The Green Bay Packers were among the eight NFL teams to vote against Thursday night flex scheduling, according to Peter King of NBC Sports.
The NFL needed 24 votes to pass the change, which would make early slot Sunday games in Weeks 14-17 eligible to be moved to Thursday night – creating better matchups and likely increasing the value and attractiveness of the new Amazon television package. At the NFL Annual Meetings last month, only 22 teams voted affirmatively.
Team president and CEO Mark Murphy explained the team’s worries about the change in his monthly Q&A post at Packers.com. The big issue: Fans having to drastically change travel plans for flexed games.
“The league has allowed flexible scheduling for Sunday Night Football for many years now, but moving a game from Sunday afternoon to Sunday night is a lot different than moving a Sunday game up to Thursday for the reasons you note,” Murphy wrote. “Moreover, we will allow flexing for Monday night games this year for the first time, so we don’t know what issues may arise from this change. I believe that we do need to consider the fans in the stands, and how this would affect them – especially since so many of our fans travel a good distance to come to Lambeau Field and stay in hotels.”
Example: A fan of Team A makes long-distance travel arrangements months in advance of a game scheduled for the early Sunday timeslot. If the game was later moved to Thursday night, the fan would have to change flights, work schedules and hotels to accommodate the date and time change of the game, creating a difficult logistical challenge even if the flex is announced weeks before.
This example would be exacerbated for a team like the Packers, who have fans all over the country and often attract hordes of fans from opponents for every home game.
Is this change fair to money-paying fans? The Packers believe the answer is no.
However, King believes the NFL could still get the vote passed and in place by the league meetings next month.
