How can the NBA ever come close to NFL ratings in America?

Ben-N1ce · Post #1 » by **Ben-N1ce** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:06 pm

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threethehardway · Post #2 » by **threethehardway** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:08 pm

If they shorten the season and include a single elimination regular season tournament seeded 1-16 for playoff seeding.

JujitsuFlip · Post #3 » by **JujitsuFlip** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:10 pm

Yeah, too many games, so not gonna happen.

Cavsfansince84 · Post #4 » by **Cavsfansince84** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:11 pm

Move from an 82 game schedule to a 17 game schedule for starters.

dhsilv2 · Post #5 » by **dhsilv2** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:19 pm

As others have said, less games would be an absolute must, but even then...you'd still need fantasy basketball to catch on BIG time.

Post #6 » by **Duke4life831** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:24 pm

If you think number of games is the main reason for ratings difference, Ive got some bad news for you. Football is just a far far more popular sport in the US, it is what it is.

Just for reference, the College Football championship game on Monday got over 22 million views and that was on the lower side. The NBA hasnt had a game (regular season, playoffs, finals) reach that number in the previous 4 years.

I mean we have towns all throughout the country that basically shut down on Friday nights to watch high school football games. The sport of football is just far more popular in this country and the game is far more ingrained in the culture of this country than basketball.

Edrees · Post #7 » by **Edrees** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:27 pm

Only way to do it is to make each playoff series best of 1 and make it a 20 game season. That's why the NFL ratings are so high.

Duke4life831 wrote:If you think number of games is the main reason for ratings difference, Ive got some bad news for you. Football is just a far far more popular sport in the US, it is what it is.

Just for reference, the College Football championship game on Monday got over 22 million views and that was on the lower side. The NBA hasnt had a game (regular season, playoffs, finals) reach that number in the previous 4 years.

I mean we have towns all throughout the country that basically shut down on Friday nights to watch high school football games. The sport of football is just far more popular in this country and the game is far more ingrained in the culture of this country than basketball.

the 2019 NCAA championship had 19 million viewers. That is pretty damn close to what college football number you just quoted. Football may be more popular, but it's not 10 times more popular. 80% of the ratings difference is because the number of games. 20% of the difference is because football is more popular.

Seems to me americans love basketball a lot- not as much as football, but its close. They just don't enjoy long seasons or 7 games series.

Honest quest, if they made the superbowl a 7 game series this year, do you really think each game would get anywhere near the ratings the current one game gets today? There's just no way. I know so many people who watch the superbowl as a one time event, and would not watch 7 games of it in a 2 week span.

xdrta+ · Post #8 » by **xdrta+** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:28 pm

Duke4life831 wrote:If you think number of games is the main reason for ratings difference, Ive got some bad news for you. Football is just a far far more popular sport in the US, it is what it is.

Just for reference, the College Football championship game on Monday got over 22 million views and that was on the lower side. The NBA hasnt had a game (regular season, playoffs, finals) reach that number in the previous 4 years.

I mean we have towns all throughout the country that basically shut down on Friday nights to watch high school football games. The sport of football is just far more popular in this country and the game is far more ingrained in the culture of this country than basketball.

Absolutely right, and to that I say.....so what?

jokeboy86 · Post #9 » by **jokeboy86** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:34 pm

When I saw this thread this was the first thing to come to my mind:

Theme is playing in my head now.

Clemenza · Post #10 » by **Clemenza** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:35 pm

The NFL's advantage of "they only play 17 games a season" is because the players aren't physically able to play a season over 20 games unless they expand the rosters to 100 players or so. They just so happened to get lucky with that and it wasn't even an arguing point back in the day until now. If it was up to the greedy NFL owners and the networks they would expand the rosters and try to play 25 games a season if they could and then every game wouldn't mean as much.

-But the NFL runs America, no league can beat them out here in the states no matter what. But the NBA is much bigger globally and its games are shown in over 200 countries while the NFL is pretty much a North American thing

Post #11 » by **Duke4life831** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:42 pm

Edrees wrote:Only way to do it is to make each playoff series best of 1 and make it a 20 game season. That's why the NFL ratings are so high.

Duke4life831 wrote:If you think number of games is the main reason for ratings difference, Ive got some bad news for you. Football is just a far far more popular sport in the US, it is what it is.

Just for reference, the College Football championship game on Monday got over 22 million views and that was on the lower side. The NBA hasnt had a game (regular season, playoffs, finals) reach that number in the previous 4 years.

I mean we have towns all throughout the country that basically shut down on Friday nights to watch high school football games. The sport of football is just far more popular in this country and the game is far more ingrained in the culture of this country than basketball.

the 2019 NCAA championship had 19 million viewers. That is pretty damn close to what college football number you just quoted. Football may be more popular, but it's not 10 times more popular. 80% of the ratings difference is because the number of games. 20% of the difference is because football is more popular.

Seems to me americans love basketball a lot- not as much as football, but its close. They just don't enjoy long seasons or 7 games series.

Honest quest, if they made the superbowl a 7 game series this year, do you really think each game would get anywhere near the ratings the current one game gets today? There's just no way. I know so many people who watch the superbowl as a one time event, and would not watch 7 games of it in a 2 week span.

Well a big reason why college basketball championship gets good ratings because it is the most gambled event every year. Its not necessarily about the love of college basketball. Even as a massive college basketball fan as I am, there is no doubt college football is far far more popular in this country than college basketball, I dont think that is even up for discussion.

