The NBA has high ratings every year. Why is it not the most profitable league?

On September 4th, Beijing time, the first round of the NBA playoffs has all ended, but a news reported by Fox Sports reporter Clay Travis is likely to make NBA President Xiao Hua lose sleep. According to statistics, the average audience in the first round of NBA this season was only 6.5438+0.94 million, down 27% year-on-year and down 40% from two years ago. It has created a historical low in the first round of NBA ratings in 1 1 years.

Why doesn't anyone want to watch the ball after the NBA rematch? Of course, there are reasons for the epidemic and the absence of top stars due to injury (such as Durant and Curry), but the main problem is probably the NBA itself. From Xiaohua to referees to players, there are too many places for NBA fans to vomit.

Since Xiao Hua took office, he has been pushing forward the reform of NBA. If the NBA in the Stern era encouraged iron and blood defense and confrontation (even the strong teams and weak teams at that time, such as the Suns and Warriors, also had tough guys who were good at defense). In Xiaohua's NBA, it is to encourage offense, and the whistle is getting more and more hairy. In this way, the player's data seems to be more "explosive" than before, but for such a game without intensity and confrontation, fans are increasingly not buying it.

The simplest example is the first round match between Nuggets and Jazz. Mitchell and Murray scored 50+ twice in the series, becoming the fourth and fifth players to score 50+ twice in a single-round series after Chamberlain, Jordan and Iverson. Mitchell surpassed James in seven series and became the tallest player in the first series of NBA. At the same time, he and Murray also became the highest-scoring series opponents in NBA history, which made Havrick and West's record plummet.

But compared with their predecessors, there is still a big gap in their actual strength. Their high scores are also based on the undefended atmosphere in the current league. When the two teams strengthened their defense in the seventh inning, Mitchell and Murray were both beaten back to their original shapes. Fans may enjoy watching one or two games without defensive scores, but after a long time, especially in the playoffs, such fierce games will naturally arouse fans' resentment and lead to a decline in ratings.

On the other hand, NBA referees usually like to make free throws at will, and they also like to stand up at the last moment of the game to grab the play, which makes people speechless. Fans prefer to give the game to the players at the last minute rather than being controlled by the referee's whistle. But Xiaohua did the opposite. How can he not bore his fans?

Finally, what NBA players did after the semi-final really caused great controversy and doubt. Before the official semi-final, many NBA players talked loudly about the environment of parks and hotels, completely ignoring the current epidemic situation and attracting criticism from outside.

After the semi-final, the Bucks were full of twists and turns in the Magic playoffs, which caused controversy again. What makes people speechless is that this strike is anticlimactic and the punishment for the strikers is not enough, which makes this strike drama a farce and naturally increases the resentment of outside fans.

"Some players performed a farce for their own selfish desires, so unprofessional behavior was banned for two years as early as 13 years ago. Times have changed. More sober, but closer to bankruptcy. " This is a mockery of the social media strike in NBA, but from the general manager of a team to some players, they don't think about how to play well all day and want to be politicians, which naturally makes it difficult for fans to buy it.

Today's NBA is still the top basketball league in the world, but the declining ratings have sounded the alarm for Xiao Hua. If he doesn't take measures, the influence of the NBA will get worse and worse in the future, resulting in fewer and fewer people watching the ball.