THe NFL is moving the Time again...now it's 4:00 P.M. EST on Saturday. Last year the NFL moved it to 3:00 P.M., from the original Noon time that was in place for years. Article: DRAFT NUDGES CLOSER TO PRIME TIME Posted by Mike Florio on March 9, 2009, 9:20 a.m. Last year, the league tinkered with the centerpiece of the offseason experience ? the draft. Moving it from a 12:00 p.m. EDT start to 3:00 p.m. EDT and reducing the time that teams have to make up their minds in the first round from fifteen minutes to ten (and in round two from ten minutes to seven), the goal was to expand the television audience and generally to make the thing more television-friendly. This year, the draft will start another hour later, at 4:00 p.m. EDT. (A reader noticed this somewhere, and NFL spokesman Greg Aiello confirmed it for us.) The draft will continue to involve two rounds on Saturday and the other five on Sunday. We continue to believe that the league should move the first half of round one to Friday night, finish round one and conduct rounds two and three on Saturday, and then wrap it up on Sunday. (And we?ll let you know if/when anyone with any real juice ever gives a damn about what we believe.)
agreed, who wants to spend their entire saturday night watching the draft? I like the writers idea though, about half of round one on friday starting at like 4, concludes at something like 6:30. Then saturday at noon, finish round one, and rattle off rounds 2-3 by 7 or so, and go back to 4-7 on sunday...
I'm not a fan of the later start. I prefer the Noon start time. It's all about ratings and primetime numbers. Plus, it gives the Talking Heads more time for the Pre-Draft shows Saturday afternoon.
If they actually did half of round 1 on friday, the jets would have a whole day to think over their pick (17 is the first of the second half). While this would be pretty unfair, it would also be very helpful.
I liked making a whole afternoon out of the draft. Damn NFL. Soon they will move it to Pay-per-view to make money off of that as well.
Screw splitting the 1st round. I wouldn't mind the 1st round Friday night in primetime, and then the rest over the weekend. BUt don't split the first round up, especially if there's a deep talent pool to make the whole round entertaining.
I liked it when it was at noon. Iced tea and a sandwich and was good to go. Starting at 3 or 4 in the afternoon, might as well start at midnight.
this sux the noon time was perfect.i always did a project inside the house on draft day so i could watch without the wife complaining i was wasting a day.i don't know how to work it with a 4:00 start
yup, its stupid. Even having just the 1st round on a friday night makes no sense. i hate this idea to push it into primetime but business is business, I get it. I loved my noontime draft day... it was a holiday for me.
YES!!! Every year they have the Parkinson's Unity Walk on the same day as the draft. Of course I end up missing a little bit of the draft, but not anymore!
I prefer a few hours earlier but whatever. Now I can stay up late the night before and then sleep in on draft day. Also, my friend told me the draft was only going to be round 1 this year on saturday and the rest on sunday? Is there any truth to this or was it just some bad rumor?
