A new Morning Consult survey reports that since Sept. 21, the NFL’s net favorability has dropped from 30 percent to 17 percent. This is the league’s the lowest score since Morning Consult began tracking the NFL’s favorability in May.
Among Trump voters, the drop is even steeper. Before players began kneeling during the national anthem last weekend and Trump tweeted at NFL owners, 11 percent of Trump voters said they had a very unfavorable view of the NFL. Now, that number has surged to 33 percent.
Americans also report growing concern regarding the NFL’s impact on their communities. Since Sept. 13, the number of Americans who believe the league’s communal impact is good has dropped 10 points.
According to the Washington Examiner, these declines in favorability have played out in NFL ticket sales. For online ticket reseller TickPick, sales have fallen 17.9 percent, which is significantly more than their normal Week Three sales each season:
“We have seen a massive decrease in NFL ticket purchases this past week in comparison to years past. Week 3 seems to usually have less ticket orders than week 2, but this year ticket purchases are down more than 7 percent from this time last year,” said TickPick’s Jack Slingland.
It seems that as consumers’ approval of the NFL brand declines, so do their NFL Sunday football-watching habits.