Why did the NFL do away with Saturday games?

[TheGreatestOfAllTimeCam]

They have slowly phased it out. Why did they do this?

I miss Saturday afternoon 2 games this time of year as recently as 2004 that I remember and then there was typically one Saturday night game each year after that. This year for the first time, NONE.

There's no Thursday game this week - and none the final week. They could still afford to do a saturday game or two during weeks 15, 16, 17 without much harm I feel like.

Why did the NFL do this? Any chance it makes a comeback?

I understand Saturday night ratings aren't the best.... but would still think that Saturday afternoon when there is no NCAA would be pretty good air time for a couple of NFL games. Who here would enjoy it?

[beastson]

Saturday game we might be playing

 

In the playoffs :)

[chknwing]

Saturday game we might be playing

 

In the playoffs :)

 

at home :)

[Panther_Brotherhood]

I actually wouldn't mind if they replaced Thursday Night Football with Saturday Night Football (especially once CFB ended)

 

This obviously wouldn't happen due to the money with college football and blah blah blah

 

But I think more people would and could watch it, and it'd be easier to flex.  It also doesn't make for extremely short weeks

[thunderraiden]

There should be satuday games Week 16 and week 17 every year. Have it so that networks get to choose one each for their week 17. Make 1PM game Fox 4 PM game CBS and 8PM game ESPN and let them have at it again the next night with NBC getting the Sunday Nighter. This gives MNF one extra telecast on the year but with all the money they are paying, who is complaining.

[Anybodyhome]

Pundits say the Saturday games were replaced by a full Thursday schedule in order for the NFL to strong arm cable providers into paying television fees and carrying the NFL Network. With only a partial Saturday schedule and a few Thursday games, the NFL opted to put all its eggs in the Thursday Night Football basket, which would force the cable providers to cave. If it was only a handful of games on Saturday or Thursday, the NFL wouldn't have the leverage.

[TheGreatestOfAllTimeCam]

I hate what the dollars have done to the NFL. I would give anything to watch Saturday games last saturday, this saturday, and next weekend on saturday during the holiday season. Kind of wish I could get ahold of Goodell by his neck for this.

[jasonluckydog]

that would be horrible I work every Saturday and off Sunday...I hate the playoffs cause of this

[Jase]

Part of it is that Christmas falls in the middle of the week this year, I would think.

[Ruff]

They have slowly phased it out. Why did they do this?

I miss Saturday afternoon 2 games this time of year as recently as 2004 that I remember and then there was typically one Saturday night game each year after that. This year for the first time, NONE.

There's no Thursday game this week - and none the final week. They could still afford to do a saturday game or two during weeks 15, 16, 17 without much harm I feel like.

Why did the NFL do this? Any chance it makes a comeback?

I understand Saturday night ratings aren't the best.... but would still think that Saturday afternoon when there is no NCAA would be pretty good air time for a couple of NFL games. Who here would enjoy it?

 

The set-up was originally intended as Thursday is Pop Warner, Friday is High School, Saturday is CFB, and Sunday is NFL. Thursday night games were added to the mix and fuged up everything, though.

[TheGreatestOfAllTimeCam]

Saturday games are only in the playoffs.

 

The NFL does not want to clash with the NCAA when it comes to scheduled events. 

 

They know most football fans watch some college ball too, and dont want the games to be on at the same time. Also there are contractual obligations. For example, turn on ESPN during the 1 pm Sunday games. They never talk about Football for 4 or 5 hours once the pregame show goes off.

 

Yea but in the past, recent past; the NFL always had games on Saturdays in weeks 15, 16, 17 when there are no scheduled NCAA games.

[Happy Panther]

They have slowly phased it out. Why did they do this?

I miss Saturday afternoon 2 games this time of year as recently as 2004 that I remember and then there was typically one Saturday night game each year after that. This year for the first time, NONE.

There's no Thursday game this week - and none the final week. They could still afford to do a saturday game or two during weeks 15, 16, 17 without much harm I feel like.

Why did the NFL do this? Any chance it makes a comeback?

I understand Saturday night ratings aren't the best.... but would still think that Saturday afternoon when there is no NCAA would be pretty good air time for a couple of NFL games. Who here would enjoy it?

 

I read an article on this a few years ago and it is all ratings.

 

Saturday afternoon is worse than Saturday night and Saturday night isn't good.

 

I loved the Saturday games 

[tiger7_88]

I hate what the dollars have done to the NFL. 

 

 

Gotta wonder how young you are saying stuff like this.

 

Because when I was a kid, we sometimes got only ONE college football game on TV on Saturday and ONE NFL game on Sunday of whatever your "local" team was defined as (and that was only if the game was sold out).

 

What have the dollars done to football (and the NFL in particular)?  A whole helluva lot and most of it good.

[Shufdog]

Gotta wonder how young you are saying stuff like this.

Because when I was a kid, we sometimes got only ONE college football game on TV on Saturday and ONE NFL game on Sunday of whatever your "local" team was defined as (and that was only if the game was sold out).

What have the dollars done to football (and the NFL in particular)? A whole helluva lot and most of it good.

I remember those days!