Up to four times the number of NFL teams are at risk of having at least one of their games blacked out locally when the season begins next week compared with last year, the latest sign the down economy is taking a toll on even America’s most popular sport, the SportBusiness Journal reports.
According to NFL and team sources, the league showed club owners at their meeting in Chicago on Wednesday a video slide with the names of 10 to 12 teams that may not sell out every game. A game that is not sold out within 72 hours of kickoff cannot be broadcast locally.
Last year, only three teams — Oakland, Detroit and St. Louis — suffered blackouts. Collectively, those three teams had nine games blacked out, just one more than the eight regular-season games the Jacksonville Jaguars alone are expecting to contribute to this year’s total. The Jaguars have already said that in all likelihood no contest in their eight-game home schedule will sell out this season.
The Cincinnati Bengals also could land in the blackout category this year.
The team's 44-game streak of selling out home regular season and playoff games is in jeopardy. As of mid-August, the team had several thousand tickets available for each of several home games, Jeff Berding, Bengals director of sales and public affairs, told the Business Courier in an Aug. 21 article.
The Bengals failed to sell out either of their two home pre-season games in time to avoid blackouts. And plenty of tickets are left for their opening game, Sept. 13 against Denver.
Despite the difficulty that one-third of the league’s teams is having selling out, the NFL is not contemplating amending the blackout rule, which has been in place 36 years.
“There is no consideration being given to amending the blackout policy,” wrote NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, in an e-mail. “The policy is important in supporting the ability of the clubs to sell tickets and keeping our games attractive as television programming with large crowds so we can keep all our games on free TV.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2009/08/31/daily19.htmlI added a few extra paragraphs to include the NFL's position on the policy but there is much more information in the article including teams that traditionally don't have a problem selling out still have many more tickets to sell for opening weekend.
I always hated this policy because I live in Arizona. Prior to the past couple years the Cardinals rarely sold out a home game. In fact when they were in the NFC East the only game that was ever a sellout was the 1 annually home game against the Cowboys. The only other time was the Cardinal's final game against the Chargers in 1998 when they needed a win to make the playoffs which they did win by a last second field goal and they beat the Cowboys in the Wild Card round and got their asses handed to them by the Minnesota Vikings who were one of the best offensive teams in history at the time.
I believe the blackout rules discourage fans attending games. I notice in my '97 media guide for the Cardinals which was recapping an up and down 1996 season where they finished 7-9. After starting 3-4 with their last 2 wins coming at home the Cardinals home game against the Jets only fielded 28,000 fans. Then they were 5-6 and with a big win against the Redskins which was on the road their attendance "spiked" to 35,000 then became 6-6 the home game against the Cowboys was a sellout which is expected but they were defeated in a close game. This isn't coming out as clear as intended but my point is after key wins on the road their was an attendance boost but after wins at home which no one saw on TV their was almost no change still 28,000 fans attending. Don't read anything into the Cowboys attendance figure which was over 70,000 as those were the only games that sold out in non-playoff years which was just one season with 2 sellouts. (Final game vs the Chargers and home game vs the Cowboys)
Anyways my argument is I believe the blackout rules hurts attendance rather then helps it and you better hope the team plays well on the road when fans can watch the game rather then do well at home where only those with tickets see the game.
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