View Full Version : Amazon is lobbying the NFL for a game on Black Friday


TMC
02-21-2022, 06:01 PM
https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2022/02/21/Upfront/NFL-schedule.aspx

"Amazon has made a little bit of noise about scheduling a game on Black Friday," reports Sports Business Journal's John Ourand. "A Black Friday game would complement Amazon’s e-commerce business, and it would be similar to its Premier League strategy in Britain, where it carries all of the league’s Boxing Day games. But this store may be closed; the NFL has been lukewarm to this idea."

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Even though Christmas Day is on a Sunday, NFL is moving its afternoon games to the afternoon of Christmas Eve Saturday (https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2022/02/21/Upfront/NFL-schedule.aspx): There will still be a Sunday Night Football game on the night of Dec. 25, but it appears the NFL is moving its games out of the way of the NBA's signature Christmas Day games. "This is an important story to watch, since Christmas Day has long been associated with the NBA, and the NFL took a big chunk out of that league’s audience in 2021," says the Sports Business Journal's John Ourand. "It will be hard for the NFL to ignore those huge audiences."
For Week 1 of the 2023 season, the NFL is planning a Monday Night Football double header with one game on ABC and one on ESPN (https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2022/02/21/Upfront/NFL-schedule.aspx)

TMC
04-25-2022, 08:16 PM
Amazon is willing to pay the NFL between $70 million and $100 million for a Black Friday game (https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2022/04/25/nfl-mock-draft-fmia-peter-king-2022/?)

NBC Sports' Peter King reports the NFL quietly passed a resolution allowing teams to play a second short-week game (each team can only play on a Thursday after a Sunday once per season). The rule allows the NFL to schedule a game on Black Friday. "For Amazon Prime—a new partner the NFL very much wants to help succeed because of the deep-pocketed ways they’ve shown as the first major player in streaming a series of games nationally—a Black Friday game would be huge," says King. "What better marketing tool for Amazon Prime than to put a game in the wheelhouse of their consumers, on the busiest shopping day of the year? With so many shoppers eschewing brick-and-mortar stores in favor of shopping from the couch, imagine the marketing heft when commercials can be targeted at stay-at-home shoppers. All sounds great … except the deal’s not done yet. It’s not as easy as it seems. There’s some opposition in the league about playing a game on Nov. 25, and there’s a decent chance the NFL will put off a Black Friday game on Amazon Prime till 2023. But it’s going to happen, I’m told, by next year at the latest."

TMC
05-02-2022, 08:08 PM
NFL reportedly opts not to schedule a Black Friday game on Amazon this year, but may have one next year (https://twitter.com/peter_king/status/1521167430508331010)

NBC Sports' Peter King reports there were a lot of issues with having a Black Friday game in 2022. "I'm hearing that the NFL will not play a Black Friday game on Amazon Prime, or anywhere, in 2022," King tweeted. "Lots of issues. A 7th national game in one weekend was tough, as was the fact that it would been wedged right after the USA-England World Cup game. Look for a 2023 Black Friday game."