The NFL Fre-Season - Matthewkyleyoung's Blog

Matthewkyleyoung's Blog

The NFL Fre-Season

Posted on August 18, 2012 at 04:33 PM.

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Can you feel it in the air? Can you hear the pads smacking? Can you hear the whistles blowing? Can you feel the chill of fall, ready to descend on you? Finally, after months of waiting and waiting, the NFL is back! Sort of.*

The Problem

You know the feeling. Waiting for the Hall of Fame game every year (except for 2011) with the excitement building to a fever pitch. The first kickoff, sailing through the air, watching it drop into the hands of a Saint or a Cardinal, with the hungry kickoff squad*ferociously hunting him down. You hear it all, the smacks of the helmets, the crowd going nuts, and the third-string announce team breaking down every moment of it. The play ends, and the country breathes a collective sigh of relief. And then it hits you like a tonne of bricks, this isn't the NFL, it's merely an exhibition, played mostly by men you may never again see on the football field come September.*

Okay, maybe the excitement was a tad overstated. We all know it's the pre-season. We all know that the level of football is somewhere between Arena Football and the deceased NFL Europe, after the first two series of the game. It's possibly 1/8th an NFL game of excitement and a quarter of the talent. Yet we are forced to believe that the NFL is back, we're ready for some football, and most of all,ready to pay full*price*for it.

It's partially our fault. If we wouldn't pay the prices, the owners would be forced to lower them. Supply and demand. But on the*other hand, it would be nice to see a billionaire owner give back to the feverishly loyal community that is the NFL without the fans having to take a stand. According to Forbes,

The NFL inked extensions to its TV deals with CBS, ESPN, Fox and NBC last year. The nine-year deals (ESPN is for eight years) start with the 2014 season and are worth $5 billion a year collectively, a 62% bump on the prior contracts. The average NFL team is worth $1.04 billion. - Forbes, July 16th, 2012*

The average franchise, over 1 billion dollars in value, and they have nobody to thank more than their loyal fans(and possibly the marketing teams for major network television). The loyal fans that line up and pay full price for a ticket, buy overpriced beer and deep fried food, all the while wearing every bit of official NFL gear that they can afford, to a*farce of a professional football game.

The NFL should be ashamed of themselves.

The Solution

So the Youngswami has come up with a solution. An albeit foolish, fantasized, double rainbow wish come true type of solution, but a solution nonetheless.

A ticket lottery.

Each NFL franchise has two home pre-season games, that would provide approximately 140,000 available seats in total. 140,000 tickets for your favorite NFL team to give away to their die hard fans, for absolutely free! In this fantasy, each team may keep their corporate boxes for whatever purpose they would like, considering the true fans sit in the bleachers anyways. Although a charitable donation from those profits wouldn't be the absolute worst thing I've ever heard of.

Here is how they could breakdown the draft lottery.

June 1st - Every team's website will offer you the chance to be in one of two lotteries. One entry per person, in either the Four Seat draw, or the Two Seat draw.
Each entry requires the participant to be at least 18 years of age, and to be able to provide ID, that will match the information that they give online, when they show up for the game.
The Four Seat draw will give the winner, wait for it, 4 seats for them to give to whomever they would prefer, provided that they are one of the four. The Two Seat draw is pretty self explanatory, using the same guidelines.
It is up to the individual teams to determine the distribution of Two Seat and Four Seat packages, depending on their preferred demographic and seating layout.

I know that it seems too simple and too good to be true, all at the same time. But that's the exact beauty of it. It is! And it works for not only the fans, but also for the owners (wait, I'll show you!)*

The true fans will be able to go to games they may not have been able to afford, therefore building the fan base even more, cementing future generations of fans that may otherwise not have been able to enjoy the live experience of the NFL.
The NFL pre-season broadcasts would no longer look like an NFL stadium hosting a Pop Warner football game by the start of the third quarter, because the fans that are there, may not be back for a few years. They are going to enjoy their time and experience.
The NFL will still be able to cover all operating costs by selling corporate suites, drinks, food, and merchandise at their inflated idea of fair price.
Scalping tickets will be nearly impossible with the checking of ID with the ticket (something that should be done already, but that's for another blog entry)
And most of all... the FANS ARE HAPPY

The Reality

Everyone knows this isn't going to happen. We're all realists, with aspirations of becoming optimistic against the backdrop of capitalism that is professional sports. We know that a simple little blog post like this isn't going to change the landscape of pre-season football in the NFL. And we also know, that in the long list of problems the world has, this might be somewhere between "I really want a bigger TV" and "What should we have for dinner?". But sometimes, like the little*fictitious people who entered this lottery, isn't it fun to dream?

This was taken from a previous post at

NoseBleedDebates.blogspot.com