We’ve been sharing the rolling details of the NFL’s ratings and advertising fall-out over the course of the year as a result of the anthem protests across the league.
Those losses have been staggering.
And now SurveyMonkey has published the results of a year-end survey of former fans who ditched the league in 2017.
In total, 33% of its audience tuned out in a single year.
That’s profound for any industry.
What’s more intriguing is that a third of those respondents cited support for President Trump as the reason they tuned out.
In other words, a third of the NFL’s losses could have been avoided had they not been stupid and insist on a path of political correctness.
Let that be a warning sign to other professional sports leagues.
Here’s more from Redstate…
When you mix activism with entertainment you get propaganda, which isn’t exactly something that turns a lot of people on. When the NFL decided to focus on propaganda and not football, a huge chunk of its audience decided they just weren’t going to tune in.
NFL ratings have been sliding downhill like a greased up pig on a muddy slope ever since the kneeling started. Players and coaches alike protested the United States and/or Trump by kneeling down on the ground while the national anthem played instead of putting their hands to their hearts and standing respectfully. And while many Americans just didn’t take kindly to it, many tuned out for other reasons.
Yahoo Finance reported that a new survey from SurveyMonkey and Ozy Media showed that in the end, all the boycotts resulted in 33 percent of the NFL’s audience departing:
That group, which the survey labeled as “boycotting,” was asked why, and was given multiple options. Note: Respondents were allowed to select multiple answers; they were not asked which was the biggest factor, just which factors contributed.
They answered as follows: 32% said they stopped watching or attending NFL games “in support of Donald Trump”; 22% said “in solidarity with players kneeling”; 13% said “no interest in the teams playing”; 12% said “in support of Colin Kaepernick”; and 11% said “news about traumatic brain injuries among players.” Another 8% said “games are boring.” 46% chose “some other reason.”
