$90/mo to stream some NFL games? These people have lost their damned minds.

The whole reason sports became popular, and the reason sports leagues are as much of a juggernaut as they are is because fans grew up watching the games for free. This fueled merchandise sales, ticket sales, concessions, etc. If I have to pay to watch games, I simply won't do it and I'll just listen on the radio (I do this sometimes already if I can't find the game somewhere for free) or read about it in the paper. And tomorrow's generation will feel even less attached to it than I am. The only reason I'm a sucker for it is that I grew up with it.

Further showing how this pay-to-watch scheme is hurting their brand and their reach, consider the fact that my sportsbetting drops off by 95% in years when I can't watch the games for free to see the teams I'm betting on. If one of the sportsbooks offered live streaming of a game for anyone who placed a $1 bet, they'd honestly probably at least triple their customer base each week. Surely the bookies should realize how much people not watching the games hurts them. Major sports franchises are becoming less relevant every day.

I mean, sure, you could point your finger at the wild team valuations to say the league is stronger than ever, but that's just monopoly money for rich assholes. It's supply and demand. There's only so many teams out there that you can buy. The worth of the franchise to society is far less than it is to the fools running the show. The downhill slide will be gradual and the league will try to extract every nickel they can in the mean time, but you can already start to see the cracks forming.