As the National Football League opens its season in earnest today, it's more popular - and prosperous - than ever.
A record 18 million fans attended games last year, as regular season crowds averaged nearly 68,000. The league says TV ratings are up and more people watched the Super Bowl than voted in the 2004 presidential election. Even the virtual NFL is growing: Millions of fans participate in fantasy leagues, and the Madden NFL video game was the top console and hand-held game of 2006, with 2.8 million sold.
Still, the NFL sees new worlds to conquer.
The league wants to broaden its fan base - especially by reaching out to Hispanics and women. Seeking an international foothold, it has scheduled a game in London next month, the first regular season game to be played outside North America. Meanwhile, it is building a powerful cable network and is experimenting with technology that would give fans a view of the game from the quarterback's perspective.
"There are more fans to be had. We have to avoid getting arrogant and we need to offer new ways for our fans to access the sizzle of the NFL," said Baltimore Ravens President Dick Cass, whose team opens in Cincinnati tomorrow night against the Bengals.
The Ravens have prospered along with the league. Although Baltimore is the nation's 24th-largest television market, the Ravens say they are 13th in the league in revenues - a ranking that experts attribute to the franchise's success in selling suites and sponsorships, and having a stadium that is just nine years old. The Ravens franchise is valued at $946 million, ninth in the NFL, according to Forbes' annual survey. A sign of the league's success is that a majority of the most highly valued sports franchises are NFL teams.
Like the NFL, Ravens officials are looking for new fans. In one recent move, the team announced the creation of "Purple," a women's club billed as "a community entirely for themselves."
But in the midst of its success, the NFL has faced some challenges. Increasingly, with the NFL Network, NFL.com and team Web sites, the league is trying to control its content in an effort to make even more money.
Comcast and the NFL Network have gone to court over Comcast's decision to move the NFL Network to a more expensive sports tier of digital service on its cable systems. Plus, media organizations have expressed concern about the league's policy limiting them to 45 seconds of online video interviews per day at team sites.
