Trump claims kneeling players hurt NFL attendance
by JANE C. TIMM
... The league told NBC News that attendance is down just 1 percent from last year, which NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy noted was a "stellar" year and the third highest in NFL history.
McCarthy added that 98 percent of available tickets to all NFL games have been sold, with ticket sales down 2 percent over last year, in part owing to reduced seating capacity for the Los Angeles teams. Excluding those two teams, ticket sales are down 1 percent, he said ...
"Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, 'Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!'" Trump asked an Alabama crowd in September.
According to polls, a majority of Americans wouldn't love that. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released days after the Alabama rally found that 57 percent of Americans disagreed with Trump's view that players should be fired for protesting, while 68 percent of Americans felt that Trump's comments were inappropriate, according to a survey by USA TODAY/Suffolk University ...
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-claims-kneeling-players-hurt-nfl-attendance-facts-say-otherwise-n824646
= new reply since forum marked as read
Trump is lying http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2017/sep/24/donald-trump/trumps-mostly-false-claim-nfl-ratings-are-way-down/
Our ruling
Trump said "NFL attendance and ratings are WAY DOWN. Boring games yes, but many stay away because they love our country."
Ratings were down 8 percent in 2016, but experts said the drop was modest and in line with general ratings for the sports industry. The NFL remains the most watched televised sports event in the United States.
Ratings in 2017 so far suggest a similar year-on-year drop, but experts say it’s too early to tell, and external factors like Hurricane Irma, which coincided with the season’s first week, may help explain the drop.
NFL game attendance dropped slightly from 2016 to 2017, and rose from 2015 to 2016.
As for political motivation, there’s little evidence to suggest people are boycotting the NFL. Most of the professional sports franchises are dealing with declines in popularity.
We rate this claim Mostly False.
Any idea where he gets them?