49ers 2026 Salary Cap Thread, 2026 Cap Room=$46,322,300 as of 1/26/26 on a $305M cap

NFL Sunday Ticket needs to go to pay-per-view like you do with a movie. Most fans would be willing to spend $5.99 or even $9.99 to watch their favorite team each week. That's less than they charge for the total package but they would get a lot more people buying in. There would still be a fair amount that would but the entire package like bars and restaurants and fantasy league players.

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:
NFL Sunday Ticket needs to go to pay-per-view like you do with a movie. Most fans would be willing to spend $5.99 or even $9.99 to watch their favorite team each week. That's less than they charge for the total package but they would get a lot more people buying in. There would still be a fair amount that would but the entire package like bars and restaurants and fantasy league players.

I like this idea

Originally posted by Hysterikal:

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:
NFL Sunday Ticket needs to go to pay-per-view like you do with a movie. Most fans would be willing to spend $5.99 or even $9.99 to watch their favorite team each week. That's less than they charge for the total package but they would get a lot more people buying in. There would still be a fair amount that would but the entire package like bars and restaurants and fantasy league players.

I like this idea

Lol I wouldn't pay extra to watch football, especially if it's year wasted by injury or the team sucks

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:

Originally posted by Hysterikal:

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:
NFL Sunday Ticket needs to go to pay-per-view like you do with a movie. Most fans would be willing to spend $5.99 or even $9.99 to watch their favorite team each week. That's less than they charge for the total package but they would get a lot more people buying in. There would still be a fair amount that would but the entire package like bars and restaurants and fantasy league players.

I like this idea

Lol I wouldn't pay extra to watch football, especially if it's year wasted by injury or the team sucks

It's called Pay-Per-View. So if the team sucks you don't view.

Originally posted by Hysterikal:

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:

Originally posted by Hysterikal:

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:
NFL Sunday Ticket needs to go to pay-per-view like you do with a movie. Most fans would be willing to spend $5.99 or even $9.99 to watch their favorite team each week. That's less than they charge for the total package but they would get a lot more people buying in. There would still be a fair amount that would but the entire package like bars and restaurants and fantasy league players.

I like this idea

Lol I wouldn't pay extra to watch football, especially if it's year wasted by injury or the team sucks

It's called Pay-Per-View. So if the team sucks you don't view.

Hence no money will be made cause I won't be the only one. That's why the Sunday ticket doesn't do team by team. They charge you for all teams because some markets won't pay to watch certain teams

Originally posted by mojave45:
The NFL needs better streaming options, certainly for out of market fans. NFL Sunday ticket prices are absurd when you only care about one team .

Agree

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:
Hence no money will be made cause I won't be the only one. That's why the Sunday ticket doesn't do team by team. They charge you for all teams because some markets won't pay to watch certain teams

Not completely accurate, I would still watch the 9ers play. And if they were worried about single games, they could still do induvudual team single season packages.

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:
Hence no money will be made cause I won't be the only one. That's why the Sunday ticket doesn't do team by team. They charge you for all teams because some markets won't pay to watch certain teams

Every team has die hard fans. You think Lions fans or Browns fans wouldn't pay to see their team. The Niners sucked for years and real fans still watched. Sure there would be more if the team is winning but there is always a hard core. Sunday Ticket has 2 things going against it. One is that it is only on Directv. That cuts it's revenue down right there. The other is that you have to buy the entire package.

If they went pay-per-view they could make it available on all the networks including streaming so they would reach more people. They could also eliminate the endless commercials that slow the action down. They might actually be able to fit a football game into a 3 hour time slot again instead of 3 1/2 hours. More action and fewer commercials might lead to even more viewers.

Originally posted by mojave45:

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:
Hence no money will be made cause I won't be the only one. That's why the Sunday ticket doesn't do team by team. They charge you for all teams because some markets won't pay to watch certain teams

Not completely accurate, I would still watch the 9ers play. And if they were worried about single games, they could still do induvudual team single season packages.

9ers is a big market. so i don't see them getting hit as hard.

People have been exressing for single team packages since the Direct/Sunday ticket's existence. Still hasn't happened.

Some markets still don't invest for their home town teams and it's the reason there's shared revenue. (So teams don't fall in the red)

Originally posted by Midbay:
You nailed it GEEK.

If I may add, the streaming crowd has really moved up in age. With Amazon, Netflix and Apple offering homegrown series that are well-funded and easy to consume, I have certainly seen significant percentages in even the 45-50 crowd who have abandoned cable for streaming in the last few years. Critical mass has been reached. The NFL is still a reasonably good product I think, but delivery options are terrible.

Originally posted by mojave45:
The NFL needs better streaming options, certainly for out of market fans. NFL Sunday ticket prices are absurd when you only care about one team .

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:
NFL Sunday Ticket needs to go to pay-per-view like you do with a movie. Most fans would be willing to spend $5.99 or even $9.99 to watch their favorite team each week. That's less than they charge for the total package but they would get a lot more people buying in. There would still be a fair amount that would but the entire package like bars and restaurants and fantasy league players.

Agree with all three. The erosion of the NFL audience is in the younger crowd, and I think its due to technology and streaming of games, videos, and entertainment. I think CTE is also a factor, I know I used to anticipate all the slobberknocking going on in a typical football game, until it started resulting in CTE consequences. Now I kind of watch it like I do gymnastics- for the appreciation of what humans can do when they push themselves.

I think the NFL is going though a transition period right now and struggling with a business model for the streaming crowd. It still has a great business model for the non-streaming crowd, but as it ages, that crowd (i think) will continue to deminish.

