Fans Get Shafted by Blacked out Games, or Do They?

In this down economy, many people have been looking for ways to save a few bucks here and there. For some, that means not going out to the stadium to enjoy fall's greatest spectacle: football.

However, with a decline in ticket sales, teams like Jacksonville, Buffalo, and Cincinnati are expected to have blacked out home games.

For those of you who aren't familiar with blacked out home games, a blacked out game occurs when a team fails to sell out its home game 72 hours prior; the game is then "blacked out," or not shown locally.

Many people, especially with the economy, cry foul for this practice, because not everyone can afford to go to the games. At first, I'm inclined to agree with these folks.

Yet, not requiring a game to be sold out in order to be on television would drastically cut into a team's revenue. In cities like Cincinnati and Buffalo, where the winters are quite harsh, getting out to see a game can be murder.

Even if you are a die-hard fan, why go out in the miserable weather when you can watch the game for free? 

You may be saying at this point, "Yeah, but those teams are losing, if they were winning that wouldn't be a problem."

True, winning does solve a lot of attendance problems, but even when the Bills were winning in the early '90s, they still had trouble selling out games in December because of the weather. 

Outside of the economy, I've heard the argument that baseball doesn't have the same black out rule as football. This is true, as Major League Baseball does not require games to be sold out to be shown locally.

If it's good for the MLB, why isn't it good for the NFL?

Well, the MLB has a 162 game schedule with 81 home games, compared to 16 and eight for the NFL. Since MLB tickets are almost as expensive as a ticket to an NFL game, the revenue can be made up a lot easier.

Also, the individual baseball teams work out their own television deals with local stations to show their games; so again, the MLB teams have an opportunity to make more money this way. 

Now, if the NFL were to allow teams to do this, maybe those unfortunate fans whose teams don't sell out would be able to see their teams play. However, loyal reader, that is an article for another time.

Also, let's not forget that the NFL is a business, and you don't make money by giving the product away for free. If they did show the games locally without selling the games out, they would have to make that money up somewhere.

Maybe in merchandise sales, longer timeouts after a change of possession, or higher tickets and concession prices, whatever the case may be, and this wouldn't just be for the teams that are not selling out. 

If Jerry Jones sees that a team like Buffalo could sell a T.O replica jersey for $125, then he'll do the same, even though he's selling out his new stadium. 

I do sympathize with the fans who can't see their teams play every week. The black out system sucks, but it's a necessary evil, because without those ticket sales there might not be a product at all.

So here's hoping that the teams in those danger areas sell out at least half their games, so the fans don't miss too much football.