2020-21 season was my first NFL season. Before the season I watched only SUPER BOWL games. I've been fascinated by the great one day match and exciting half time show for more than ten years.
Last year I got an American friend and he loves football very much. I got an inspiration from him and decided to follow the Seattle Seahawks throughout the season. This experience was one of my greatest pleasures of every week. Of course, the biggest reason is the attraction of the American football games and players. At the same time, the NFL has a lot of great mechanisms to entertain fans. Now let me introduce three major points as a rookie watcher.
1. Game frequency
Every team has 17 games in the regular season and games are held once a week. Baseball and soccer football has more games in a week. On the one hand many games being held means that fans have many chances to enjoy games. However, most fans don't have time to watch all games. I think a weekly match is the best frequency to watch all the matches of the season.
2. Gamepass
‘Game Pass’ is a mandatory app for fans. When you watch your team’s game, you can choose the way to watch from 4 types. My favorite is ‘Game in 40’. It’ a condensed version. You can enjoy the game without waiting for the time between plays. Watching the full version requires about 3 or 4 hours, so you can shortcut with the choice of the condensed version. The full version has original good points but it's more important to watch every game before knowing the result. (Smartphone should be face down in order not to look at the notification inadvertently.) So this is a wonderful option for fans.
3. Playoff system
A team belongs to a division which has 4 teams. The first teams in each division advance to the playoffs. The second and third teams also have a chance to make the playoffs, if their win ratio is in the top 3 other than the division champion teams in the conference. This means that 14 in 32 teams can advance to the playoffs.
At first fans expect their teams to become the first team in the division. That would be great, but if you find it difficult to reach the first place in the middle of the season, you can continue to cheer for the playoffs.
These three keys help to get the fans' attention to the league. I think that one of the most important mission for professional sports leagues is making a system for keeping fans' attention. I'm really looking forward to the next season, so I think this system is working perfectly in the NFL.
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