I think its key to survival is to appeal to a broader market, like outside the United States, if its to survive and flourish in the next couple of decades. At some point the big corporate monopolies themselves (abc, CBS, fox, Disney etc...) will cry uncle and refuse to pay more if the viewership isn't going up. When that happens, I think the cap will finally start going down.

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:

Originally posted by mojave45:

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:
Hence no money will be made cause I won't be the only one. That's why the Sunday ticket doesn't do team by team. They charge you for all teams because some markets won't pay to watch certain teams

Not completely accurate, I would still watch the 9ers play. And if they were worried about single games, they could still do induvudual team single season packages.

9ers is a big market. so i don't see them getting hit as hard.

People have been exressing for single team packages since the Direct/Sunday ticket's existence. Still hasn't happened.

Some markets still don't invest for their home town teams and it's the reason there's shared revenue. (So teams don't fall in the red)

Personally I think streaming is the future. You eliminate all the commercials and the game can be compressed into about half its regular run time on a typical station. The bad news is you don't watch it live. So the pay per view idea probably will be one of the models that most fans would prefer. I'm OK with not watching it live most of the time. Most fans aren't though.

Originally posted by Giedi:

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:

Originally posted by mojave45:

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:
Hence no money will be made cause I won't be the only one. That's why the Sunday ticket doesn't do team by team. They charge you for all teams because some markets won't pay to watch certain teams

Not completely accurate, I would still watch the 9ers play. And if they were worried about single games, they could still do induvudual team single season packages.

9ers is a big market. so i don't see them getting hit as hard.

People have been exressing for single team packages since the Direct/Sunday ticket's existence. Still hasn't happened.

Some markets still don't invest for their home town teams and it's the reason there's shared revenue. (So teams don't fall in the red)

Personally I think streaming is the future. You eliminate all the commercials and the game can be compressed into about half its regular run time on a typical station. The bad news is you don't watch it live. So the pay per view idea probably will be one of the models that most fans would prefer. I'm OK with not watching it live most of the time. Most fans aren't though.

They have that already. Watch any past game for a 99$ subscription called NFL Game Pass

Originally posted by CatchMaster80:

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:
Hence no money will be made cause I won't be the only one. That's why the Sunday ticket doesn't do team by team. They charge you for all teams because some markets won't pay to watch certain teams

Every team has die hard fans. You think Lions fans or Browns fans wouldn't pay to see their team. The Niners sucked for years and real fans still watched. Sure there would be more if the team is winning but there is always a hard core. Sunday Ticket has 2 things going against it. One is that it is only on Directv. That cuts it's revenue down right there. The other is that you have to buy the entire package.

If they went pay-per-view they could make it available on all the networks including streaming so they would reach more people. They could also eliminate the endless commercials that slow the action down. They might actually be able to fit a football game into a 3 hour time slot again instead of 3 1/2 hours. More action and fewer commercials might lead to even more viewers.

We as consumers are screwed as 49AllTheTime is right that they can't offer a lower cost option. Offer a lower priced package or pay-per-view and for every current customer who switches to the lower priced option (most customers or just many?) you need to add a number of entirely new customers just to offset the loss. That isn't going to work.

The NFL doesn't want to lower its revenue per viewer, they want to take part of what the cable company currently makes.

Edit: Cable needs the NFL way more than the NFL needs cable

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:

Originally posted by Giedi:

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:

Originally posted by mojave45:

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:
Hence no money will be made cause I won't be the only one. That's why the Sunday ticket doesn't do team by team. They charge you for all teams because some markets won't pay to watch certain teams

Not completely accurate, I would still watch the 9ers play. And if they were worried about single games, they could still do induvudual team single season packages.

9ers is a big market. so i don't see them getting hit as hard.

People have been exressing for single team packages since the Direct/Sunday ticket's existence. Still hasn't happened.

Some markets still don't invest for their home town teams and it's the reason there's shared revenue. (So teams don't fall in the red)

Personally I think streaming is the future. You eliminate all the commercials and the game can be compressed into about half its regular run time on a typical station. The bad news is you don't watch it live. So the pay per view idea probably will be one of the models that most fans would prefer. I'm OK with not watching it live most of the time. Most fans aren't though.

They have that already. Watch any past game for a 99$ subscription called NFL Game Pass

Which is what I have. When I want to watch it live, I just watch it over the air. But most times I just stream it. Others may not have the over-the-air option (like NY85) and just do a pay par view deal.

Originally posted by Midbay:
We as consumers are screwed as 49AllTheTime is right that they can't offer a lower cost option. Offer a lower priced package or pay-per-view and for every current customer who switches to the lower priced option (most customers or just many?) you need to add a number of entirely new customers just to offset the loss. That isn't going to work.

The NFL doesn't want to lower its revenue per viewer, they want to take part of what the cable company currently makes.

Edit: Cable needs the NFL way more than the NFL needs cable

I think they would get a lot of new customers and here's why. If they went to a pay-per-view system they would likely omit a lot of games that are currently shown for free. They currently show Sunday, Sunday night, Monday night and Thursday night games for free. What if they said only Sunday day games would be free and only available in a small geographic region. I'm pretty sure fans would pay. Look what they pay for now. MMA and boxing get $99 for events that could be over in a few minutes. Neither of those is nearly as popular as the NFL They would surely retain their current subscribers and pick up a lot of people that don't have Directv. That's a pretty big audience.

There is one issue with streaming that needs to be fixed. Many of us don't have reliable high speed internet which makes streaming sporting events an issue if the speeds and bandwidth isn't adequate. That's being upgraded around the country but until it's really good all over, streaming is a poor option for some.