6. TV Ratings are more important than fans in the stadium. NFL officials, according to FBI files are quoted as saying " the NFL will continue to profit, even with empty stadiums. NFL games can even be filmed in studios to make a profit". TV is the lifeblood of any sport. Get on TV and you will survive somehow. If you are not on TV you are dead. TV Networks pay huge sums of money to the NFL for the rights to broadcast these games. Estimates of TV revenue exceed $6 Billion. Television stations make this money back plus a profit by advertising dollars.
This is why ratings are so important. Ratings = $$ because advertisers pay big money to advertise on the program. Marketing 101 tells us that television networks pay for the rights to broadcast NFL games, the NFL sells these games to Big TV as we will call them. The NFL gets paid up front. Now Big TV is in a deep whole. Big TV goes out to advertisers and sells ad spots during the game and any other NFL themed programming. Big TV promises the advertiser that X number of people will tune into the game each week and that those people will in turn by their product. Some Big TV executives even boldly predict as to the conversion rate of the people watching the games. If, for whatever reason, the resulting TV rating isn't what Big TV promised to the advertiser, Big TV has to pay the advertiser a refund.
Knowing this, do you really think Big TV wants to pay refunds? And this is a win-win situation for the league. The league wants more exciting games, Big TV wants their viewers, everyone gets paid. In a 2010 article, ProFootballTalk.com tells of a situation in which ESPN executives were giving play directions to then Titans coach Jeff Fisher and directed on how to conduct the game. Now who is really in control? You can read that article here:
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/10/19/chris-johnsons-fantasy-owners-should-thank-espn-jack-del-rio/