As the NFL searches for ways to make the in-stadium experience better than staying at home, the first challenge is to make showing up at least as good as not.
And so, as Michael McCarthy of USA Today recently reported, the NFL has ordered all teams to display real-time fantasy stats at all home games in 2011.
The mandate commenced on Thursday night, during the Saints-Packers game. (Here’s hoping that no one reasonably expected the numbers for the other players in the other games to be anything other than zero.)
“We know we have to continue to do more to keep fans coming to our games,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told Michael McCarthy. “We’re looking at ways to further replicate the at-home experience in the stadium.”
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has said that he spent big on Cowboys Stadium to create a place that fans felt compelled to visit, which in turn would make the games more compelling to watch on TV. Awe-inspiring stadiums will be one of the keys to maximizing attendance at a time when maximized technology for minimized prices has made watching football on TV better -- and cheaper -- than ever.
Especially when factoring in the cost of food and beer at a concession stand versus the supermarket.