When Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban asked whether the NFL was reaching the saturation point and running the risk of people getting sick of it, a lot of football fans dismissed it. But the NFL office didn’t.
Executive Vice President of NFL Media Brian Rolapp told the Hollywood Reporter that Cuban was asking the same questions that the NFL itself asks when it takes steps like playing games in London, expanding the playoffs or putting Thursday Night Football on network television.
“Cuban was asking the right question, and it’s a question we ask ourselves all the time,” Rolapp said. “But what we haven’t seen yet is dilution [of the brand]. If we’ve hit the saturation period, we certainly haven’t seen it. But it’s something we keep an eye on.”
The NFL has added a third game in London, added CBS as a Thursday Night Football TV partner in addition to televising the games on NFL Network and is expected to add two more playoff games starting with the 2015 season. But Rolapp says there’s no evidence that the fans think they’re getting too much of a good thing.
“It’s a legitimate question,” Rolapp said. “But we measure our business very simply: Is consumption going up, and is the economic value going up?”
As long as consumption goes up and economic value goes up, the NFL sees no reason to change course.