NFL Blackouts a reality?
In preparation of an upcoming trip to Jacksonville, I visited the website for their local newspaper, The Florida Times-Union, to get a feel for the city. I feel that you can learn a lot about a city from reading its newspapers, especially the sports section. With only one professional sports franchise, I expected much of the jock talk to center on the Jacksonville Jaguars training camp, but wasn’t too surprised to find that the top story involved Univeristy of Florida’s decision to make Urban Meyer the highest paid coach in the NCAA.
As I scrolled down through the sports section, I came across a few Jaguars related stories, but nothing like the coverage the Dallas media gives our beloved Cowboys. The title of one column really caught my eye, “Jaguars can’t avoid 2009 blackouts,” by Gene Frenette. It had been a good 20 years since I had heard the term “blackout” used in conjunction with a NFL game. Though my Cowboys have not been immune from “blackouts” in their history, it’s been a couple of decades since they were a reality in “Big D.” I never considered that in some markets, especially in today’s economic climate, “blackouts” are still a reality and in some case, like Detroit and apparently Jacksonville, they are the norm.
Needless to say, I was shocked to read Mr. Frenette’s column. Based on his work, it appears that not just one or two games, but all Jacksonville home games are in danger of being “blacked out” for the 2009 season. While it might be humane act of kindness for the NFL to prevent Detroit Lions’ fans from witnessing their team play, the Jaguars field a fairly competitive team in one of the most exciting conferences in the NFL. To think that their team cannot sell tickets baffles me, almost as much as Jacksonville being awarded a NFL franchise baffled me in 1993.
I wonder if this says more about Jacksonville being a small market team (they’ve consistently polled near the bottom in popularity surveys conducted about the NFL) or the current state of our economy? Will other NFL franchises struggle to sell out games and face “blackout” restrictions as well? Is the NFL “blackout” policay fair?
I’m interested to hear what you guys have to say about these or any other “blackout” related issues.
I ran across this post while trying to find out the rules regarding the NFL’s policy on blackouts. I was trying to find out the rules because I am worried the blackout could be coming back to Dallas much sooner than any of us expected. I recently heard Stephen Jones saying they were going to put over 100,000 people in Jerryworld for the 2011 Superbowl. So, what is the number of tickets Jerry has to sell for a Cowboy game to “officially” be considered a sellout? I, for one, sure hope it is not 100,000 plus…i don’t want to have to go to Waco to watch games, nor do i want to pony up $200 to go see the game live….
Hey Mark, I’ll try and get the specifics for you on the Cowboys new stadium, but it goes something like this.
The NFL bases their blackout numbers off the “normal configuration” of the stadium, which is a never generated by the Cowboys. While the new stadium can hold close to 100,000, the normal configuration will hold about 70K–I think. I’m pretty sure that Jerry and Stephen put a lot of thought into that number and wouldn’t have chosen a number they couldn’t meet on a consistent basis. In other words, I wouldn’t worry about blackouts in Dallas anytime soon.
Last week, Jerry announced plans for “party tickets”, which run about $29 and get you in to the “Standing room only section” and allow you to mingle about the stadium, going to the different lounges and bars and taking in the game. These tickets should help count against the blackouts. Also, in the lean years, Jerry was great in getting corporate sponsors to buy out tickets to prevent blackouts.
Again, I’ll try to get some more concrete numbers for you.