When it comes to TV, nothing is bigger than the NFL. When it comes to in-person attendance, there’s one sport that does better than pro football.
Appearing on CNBC, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross made it clear that his annual F1 event puts more asses in the seats than a full season of Dolphins football.
“F1 has been great,” Ross said, via David Hyde of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “We get more attendance for F1 races for three days than the entire [Dolphins] season tickets that we sold.”
Still, F1 has a long way to go when it comes to TV audiences. Last year, ESPN’s F1 races averaged 1.3 million viewers, a record. Apple TV recently claimed (without releasing numbers) that its new foray into F1 has done even better.
The NFL has already decided that there’s far more money to be made via TV than the turnstiles. And the league’s ambivalence toward the in-season fans became clear when it pushed for Thursday night flexing.
Who cares if the shifting of a game from Sunday afternoon to Thursday night (and the corresponding shifting of a game from Thursday night to Sunday afternoon) inconveniences the folks who bought tickets and made plans to attend? It’s all about maximizing the TV numbers, because that’s the key to an unlimited pile of cash from the networks and the streaming companies.