ICE Getting Out of the NFL Business?

[proxio]

Roger Goodell (National Football League) (left), Jessica Lowndes (The ICE Phederation) (right)


East York Secondary Academy - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Wednesday October 23, 2013 @ 1:23 PM/ET.


BIG COMPETITION SURPRISE NEXT SEASON?

TORONTO, ON - One last thing Jessica Lowndes told reporters that they should not be surprised if ICE steps away from the NFL completely next season and looks to use their WFL Football league to compete head-to-head against it on Sunday afternoons and Sunday nights. This is obviously a smart move for ICE because by airing their own leagues they don't have to pay for them and they can sell WFL games to potential partners like SBC who has struggled without the afternoon packages this season against ICE and ROD on Sunday afternoons. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell says he's really worried about losing ICE as a TV partner as he feels like ICE has the biggest platform in NITRO and the most power. This is obviously going to be a power move for Jessica Lowndes and could cause all kinds of problems next season for the NFL as they have already been losing to the WFL on Thursday nights this season.

She told people that if she can find a TV partner in either SBC, TEN, or RTN to takeover the afternoon rights as early as this season she will do it moving WFL games over to Sunday afternoons and opening up primetime games for Winter Athletic Games Time Trials over on PDN. Jessica Lowndes says that as soon as new networks come in to NITRO that's when she was getting out the NFL business and expanding the WFL's presence to replace NFL as the major go to option for professional football on NITRO Television. Since this is a free deal ICE doesn't have to commit to airing games if they don't want to. ICE feels like the NFL needs them more than the NFL needing them. With pilot season approaching ICE could get out of the business then around November 10th or 17th when the Time Trials starts.

Some people feel like ICE is making a risky move but sports analyst Charles Barkley says that ICE already has experience with this as they did it back in their first season back in 2010 having the first Winter Athletic Games compete against the Olympics and beating the Olympics in the ratings and that can happen this year as well as ICE has found something more powerful than the Olympics. With baseball declining, ICE left their partnership with Major League Baseball as they will attempt to get away from all professional American sports leagues and design their own. They have already established plans for a new co-ed softball league to start in the spring. There's plans in the next couple of seasons to make their own hockey and basketball leagues. These ventures have grown quickly for ICE so they feel like there's no risk here.

The league is expected to expand from 16 teams to 28 teams next season potentially mainly in NFL cities which could cause even more problems.

ICE's Wide World of Sports is still committing to this weekend's games and potentially next weekend's as well.

We will have more news as this new developing story of ICE breaking their partnership with the NFL mid-season as more updates come ahead.

[BlueLick]

Jessica Lowndes (CEO): If we find another network to take over that afternoon package by November 10th then we will start airing WFL games on Sunday afternoons that weekend. As for this coming Monday we are going to air a Nancy "Jet" Kimmell practice run special and Victoria Justice Teen Fighter fight then the following Monday we'll launch WFL Monday Night Football.

[beermoney]

Wow this is a shocker I did not expect ICE to be pulling out of the NFL business but this makes everything more interesting now as WFL Football has been a success this season and could cause problems for the NFL, what ICE does by creating their own sports organizations is one of the smartest things I've seen done in NITRO

[rodshooter]

Ashley Greene (CEO): We are interested in getting some WFL games, depending on how the ratings go we may pull out of the NFL as well next season. We'll stick with the NFL this season though.

[riderstrongforever]

Jennifer Aniston (CEO): We are also interested in getting some WFL Games: SBC will continue with Sunday Night Football next season as it sometimes gives SBC some great ratings but we do need some WFL games like in the daytime to help our Sunday Daytime Lineup.

[proxio]

If you guys are interested then definitely purchase the rights when ICE sells some games during pilot season.

ROD and SBC your guys situations are different so I'll go over what you guys might should go after. ICE is expanding the league to 32 teams next season so that means that there will be a lot more games and probably more packages to choose from as well.

SBC in your case you should definitely stick with the NFL and try to keep the Sunday night package next season but your daytime lineup hasn't been able to be competitive against the games so WFL games would definitely help out your guys Sunday afternoons which makes that deal perfect. There should be a chance to air primetime games on TSN as well.

ROD since you think you will have your second network WCN ready by way before the next season starts then this gives you an option to choose what network airs NFL and WFL games. I haven't talked to SBC about this yet but I have talked to ICE about it already that they'll be able to run their second networks in daytime. Whichever one you feel is more valuable that's the one you air on ROD on Sunday afternoons. The other option is airing primetime games on either ROD or WCN as well for either league. You could either challenge SBC for the Sunday Night Football rights or gain complete control over a full Monday or Thursday Night Football schedule for the NFL or get primetime games to run from WFL.

There's some options here but you gotta think long and hard about it for next season because there is a ton of money involved in order to get the rights for either league. I'm going to use this season to see which one is the more valuable for NITRO and the one that is more successful will be more expensive.

For this season definitely grab whatever you can grab.

[rodshooter]

Proxio I appreciate the advice we will definitely use this season to see where were at with both leagues. The good news is that we're starting WCN on Monday so we'll have more scheduling space in primetime and it's good to know that we'll be able to use our second networks in daytime. For this season I'll talk to ICE about how we'll plan on airing games this season.