Can the NFL move the game forward an hour?

[Commish]

So the NFL routinely delays games for lightening. With the forecast - for the moment - holding pretty steady showing  thunderstorms moving through Arrowhead around 11pm, why not move the game forward an hour, and ensure the game is finished without a delay? Make too much sense?

[Giuseppe Tognarelli]

Makes a ton of sense but probably too many logistical hurdles.

[Chandler#81]

No. It’s still 5:20pm, West Coast drive time. It’s all about the viewing audience.

[RiotAct]

you’re the commish, you tell us

[716er]

Looking at Wunderground right this moment I see rain in the forecast but no lightning. 

[SoCal Deek]

46 minutes ago, Chandler#81 said:

No. It’s still 5:20pm, West Coast drive time. It’s all about the viewing audience.

It Sunday night not Monday night. We don’t have ‘drive time’ on Sunday night out here. 😉

[1ManRaid]

I take it you've never done employee scheduling.

 

It's far harder to bump a game up last minute than it is to push it back.  There are at minimum hundreds of job shifts that would have to be rescheduled just to accommodate one hour ahead.  It's not like a delay where you just pay them another hour because they are already there.  On top of the logistical nightmare that would be (keep in mind it is the weekend and people will be hard to get ahold of), there could also be legal issues with last minute rescheduling of shifts.  I don't know about KC but here in Ontario you can't just tell people oh BTW your shift tomorrow is changed.

[Ya Digg?]

The NFL would never move the game forward for a very simple reason….TV. NBC would never go for that and the NFL wouldn’t move a game up that starts in prime time 

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

2 hours ago, Commish said:

So the NFL routinely delays games for lightening. With the forecast - for the moment - holding pretty steady showing  thunderstorms moving through Arrowhead around 11pm, why not move the game forward an hour, and ensure the game is finished without a delay? Make too much sense?

what stinks is the weather is perfect all day, and then starts to turn just as the game starts. 

[MiltonWaddams]

6 minutes ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

what stinks is the weather is perfect all day, and then starts to turn just as the game starts. 

Weather forecasting is scientific, but far from an exact science. It was supposed to pour rain all night in my city. Instead it just started this morning. It might be fine, it might not…. Don’t worry. Josh played pretty darn well in the rain after the int last week.

[WotAGuy]

It would be easier to change the weather. 

[Marv's Neighbor]

Lived in Seattle 86-2003.  For most of that time KIRO TV would delay Monday Night Football for 1 hour.  So TV had a 7PM game, while radio was on at 6PM.  KIRO had decided that they wanted to give people a chance to get home from work. 

 

Eventually the NFL found out about it, and the 1hr delay ended.
 

[Your Brown Eye]

[machine gun kelly]

I assume the question is facetious as the NFL would never ever make that call.

 

Worried about being up too late?  I know, I am too, but I’m not missing this game.

[Cotton Fitzsimmons]

3 hours ago, Commish said:

So the NFL routinely delays games for lightening. With the forecast - for the moment - holding pretty steady showing  thunderstorms moving through Arrowhead around 11pm, why not move the game forward an hour, and ensure the game is finished without a delay? Make too much sense?

What’s good, gents? What’s good? 

Commish, my good fellow… you make an excellent point, per usual! 
 

Let’s go to the powers that be and get clarification…

@Roger Goodell are we moving this game up or what?

[TailgateChef]

1 hour ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

what stinks is the weather is perfect all day, and then starts to turn just as the game starts. 

I bet the rain starts later than forecast.  That always seems to be the case.

[1ManRaid]

1 hour ago, Ya Digg? said:

The NFL would never move the game forward for a very simple reason….TV. NBC would never go for that and the NFL wouldn’t move a game up that starts in prime time 

 

Ya that's the other obvious consideration, but I was rushing to get into a bath and didn't bother addressing it heh.

 

1 hour ago, MiltonWaddams said:

Weather forecasting is scientific, but far from an exact science. It was supposed to pour rain all night in my city. Instead it just started this morning. It might be fine, it might not…. Don’t worry. Josh played pretty darn well in the rain after the int last week.

 

Back when I went to regular nerd conventions, I had to constantly remind people on the forums about the unreliability of weather reports.  People would pull up the 14 day forecast, and then make their plans for things based on the weather that far in advance.

 

1 hour ago, Marv's Neighbor said:

Lived in Seattle 86-2003.  For most of that time KIRO TV would delay Monday Night Football for 1 hour.  So TV had a 7PM game, while radio was on at 6PM.  KIRO had decided that they wanted to give people a chance to get home from work. 

 

Eventually the NFL found out about it, and the 1hr delay ended.
 

 

My dad knew people who actually made a quite a good living for a while in the days before widespread internet betting on European soccer, because of broadcast delays.  I have no idea who signed off on such a stupid system, but betting time cutoffs were based on when the tape delayed games would broadcast on our side of the pond, rather than the actual time the games were played.  Yes, that means you could bet on the games until AFTER the games were over.  They would simply call up friends in Europe, get them to check the locally reported final scores of the recently completed games, and rush to the store to buy bets before the games "started" on TV here.  They did have to spread their bets around the region to avoid being cut off, but this went on for MONTHS before the powers that be realized how much money they were losing.

[Commish]

52 minutes ago, machine gun kelly said:

I assume the question is facetious as the NFL would never ever make that call.

 

Worried about being up too late?  I know, I am too, but I’m not missing this game.

Not a facetious question. I appreciate that the biggest part of the equation is TV revenue, but ... if the forecast is accurate, and they have a hour-long delay in the game, how many viewers/$$ are they going to lose as a result?

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

The other issue is whichever network has the 4:25 game this week it's Fox would have a cow as wouldn't want Sunday Night Football going up against their game and also Fox wouldn't want to lose viewers for the beginning of their game as still watching the end of game on Fox, even if it is Giants V Dallas

[Mr. WEO]

How about just play it today?  What's it like out?