The NFL draft looms just around the corner, players, teams and fans are becoming increasingly nervous about the lockout. Just how much chaos the lockout will wreak on the draft remains to be seen, but one thing is clear. No one is happy about the lockout, least of all the fans, who wonder whether a money dispute will shut down the most profitable sports league in the world. What is at risk for NFL fans? Where are they directing their ire – at the teams, at the league or at the players’ union? Which team’s fans are the most up in arms about the lockout? And how are fans grappling with million and billion dollar squabbles in the midst of a continuing recession? Watch Alterian’s Hot Topic analysis of the NFL Lockout!

1. NFL Lockout – Will Fans Stay?
Measuring the Impact of the NFL Labor
Dispute
Presented By: Jim Reynolds
Strategic Account Manager – SM2
@jimmyrey

2. Search Setup In Alterian SM2
• NFL Terms Monitored: “NFL Lockout” & “NFL” AND “Lockout”
• Categories: All NFL Teams, NFL Owners, NFLPA, Roger Goodell &
DeMaurice Smith
• Date Range(s): 2/1/2011 – 5/1/2011
• Locations / Languages: US & English Only

3. Daily Volume – NFL Lockout
Analysis
• Total of 206k social
media mentions
• Largest volume of
conversation when
the NFL locked out
the players (3/12)
• 2nd Largest Spike:
NFL & NFLPA agree
to extend labor
talks (3/3)

4. Share of Voice Total – NFL Lockout
Analysis
• 55% Media Types –
Other – (Mostly
affiliate news sites
covering local teams)
• 28% Microblogs –
(Twitter & Clones)
• 6.5% Message Boards
& Forums
• 6% Blogs – (Major &
Minor sports blogs)
• 5% Social Networks -
(Public Facebook,
Myspace & Others)

5. Share of Voice Trend – NFL Lockout
Analysis
• Major spikes focus primarily around information pre-lockout
• Once NFLPA decertifies, conversations increase dramatically
• Media Types – Other & Twitter follow nearly identical patterns

6. Owners VS. Players
Analysis
• By Far, the players are being discussed more than the owners, 61% to 39%
• Conversations about the players are more focused on individual players and updates
around the dispute
• Conversations around the owners are definitely more focused on financial topics

7. Fan Sentiment

8. NFL Lockout – Tone of Conversation
Analysis
• By far the majority of the sentiment around the lockout is negative
• The positive conversation correlates directly to break throughs in the labor dispute

9. NFL Lockout – Tone of Conversation
Analysis
• 77% + of the total graded posts were negative
• As news is released around updates of labor dispute, spikes occur

10. NFL Lockout Owners – Brand References
Analysis
• 57% of the conversations about the owners are negative
• Recently, conversations have become increasingly negative due to next break in labor
mediation

11. NFL Lockout Owners – Brand References
Analysis
• First major spike in negative opinion focused on owners locking out players
• Most recent spike was focused on recent releases of information from mediation

12. NFL Lockout Players – Brand References
Analysis
• 55% of the conversations around the players are negative
• Conversations follow a very similar pattern to owner chatter

13. NFL Lockout Players – Brand References
Analysis
• Many of the NFLPA press releases and court cases have been received negatively by
audience
• As labor dispute continues, much of the audiences is equally angry at both owners &
players

14. Ranking the Teams

15. Ranking the teams - Volume
20000
18000
16000
14000
12000
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
Analysis
Top 5
1. Packers
2. Steelers
3. Cowboys
4. Giants
5. Jets

16. Ranking the teams – Negative Opinion
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Analysis
Top 5
1. Chiefs
2. Broncos
3. Cowboys
4. Saints
5. Lions

17. Summary
Overall
• Being an NFL fan this was personally an very interesting data set to review. I feel
that my personal view point is identical to many of the fans that commented in this
analysis
• Both the fans and the players have much to lose and based on the data set neither
group is winning the hearts and minds of the fans
• Beyond the fans, I could only image how concerned the broadcasters and
advertisers are currently; with such an high amount of negative opinion currently
associated with the League

18. THANK YOU!
Please contact us with any questions
Jim Reynolds: jim.reynolds@alterian.com
@jimmyrey
UK/EU: +44 (0) 117 970 3200 | US: +1 312 704 1700 | Asia/Pac: +61 (2) 9968 2449
Web: www.alterian.com | Blog: www.engagingtimes.com | Twitter: @Alterian
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