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Leagues and Governing Bodies

ARE ECONOMICS, EXPANSION HURTING NFL'S PRODUCT IN '99?

          In his column on ESPN.com, Chris Mortensen wrote on the
     NFL, "I don't care what anybody says, this has not been
     pretty football.  It has even been bad football."  Under the
     header, "NFL '99: Not A Pretty Picture," Mortensen added
     that NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and NFLPA Exec Dir Gene
     Upshaw should be "pretty concerned about the state" of the
     NFL, even "worried."  Mortensen: "The economics of the game,
     practically and emotionally, are taking its toll on the NFL. 
     And the league keeps expanding.  You do understand that
     expansion is about economics, regardless of a diluted
     product, don't you?" (ESPN.com, 11/10).  In Ft. Worth,
     Charean Williams writes, "Although attendance and TV ratings
     are up, almost everyone agrees the NFL has been hard to
     watch this season" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 11/11).  NFL
     Senior VP/Football Operations George Young, on why 43 of 128
     games this season "have been decided" by three points or
     less: "Parity does not mean mediocrity.  It means
     competitiveness.  We want our games to be competitive and
     entertaining.  Listen, TV ratings are up.  Stadiums are sold
     out 85 percent of the time, compared to 72 percent a year
     ago.  Obviously, the people are voting with their fannies in
     the seats."  ESPN.com's Greg Garber reported that parity
     "apparently, sells" as through eight weeks, the NFL's
     average paid attendance was 65,154, up 1,134 over last
     year's "all-time season record" of 64,020 (ESPN.com, 11/10). 
          NEW TRADITION? DAILY VARIETY's Bierbaum & Bernstein
     report that the NFL will unveil "what it hopes will become a
     holiday tradition" on Thanksgiving, when it features live
     halftime entertainment during NFL games on Fox and CBS.  The
     band Third Eye Blind "will perform" during halftime of the
     Bears-Lions game on Fox, while country music singer Clint
     Black "will take the stage" at halftime of the Dolphins-
     Cowboys game on CBS.  Each musical act will last for nine
     minutes, "expanding the usual" halftime of each game from 12
     to 18 minutes with "no commercial time ... cut."  Bierbaum &
     Bernstein write that this "stunt comes" when ratings on all
     four nets covering the NFL are "up vs. last year or, at
     worst, breaking even" (DAILY VARIETY, 11/11).

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