The NFL lockout is now in its 90th day, and EA Sports “is forecasting a potential $80 million loss if the season is killed,” according to Bloomberg TV’s Deirdre Bolton. Bloomberg TV’s Michele Steele said EA Sports "could see a big chunk of its top line just vaporize from this 'Madden' game if the NFL lockout leads to a canceled season entirely.” Gross revenue "could fall by $70-80 million if football goes away completely for a season.” EA Sports President Peter Moore said, "People not only get disenchanted, they get angry because it’s Sunday afternoon, what am I going to do? So the concern we have ... is that not only is there a year where you say, ‘I've got a revenue problem,’ but there is maybe another year before people come back to the sport.” Steele said EA Sports’ concern is that "no football means the NFL will not be top of mind for consumers and thus depress sales.” Moore estimated the lockout’s impact "could be as much of a 35% drop in sales.” Steele notes that the company is "working very closely with the league and NFL Players Association ... to minimize the impact of a shortened season on game sales” (“Inside Track,” Bloomberg TV, 6/9).
MILLERCOORS PONDERING ALTERNATIVES: CRAIN'S CHICAGO BUSINESS' Kate MacArthur cites sources as saying that MillerCoors execs are "mulling alternative advertising strategies, including college football promotions and Major League Baseball, to try and fill the gap for the brewer's biggest marketing season of the year," the NFL. The timing of the lockout for MillerCoors "has a bit of schadenfreude: This will be the first season in eight years that the Chicago-based brewer hasn't been the official NFL sponsor with its Coors Light brand." However, the brewer "has continued its sponsorships of 21 individual teams" (CHICAGOBUSINESS.com, 6/9).
