The NFL had one helluva year in 2020. It was a season where their storybook QB won his 7th championship all while navigating a once in a century pandemic. What could they possibly offer in 2021 to compare to what they overcame and delivered in 2020?

Well, there are some significant schedule adjustments coupled with continuing to explore where & how they deliver their content which should enhance this year’s NFL iteration. And sports bar owners, operators, and managers should take note.

All of this adds up to a season with some new expectations and hopefully the same great results for sports-themed restaurant operators. We will review those changes and provide some insights on how to leverage them to your advantage in this post.

A Longer NFL Season

Way back in 1966, when the NFL and AFL merged, 24 teams played a 14-game season with two rounds of playoffs. In 1978, the NFL expanded their regular season to 16 games and there it has remained until 2021. Yup, the 2021 season will feature 17 games played over 18 weeks for all 32 NFL teams. To accommodate the extra regular season game one preseason game has been eliminated. However, the season still commences the week after Labor Day.

That’s all well and good, except that it means the end of the season is now also one week later than the timing to which you are accustomed. To put a fine point on it, the Superbowl will be played in Los Angeles on Sunday February 13th.

Now, it’s good news that you will get one more winter week of NFL action during what can be a fairly desolate time for many restaurant operators. Unfortunately, it also bumps up against one of the few highlights in February — Valentine’s Day.

For many sports-themed operators, that might not be a big deal. However, for restaurant operators that see sports as secondary driver in their businesses, this is a bit of a bummer. Prior the closest the Superbowl ever came to VD was a week. That might not seem like much, but the new proximity threatens to tamp down February 14th significance and that isn’t a good thing.

NFL More Accessible Than Ever

Another not so good thing is how much more accessible the NFL has made their product over the past few years. The exclusivity of the NFL Sunday Ticket has been under assault since the advent of Thursday Night Football in 2006, and it has only gotten more so as the NFL has tried out multiple streaming approaches and distribution exercises since then. To that end, the NFL has hosted games on Yahoo and Amazon Prime all while making them available on their own app or platforms offered by partners like Yahoo and Verizon.

In 2021, it will be easier than ever to access NFL games via streaming; that’s bad news for those of us in the business of entertaining fans while they watch games. That means you will have to work even harder to convince guests that yours is the best place to watch games. With 18 weeks of games, this gives you that much more time to gain guest attention and give them a reason to visit you for NFL Sunday and beyond.

Winning with the NFL in 2021

From a marketing perspective, we would encourage you to embrace of the expanded season as a basic aspect of marketing football at your restaurant. Frequency programs are among the most obvious methods to highlight the longer NFL season with guests. Rewarding guests progressively during the season gives them an incentive to visit more often and reinforces why your joint is the place to be for NFL football. From cumulative visit cards to social media check-in awards, you can use the news of a 17-game season to also fuel extra guest traffic.

Sure, this is an old school approach, but it’s still a valid one and will drive traffic if you put in the effort to promote it. That being said, there are other methods like weekly pick ‘em games with prizes and the Play that Pays promotion. The ultimate goal is to use the expanded NFL schedule to get your guests excited and as a call to action for them to visit more often. Let’s be real, no matter what you do, an extra week of the NFL is a good thing in and of itself. The key is to take that goodness and make even better.