The Ever Expanding “Season”
With the announcement that the NFL draft will move to early May in 2014, the league continue to take steps toward year-’round awareness. Citing a “scheduling conflict” with Radio City Music Hall, next year’s draft will be May 8-10 (yes, the Thursday, Friday, Saturday of The Players.)
It’s not that they want to play games in the spring (which would still be a good idea for another league) but rather they want to be in the front of your mind all the time.
Why?
Because they’ll have shirts and hats on sale all year long, and you might buy one. In fact, you will buy one if they make enough noise and make sure you’re thinking about NFL Football in mid-May. While there’s nothing wrong with that, the expansion of all of the professional sports leagues has made the overlap of seasons full time.
One of the great trivia questions is “Which two days of the year are there no professional sports scheduled?” The answer now is only the day before and the day after the Major League Baseball All-star game.
There used to be a variety of days during the year when there was only one sport per season but now with everybody playing all the time, those are the only two days. So every other day of the year you will be exposed to some kind of marketing by some professional sport.
How much do you spend on “gear” that has some kind of logo on it? Whether it’s your favorite sports team or some manufacture with stripes or a swoosh, it’s amazing how much money is spent to get you to advertise their stuff. Watch any of the networks owned by the different leagues. In any of the commercial breaks there’s an advertisement encouraging you to “support your team” buy their stuff!
Expansion of the “season” is across the board in professional sports. MLB has a “Mr. October” but soon might need a “Mr. November” if the World Series continues to move into colder weather. The NBA starts up in October and it’s mid-June before they crown a champion. The NHL seems to only have about a month off between the Stanley Cup Finals and when camp starts.
While a lot of these decisions are based on television and the money it generates, it never hurts that you might buy a Red Wings sweater in July, or a Celtics jersey in August.
Looking back at the early Super Bowls, they were played in mid-January at the latest. Now the first weekend of February is nearly a national holiday to celebrate the game.
Just imagine when the NFL expands to 18 regular season games.