And ya of course the ratings would drop if you made the super bowl a 7 game series. Im not saying lowering the amount of playoff games wouldnt help ratings. But youre not going to catch the NFL just from that. Ya the NFL may not be 10x as popular, but 4-5x more popular? Ya I dont think that is all that crazy to think.

Again the game of football is just far more popular in this country at all levels. Its just a more popular sport. This would be like me saying, what would MMA have to do to catch the NBA. Well no doubt there are some things that could help (free fights with your biggest named fighters for instance). But there would still be one major hurdle, the fact that MMA isnt nearly as popular as basketball.

The popularity of basketball in this country is closer to baseball than it is with football.

Cavsfansince84 · Post #12 » by **Cavsfansince84** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:46 pm

Duke4life831 wrote:If you think number of games is the main reason for ratings difference, Ive got some bad news for you. Football is just a far far more popular sport in the US, it is what it is.

Just for reference, the College Football championship game on Monday got over 22 million views and that was on the lower side. The NBA hasnt had a game (regular season, playoffs, finals) reach that number in the previous 4 years.

I mean we have towns all throughout the country that basically shut down on Friday nights to watch high school football games. The sport of football is just far more popular in this country and the game is far more ingrained in the culture of this country than basketball.

Somewhat valid points but why must it be limited to just the usa? Viewers outside of na count just as much.

Post #13 » by **Dirk** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:46 pm

Just watch the 49ers @ Rams or Chargers @ Raiders games on Sunday.

That was regular season. To find that level of intensity and drama in the NBA playoffs, you really would struggle.

Less games. Parity. No chasing guys out small markets. No inferiority complex. Results are a lot more random and there's much more complexity in the game and more ways to win.

The product and competition is simply... better.

Post #14 » by **Duke4life831** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:49 pm

Cavsfansince84 wrote:
Duke4life831 wrote:If you think number of games is the main reason for ratings difference, Ive got some bad news for you. Football is just a far far more popular sport in the US, it is what it is.

Just for reference, the College Football championship game on Monday got over 22 million views and that was on the lower side. The NBA hasnt had a game (regular season, playoffs, finals) reach that number in the previous 4 years.

I mean we have towns all throughout the country that basically shut down on Friday nights to watch high school football games. The sport of football is just far more popular in this country and the game is far more ingrained in the culture of this country than basketball.

Somewhat valid points but why must it be limited to just the usa? Viewers outside of na count just as much.

Because the entire point of this thread is

"How can the NBA ever come close to NFL ratings in AMERICA?

DusterBuster · Post #15 » by **DusterBuster** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:55 pm

Every game has to count or be important. In an 82 game season, that’s just not the case… in 16 games, it is.

draftnightsuit · Post #16 » by **draftnightsuit** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:56 pm

Posters ITT actually brainstorming ideas on how to match the NFL in ratings lol

“Shorten the season to be more like the NFL!!” That’s not how this works.

It won’t ever match the NFL in the ratings and that’s not a problem. Just like how Scorcese doesn’t have to match the Avengers at the box office.

SeattleJazzFan · Post #17 » by **SeattleJazzFan** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:56 pm

impossible. because football happens once a week, it becomes an event. it's championship is one game - it's a uber event.

it's also "cool" to like and watch football due to the (not so much anymore) violent nature of the game - if you are a football fan, you are man. for so many casual sports fans it's fun for them talk about how they got their big screen for watching "football" in their "man cave" (said it a bit lower voice than they regularly talk with). and then you have the fantasy aspect. nothing can touch the NFL as a fantasy sport and there is no question that impacts it's popularity and viewership as a whole.

SecondTake · Post #18 » by **SecondTake** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 9:59 pm

Cavsfansince84 wrote:
Duke4life831 wrote:If you think number of games is the main reason for ratings difference, Ive got some bad news for you. Football is just a far far more popular sport in the US, it is what it is.

Just for reference, the College Football championship game on Monday got over 22 million views and that was on the lower side. The NBA hasnt had a game (regular season, playoffs, finals) reach that number in the previous 4 years.

I mean we have towns all throughout the country that basically shut down on Friday nights to watch high school football games. The sport of football is just far more popular in this country and the game is far more ingrained in the culture of this country than basketball.

Somewhat valid points but why must it be limited to just the usa? Viewers outside of na count just as much.

No they don't. Us has a bigger military than Europe combined, sorry but the rest of the world doesn't count for nearly as much. Think of it this way, how many world wide lives is an American life worth? A lot of them, our GDP crushes most of them

Sent from my SM-G950W using RealGM mobile app

matt6715 · Post #19 » by **matt6715** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 10:03 pm

In America it will never happen. Football is one of the very few (maybe the only) things that Americans on both sides of the political spectrum enjoy and tolerate each other during. That's why Goddell and the owners wanted to put a stop to the kneeling for the national anthem ASAP so they wouldnt lose their right wing viewers.

NBA is a predominately african-american and liberal-leaning sport. It'll never get close to the NFL for that reason alone.

draftnightsuit · Post #20 » by **draftnightsuit** » Wed Jan 12, 2022 10:04 pm

Dirk wrote:Just watch the 49ers @ Rams or Chargers @ Raiders games on Sunday.

That was regular season. To find that level of intensity and drama in the NBA playoffs, you really would struggle.

Less games. Parity. No chasing guys out small markets. No inferiority complex. Results are a lot more random and there's much more complexity in the game and more ways to win.

The product and competition is simply... better.

The NFL isn’t popular because of the quality of the actual games. Football is a religion in America. The NFL is a multi billion dollar corporation with near limitless power.

An average NFL game has about 8 minutes of total game action. In between that is a million game breaks and commercials.