NFL says it gave the Chiefs the option of not playing a game on Christmas Day
You won’t find a better tailgating environment than the Truman Sports Complex before the Chiefs play, but there may be one game in the 2023 season where fans don’t come out in full force.
The Chiefs play the Raiders in a noon kickoff on Christmas Day at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Some Chiefs fans were not pleased about a game being scheduled on Christmas Day, but the NFL said the team was given a choice of whether or not to play that day.
“We reached out to all the clubs in terms of who was willing to host, who thought they might have an issue, whether it’s in terms of staffing or fan reaction or attendance,” Mike North, the NFL’s vice president for broadcast planning, said earlier this month in a conference call.
“So we reached out to every team in the league, they all had an opportunity to say, ‘Yep, we’d be happy to do it’ or ‘Please God, no, it’s not going to work in our market.’ And so that’s how we ended up kind of figuring out where we could play the games and then trying to thread that needle and get the right games onto that day.”
The Chiefs-Raiders game is the first of the NFL’s Christmas Day tripleheader. It’ll be followed by Eagles-Giants and 49ers-Ravens.
The success of last year’s Christmas tripleheader convinced the NFL to do it again this year. Ratings for the three holiday games in 2022 averaged 22.9 million viewers, per Sports Pro Media.
“The Christmas tripleheader last year proved something to us all, and that is that our fans are eager to watch NFL football on Christmas,” North said. “Obviously the Green Bay-Miami game was compelling. It had significant playoff implications. But then we got two games in the afternoon and the evening that maybe weren’t as big and as compelling as we had hoped. ...
“You can make a case that maybe the most impressive ratings performance, viewership performance by an NFL game last season was that Denver-Rams game on Christmas in the afternoon. Two teams that weren’t having the season that they had hoped for. It was not a competitive game, and still delivered 22, 23 million viewers.”
North said once it knew what teams were willing to play on Christmas, it was a matter of trying to find compelling matchups.
Also, the chance of cold weather and snow appeals to the NFL. Remember that polar vortex that hit Kansas City before Christmas last year?
“A Chiefs game in Kansas City maybe get a little weather, play one of their division opponents, good start to the day,” North said. “Eagles-Giants, you know that game has to have playoff implications down the stretch.
“And then finish it if not with a division game at least two teams that we think are going to be relevant down the stretch, again solidified more in our minds to schedule a Baltimore-San Fran game there on Monday night on Christmas.”
This story was originally published May 22, 2023 at 11:44 AM.
