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Stadium attendance has declined steadily over the past four years in the NFL despite ever increasing television ratings and last week NFL commissioner Roger Goodell expressed concern that the increasing quality of home televisions could potentially be the cause of this problem.
"One of our biggest challenges in the league is the experience at home. HD is only going to get better."
And he's right. High definition televisions continue to become more affordable, picture quality continues to improve and NFL packages from cable providers allow fans to enjoy multiple games all at once. On top of that, you just don't have the opportunity to see all the replays and angles when actually at the game. You're basically at the mercy of the jumbotron video operator and if an in-stadium replay might potentially hurt the home team, then you're really S.O.L.
If Roger is looking to explain away the drop in NFL attendance over the past four years, however, he should worry less about television picture quality and more about ticket prices and the ridiculous cost of stadium concessions. That s*** is crazy!
But I still wouldn't trade it for the world. For me personally, there's nothing like being surrounded by 71,999 of my closest friends as we all embark on the same journey of fanhood together. I don't care how good your home theater setup is, it will never replace that shared experience or being able to say, "I was there."
So how do you feel? Would you rather be at the game or on your couch?
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