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It’s been a pretty volatile offseason for the NFL. The owners wanted to renegotiate their current collective bargaining agreement, but the players refused. As a result, the owners, since there was an opt out clause in the contract, opted out of the current deal and eventually decertified the NFLPA, essentially forcing a work stoppage, hence the NFL Lockout. Since then, there has been a war of words between the league and players while they are being mediated by the courts.
In the eyes of the public, this has been an argument between millionaires and billionaires over how they should split $9 billion, the television contract, the deal signed by the owners and what the players want a piece of. Fans of the sport have been reeling about both sides. This past Tuesday, as part of the Hot Topics Webinar series, Jim Reynolds dove into SM2, Alterian’s social media monitoring tool, to analyze conversations across the web.
By monitoring the terms “NFL Lockout”, “NFL” and “Lockout” in SM2, Jim found that there have been more than 206,000 mentions about the NFL Lockout since February 1st. The largest volume of mentions across the web was on March 12th, when the NFL locked out the players.
Most of the mentions were from local markets picking up stories about the NFL Lockout. When diving into the resources, many of the stories from these local news affiliates were about the direct impact an NFL Lockout would have to the local economy.
There were major spikes primarily around information before the lockout, seemingly, as fans wanted to learned more about the issues revolving around the lockout.
In the public war of words between the owners and players, the tone was different from both sides. Conversations from the players focused more on individual players and updates around the dispute. Conversations around the owners were more focused on financial topics. Overall, there is general negative sentiment more toward NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, compared to the NFLPA’s executive director, DeMaurice Smith.
On Monday, Judge Susan Richard Nelson, granted injunction to lift the lockout. As the news broke, was a huge spike in mentions across the web. People want their football, they want to hear the latest developments, and they want to talk about football.
By using SM2, Jim found the general fan sentiment is negative, although it has evened out. Fans are still hopeful that something will officially be resolved. As we move closer to official team activities, and if this recent development doesn’t hold, fans will be even more upset.
In regards to the overall volume of conversations about the teams, the Green Bay Packers rank highest, with the Pittsburgh Steelers just behind them. Most teams that were on the upswing or had winning records last season, ranked higher. The only surprise was the Carolina Panthers who rank sixth, despite finishing the regular season 2-14. However, the Panthers do have quite a bit at stake with the number one overall pick in the upcoming NFL Draft.
Both the owners and players have much to lose because neither group has won any sympathy from the fans. By uncovering these social media insights, it will be interesting to see how concerned broadcasters and advertisers react as there has been so much negative sentiment about the league.
For a look at the data Jim uncovered about the NFL Lockout, check out the presentation below:
