In June of 2019, we had just moved to a house in the wilderness outside of Eugene, Oregon. The only internet we could access was through a cell tower. With our service through AT&T came a benefit through the fairly newly acquired DirecTV that we could get a TV package that included NFL Sunday Ticket for only $35 per month.

It was wonderful to be able to watch our hometown Colts team from the comfort of our home in Oregon. Obviously much has changed in the world since then and one of those is that Sunday Ticket now has a new exclusive provider through YouTubeTV. As many cable cutters, we were excited about the possibilities of the package going to a streaming platform. There have been amazing partnerships for the league and users with Peacock and Prime.

Unfortunately the service went up in price and partnered with a service at the top price of the industry for its service. As a result, Sunday Ticket has gone against the idea of streaming to keep things fluid, nimble and more geared toward a customized user experience. In particular, one of the initial thoughts is that there could be a single team package for those of us loyalists who have an out of market team they follow.

Alas, the grab for money was too strong. The league and YouTubeTV hold the package for the top dollar of $449 for the season of 272 games. This does not include primetime or network games or playoffs. But it does offer the functionality of multi view in a “create your own Redzone” feel with the ability to watch up to four games at once.

The other current option to be able to consume out of market league games is through the NFL+ service which is $14.99 per month for the premium package which is a total of $75 for the months of the season. The drawback is that it is largely built for mobile only, as the in market games, that do include primetime games, are only available on that platform. The main drawback for out of market is that it cannot be streamed live.

This leads to other benefits such as immediate full game replay (only with the premium package) and condensed game within a few hours. It also includes the all-22 versions and condensed and full game replays of all league games, even dating back several years ago. The TV stream you can benefit from on Sunday is Redzone and any day of the NFL Network.

In a recent poll we conducted on X, 55% of people chose the “no thank you” option on the Sunday Ticket option, while the next highest response was “don’t have it, but want it.” People cited the reason for both of these as the price. There was one insightful response mentioning that military members are almost always away from their home team and there is no military discount, even when the league promotes its support of the military in November with its Salute To Service.

All of this to lead up to a break down of our proposal of the league and YouTubeTV providing a service that should have been offered from the beginning. Of the four major sports, both the NBA and MLB offer a single team out of market stream separate from their league wide package. The NBA’s goes for $89.99 covering 82 games and five and a half months while the MLB covers 162 games over six months for $129.99.

So let’s break this Sunday Ticket cost down with the highest cost in mind. $449 for 272 games, but at least 3 of those games per week, let alone the nationally televised games are not included. So that is 218 games which would bring the cost per game to $2.06. But you couldn’t possibly watch all of those games, but you could watch up to 4 of them at the same time with multi view for both the early and late windows. So let’s say a generous average of 8 games per week for a total of $3.56 per game. But then, in the middle of offering this on a streaming platform, let’s assume the league thinks one would watch one game each in the early and late windows. That would bring a total of watching those 36 games that season to $12.47 per game.

While this seems affordable when broken down, the daunting overall financial investment of $449, even if divided into four payments of $112.25 could be excruciating to a fan of one team who would like to only watch that one team’s game for its 17 game schedule. But even at the highest price per game cost, a 17 game schedule should only cost $211.99. But this again seems far fetched, so we would contend that the single team, out of market package should be priced at $99.99 per year.

That price is still higher than the multi view price per game and more expensive than the NBA single team package for more games and a longer period of time. At this price point, YouTubeTV would probably see an increase in their regular package add on sales and the league could even offer a bundle with in season NFL+ premium for $150. This would allow fans to experience their team’s game on Sunday and still have access to all the other games in full or condensed versions, the league network and Redzone.

Until this option is provided, we will be content paying for the league streaming service, saving money, having more after game options while mostly not watching our team live. In another six years, the YouTubeTV contract is up and the new CBA is a year from renegotiation. At that point, an 18 game schedule may already be a reality and let’s hope a single out of market package is closer than that.

More on league expansion and realignment coming on the podcast soon.