The NFL Blackout Loophole?

Depending on which NFL city you live in, you’ve probably been threatened with a blackout before.  People in Cincinnati were threatened with a blackout last year before Chad Ochocinco and Motorola bought the remaining tickets, while Detroit, Oakland, and Jacksonville had multiple home games blacked out due to lack of ticket sales.

To review: A game is blacked out in the local market if the game is not sold out within 72 hours before game time.

The NFL will usually give teams leeway, in the form of an extension, if it is requested (numerous extensions were granted last year), and they even were lenient on the enforcement of the rule last year, in order to try and accommodate fans hoping to watch their teams on television:

The league announced Thursday that home fans will be able to view the delayed broadcasts on NFL.com for 72 hours, except during “Monday Night Football.”

A game is not aired in the home market if it does not sell out 72 hours in advance.

“We understand that the economy is limiting some families and corporations from buying as many game tickets as they had previously,” commissioner Roger Goodell said in a release. (via Sports Business Digest)

It turns out, there may have been an even easier way to allow fans to see the games…just pay the visiting team.

“I was not aware of this until this week, frankly, and several prominent, experienced people I know in pro football were not aware of it either,” Best said.  “But, sure enough, it turns out a team can cut a check for 34 percent of the face value of unsold tickets to cover the visiting team share and, presto, problem solved!” — Neil Best of Newsday (via ProFootballTalk)

And sure, its certainly not feasible for every team to utilize this 34% rule (remember some of those Jacksonville games were 20,000 seats short of a sell out), but doesn’t it sort of seem like the owners didn’t necessarily have the fans, and local television station’s, best interests at heart during some of the blackouts we saw in 2009?

Right or wrong, this probably makes it a lot harder for the owners to get any sort of sympathy from the fans when all of that “owners vs. players” CBA talk comes up, no?

…assuming the rule is true, of course.

Tags: blackout, Football, NFL, owners

Category: Football