Will the NFL ever allow fans to pay for the games they want to watch? Will the NFL allow fans to pay for the one team (like the Los Angeles Rams) they want to watch all season? The NFL Sunday Ticket has been around since 1994, and it’s gone through many changes, but one change that has never happened is allowing fans to only pay for the games/team(s) they want to watch. You either buy the NFL Ticket and everything that comes with it, or you don’t.

Admittedly, Mike Florio can tell you so much more about the lawsuit against the NFL Ticket than I can. I won’t pretend to understand anti-trust laws, and how it took so long for something like this to come to the forefront of National attention. But I arrogantly will speak for all NFL consumers when I ask “What does this lawsuit mean for me?” I think the answer is “We don’t know.”

According to Florio, NFL teams have already agreed to share the wealth of network/streaming profits evenly. That’s in current practice, however one has to wonder if that practice would change if the way we consumed football changed? I am going to go out on a limb and say if the NFL did allow people to literally pay for the team (or let’s take it a step further and say they allow you to pay for individual games) then would teams still want that income to be distributed evenly?

So, my question right now in August 2024, will we ever see the ability to pay for the team we want to watch, and not the whole league? MLB.TV allows their viewers to buy a team’s package, and then for a bit extra you get nearly every game of every team (minus blackout restrictions for example). If MLB.TV does that now, when will the NFL?

It might not be a matter of when, but if. It’s if the NFL were to lose the current lawsuit (which I don’t think they have, but it can be appealed) or lose to another lawsuit down the line. It’s if the NFL feels they could make more money off of selling a team package vs. a league package. It’s if the consumers band together and force the NFL to make a change.

Can you imagine if for one season everyone just didn’t pay for the ticket? T

Until then, consumers will continue to subscribe to Amazon, Peacock, and whatever else to watch each game, and the NFL will continue to rake in the kind of money most businesses only dream of. If it’s not broken, why fix it? If the current system is working for the NFL, why change it?

I wrote all that above about a week ago, and since then there has been a report that ESPN basically suggested the idea that I (and I think many of us) are wanting to see: a cheaper option by paying for the team you want to watch. Guess what the NFL did? They rejected it. So, it would appear the NFL does in fact have no interest at this time in making the NFL Sunday Ticket more affordable or more accessible, and the NFL might be one of the only businesses that can continue to kick it’s consumers and fans in the head while we all say “Thank you NFL, may I have another.”

So, to answer my own question, will there ever be a Rams only (or any team only) Sunday Ticket option? Apparently not as long as the NFL has the final say.