I can, without hesitation, confirm I have never participated in Black Friday shopping. To be fair, my entire professional career has been spent doing a sports show in Alabama and Black Friday does fall the day before the Iron Bowl, a pretty big day in these parts. That said, I’ve never needed to be encouraged to not camp in the parking lot of a Best Buy on Thanksgiving night in order to save $100 on a 70-inch TV. Black Friday store-hopping has never been my thing, now I think Amazon doesn’t want it to be yours.
The home shopping giant is already dipping their toe in sports with Thursday Night NFL games featuring the legendary Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit. Now, as John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal reports, Amazon wants a Black Friday game as soon as 2023. Reports indicate the game could cost Amazon $100 million, pennies for a company that prints the kind of money Amazon does.
The real value, though, might be the time you are spending on your couch. If you are at home watching the NFL on Black Friday, you aren’t at a local retailer buying Christmas gifts. If this is actually their strategy, there is an element of genius in it. If this is their strategy, why stop at one NFL game?
Black Friday has annually been dominated by college football but, by in large, the games lack in importance. Rivalry Saturday has given us much more meaningful games the very next day. That means it would be wide open for the NFL to own.
There is an elephant in the Black Friday football room, though. The NFL already plays two additional Thursday games that week and any games moved to Black Friday would take away from an already smaller than normal Sunday inventory. Amazon can throw around a lot of money but, ultimately, the NFL has to serve FOX and CBS on Sundays.
Also, don’t underestimate the advertising value of Amazon having a Black Friday game with Cyber Monday just around the corner. Men sitting in their easy chair watching football would be prime (see what I did there) advertising targets for an online retailer advertising discounts on great Christmas gifts for their wife. In fact, buying gifts on Cyber Monday is, at least, 25 days ahead of my normal Christmas gift buying schedule.
I know the deals in the stores might be good but would you rather wake up at 2:30 AM, brave the cold and fight the crowds to get good deals or watch football and shop on a phone? I know people that have camped out in retailer parking lots in order to buy an item they could get for $100 more the next weekend. I’d pay you $100 to not do that and watch a football game instead.
Come to think of it, Amazon could own the bowl season. Why not pepper in a few NFL games and buy up some bowl games? If your strategy is to keep people shopping from their home, you have to keep them at home. Speaking from experience, one of the most effective ways of keeping me in the confines of my sports room, is quality football.
Heck, I don’t even know what Christmas gifts to buy my wife anyway (Pro tip, guys: Ask your mother-in-law for ideas. If she likes you, it is a lifesaver. If she doesn’t like you…Godspeed). In a way, Amazon will be saving many husbands the frustration and headache of walking through crowded stores looking for the unicorn of the perfect gift they 100% know their wife will love before settling for an electric toothbrush and pumpkin spice scented candle on clearance from Halloween.
I imagine the breaks during bowl games could simply be Amazon advertising the fact that: “During the second quarter of today’s Meineke Car Care Bowl officially licensed Western Michigan gear can be purchased for 15% off on Amazon when you use the code word “Broncos” at checkout.” When you stop to consider it, it really makes a lot of sense.
Jeff Bezos doesn’t need me to tell him how to run his business, this I believe has been proven. If his company really wants more people staying home rather than shopping in brick-and-mortar stores, he can provide them with as much entertainment as possible. It just so happens the end of the NFL regular season and the college bowl season are right in the peak of the holiday shopping rush.
It could be a match made in online shopping heaven; Amazon, college football and the NFL all teaming up. And what a time to team up, when they are all right in the middle of their prime.
Ryan Brown is a columnist for Barrett Sports Media, and a co-host of the popular sports audio/video show ‘The Next Round’ formerly known as JOX Roundtable, which previously aired on WJOX in Birmingham. You can find him on Twitter @RyanBrownLive and follow his show @NextRoundLive.
You’re absolutely right, but ESPN literally owns 90% of the bowl games, so I don’t see where Amazon would even have a chance to buy the rights to some, especially the ones before Christmas.