The NFL will continue to face headwinds in the coming years. First, demographics are against the NFL. Since the Reagan amnesty of 1986, the Congress and the globalism-favoring ruling class have championed near unfettered and unnecessary immigration. Most immigrants into the USA today are Third Worlders who favor soccer as their sport. Foreign-born population in the USA is now on the otherside of 15%.
The NFL is facing competition in the sport world. The younger half of the Millennials and the post-Millennials seem to be fascinated by all things drones and drone racing has become a competitive sport in the USA. In my work here on the True Dollar Journal, DEMOGRAPHICS IS DESTINY, THE TV SPORTS EDITION, I revealed how a perfect storm of demographics and Internet streaming have lured the Millennials in a new direction and away from tradition.
Along with esports, professional rugby is making a push into the USA with the second competition within five years following World Rugby union rules. In its second season now, Major League Rugby already has expanded the number of franchises in competition and is set to expand again for 2020.
The World Rugby World Cup to be played in October 2019 in the land of anime, Japan, shall only further advance the growing popularity of rugby in the USA. The sport is much more fast-paced and the players do not hide themselves behind silly facemasks and puffed up body armor.
Lastly, under the approval of NFL owners, the NFL marketing arm has embraced the Social Justice movement, a near-militant pro-New World African (aka "black") movement that seeks to diminish the power of police departments in apprehension of criminals as well as to push for the crazed concept of reparations for slavery that happened in the British colonies between 1619 and 1781 and in the USA from 1781 until 1865.
The Millennial generation have been woefully educated regarding slavery. Slavery was not widespread in the USA. Only 11.6% of all families at the 1790 census owned slaves.
And in many ways, white slavery was much worse, especially during the British colonial era. Most white slaves never lived long enough to gain their freedom. In contrast to enslaved Africans, enslaved whites from the United Kingdom were worked to death as theoretically, most were to be emancipated after a term of indentured servance. It made more sense to go far easier on enslaved Africans as they could be owned for life.
The difference from the average truly shows the seriousness of the change which is hitting the NFL. The fall in viewership from the average is only equaled by the steady decline from the 1996 peak which hit a low in 2005, during the final years of the Greenspan-Bernanke Great Inflation.
Gab It
