NFL Fans Opposed to the New "Primetime" Draft Schedule

To:  National Football League

We the fans of the National Football League, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice (for non-Eastern time zones) and insure domestic tranquility, hereby submit this petition to the National Football League and its Commissioner: Roger Goodell.

While we appreciate the league's desire to grow and promote the greatest sport in the world -- and also understand that, like any business, the goal is to increase revenue and profit -- we feel strongly that the league has erred in its decision to move the NFL Draft to a Thursday-Friday-Saturday format.

Some, but not all, of our disagreeable points are listed below:


I) START TIME
Mr. Goodell explained this new scheduling format on July 23, 2009 (NFL.com), stating: "We continue to look for ways to make the draft more accessible to more fans."

We, the undersigned, do not believe that a 4:30 PM Thursday kickoff makes the 1st round more accessible to fans in the Pacific Time zone. In fact, we believe this makes it LESS accessible to them. With the standard American workday running somewhere in the neighborhood of 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, a 4:30 PM start would all but ensure that fans on the west coast would miss a large and very important portion of the selection process. Citizens in urban/metropolitan areas (such as Los Angeles) would no doubt be further delayed by all-too-familiar traffic on their commute home.

We also believe that a 3:30 PM start on Friday will make the 2nd and 3rd rounds less accessible not only to fans in the Pacific Time zone, but for fans in all four continental time zones, as a 6:30 PM start still cuts it a bit close on the East Coast.

Compare that to last year’s 3:00 PM ET Saturday kickoff, which according to the league boasted record viewership. The chance of missing any portion of the 2009 Draft was exponentially less for fans in any American time zone.
Thirdly, we believe that a 7:30 AM Pacific kickoff might be a bit too early on a Saturday morning. Friday night tends to be a bit of a recreational evening for many Americans, who utilize Saturday mornings for recovery purposes. For many Americans, Saturday is simply the one day each week in which they don’t have to wake up early.

Fans in the Aleutian Time Zone (Hawaii) are just plain out of luck, as their three day kickoff times are as follows: 1:30 PM, 12:30 PM and 5:30 AM. Alaskan followers don’t have it much better.


II) INTERNATIONAL FANS
The NFL makes no secret of its desire to grow the brand outside the United States. We’ve played preseason games in Europe, Japan, Mexico, and Australia. Regular season games have and will continue to be played in Europe. The NFL had placed its developmental league (a.k.a World League, NFL Europe, NFL Europa) almost exclusively in Europe over the past 20 years. And there’s even been talk of an eventual franchise and possibly a Super Bowl in Europe.

With that in mind, we believe the league would be doing its European fan base an injustice by moving the 1st round to – at the earliest, depending on geographic location --- an 11:30 PM start time.


III) EXISTING CAMERADERIE
Much like the 21 Sundays in autumn/winter, the NFL Draft is an event. Fans across the country (and parts of the world) anticipate it all spring, with millions reading draft magazines, watching television coverage and tracking Pro Days and the Combine. The NFL Draft is arguably the Super Bowl of the offseason.

And with that comes a phenomenon known as the “Draft Party”.
The Draft Party is quite similar to the Super Bowl Party, both in size and numbers. They are a tradition in many households and eating/drinking establishments. Even NFL franchises have been known to host them. NFL fans look forward to them. And they generally last all day long.

With the Draft moving to a Thursday afternoon-Friday afternoon-Saturday morning format, we believe the size, volume, and overall enjoyment of the Draft Party could be considerably weakened. Indeed, we anticipate a “thinning of the herd”, with Draft Parties becoming less common around the country.


No matter how you stack it, someone is going to lose out when you have the draft on a weekday. Nothing beats the weekend as far as coverage goes.

With the 2010 marking the 75th anniversary of the NFL Draft, we would hate for the league to spoil a good thing. We realize that not everyone will agree with this petition. You can’t please everyone, all of the time. However we, the undersigned, feel more fans will be adversely affected by this change than those who benefit.

We ask that the NFL and Commissioner Goodell consider our concerns and do what is best for NFL fans.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The NFL Fans Opposed to the New "Primetime" Draft Schedule Petition to National Football League was created by and written by George Richmond (nfldraftpetition@gmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.