Although pro sports leagues have survived strikes and lockouts in the past, an NFL lockout next year could mean not only a lost season, but the long-term loss of a sizable portion of the league’s fan base, according to a sports marketing expert at the University of Indianapolis.
UIndy Associate Professor Larry DeGaris was a consultant for the National Hockey League in advance of its 2004-2005 lockout. His research determined correctly that fans would stick with the sport if they understood the financial problems facing the league and the need to restructure its business model. But in the case of Major League Baseball, he says, the 1994 strike caused irreparable damage to the game.
As for the NFL, DeGaris says fans are not likely to sympathize with the owners or tolerate a lost season or Super Bowl. The players and the owners both need to crank up their PR machines and make sure fans know what’s at stake.
“The teams are profitable, and I think fans know it,” he says. “If the owners’ explanation is ‘We’re making a lot of money, but we want to make more,’ that’s not a good answer.”
According to DeGaris’ UIndy Sports Report, a national survey of U.S. adults’ attitudes toward sports, Americans tend to side with athletes over owners in labor disputes, 59 percent to 41 percent, respectively.
“I also think that fans are more sophisticated about distinguishing between a lockout initiated by the owners and a strike initiated by the players,” DeGaris says. “In the early years of sports labor disputes, they were all regarded as ‘strikes’ and attributed to the players.”
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