I think that this makes sense. Time was when a team had to sell out to make money, but in the era of TV deals worth billions and billions of dollars ... a sellout vs selling even 50% of the stadium is really a drop in the bucket.
FCC votes to eliminate blackout rules for NFL games | cleveland.com
http://www.cleveland.com/tv-blog/index.s..._nfl_games.htmlCLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Federal Communications Commission took a major step Wednesday toward eliminating the 40-year-old blackout policy for National Football League games. Although the NFL and some broadcasters are vowing to fight the proposed change, the agency's five commissioners voted unanimously in favor of the proposal to get rid of blackouts.
There will be a be a 60-day period for the FCC to field comments on and reaction to the proposed change.
"The sports blackout rules were originally adopted nearly 40 years ago when game ticket sales were the main source of revenue for sports leagues," the FCC said in a statement released Wednesday. "Changes in the sports industry in the last four decades have called into question whether the sports blackout rules remain necessary to ensure the overall availability of sports programming to the general public."
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown has been one of the most vocal leaders in efforts to get the FCC policy changed. Brown released a statement a month ago calling on the FCC to eliminate the Sports Blackout Rule, which was instituted in 1973.
For 40 years, stations have been prevented from broadcasting a local game if it wasn't sold out 72 hours prior to kickoff. The blackout area was established as a 75-mile radius of the team's home stadium.
"This is excellent news for fans and taxpayers across Ohio and across the country," Brown said in a statement released Wednesday by his office. "The FCC did the right thing by voting to eliminate the NFL’s antiquated blackout rule. Even though the NFL is the world's most profitable sports league, it has imposed blackouts at the expense of loyal fans. This is unacceptable at a time when the price of attending games continues to rise and the economy is not yet where it needs to be. Now fans know that their loyalty—and tax money—can't be taken advantage of."
The NFL said in a Wednesday statement that it will "strongly oppose any change in the rule. We are on pace for a historic low number of blackouts since the policy was implemented 40 years ago. While affecting very few games the past decade, the blackout rule is very important in supporting NFL stadiums and the ability of NFL clubs to sell tickets and keeping our games attractive as television programming with large crowds."
The threat of a blackout has hung over several of the 224 NFL games played this season. All but one of the possible blackouts -- the Cincinnati Bengals at the San Diego Chargers on Dec. 1 -- were avoided by teams and businesses purchasing unsold tickets. That's down from 15 games blacked out last season, although there is a chance this week's Buffalo Bills game will be blacked out.
No Cleveland Browns game has been blacked out in the team's expansion era, but there has been the occasional close call. During the 2009 season, for instance, the Browns, their sponsors and televisions partners averted four blackouts by purchasing the tickets needed to reach sellout.
Cincinnati Bengals fans were hit with six home-game blackouts in 2011.
"Blackouts have happened in Cincinnati a number of times, but the fact that it happens anywhere makes it an important issue.," Brown told The Plain Dealer last month. "It's not the most important issue I work on, but it is a question of fairness."
One of the central fairness issues for Brown is how stadiums have been funded for the last 20 years.
"Fundamentally, this is taxpayers building these stadiums for rich athletes and billionaire owners, and then the NFL overcharging so that working-class and middle-class families can't afford to go," Brown said. "And then they say you can't watch it on TV because we didn't get enough people in the stands. There's a question of justice here that that the FCC should address if the NFL won't."
Brown's statement puts the taxpayers' cost for Cincinnati's Paul Brown Stadium at $450 million, while Cleveland is "required to contribute $850,000 a year to the repair budget for FirstEnergy Stadium."
Brown joined U.S. Rep Brian Higgins, a Democrat from the Buffalo area, in writing a July 2012 letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, calling for a revision of the blackout policy. Last year, the NFL relaxed the rule by allowing teams to lift a blackout if at least 85 percent of tickets were sold. The league gave teams the flexibility to set their own blackout benchmark between 85 and 100 percent.
In his November letter to FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, Brown said: "While the effect on those fans is great, the blackout's impact on League finances is small. The current blackout policy does not serve taxpayers, sports fans, or networks. I urge the FCC to act immediately to ensure that sporting events remain accessible to millions of supportive fans."
Some national broadcast organizations are arguing that elimination of the FCC's blackout rules will increase the move of high-profile sports programming to cable channels and satellite services. Also, the proposed changes would not eliminate the possibility of sports leagues negotiating their own 0rivate agreements for blackouts with broadcasters.
"We recognize that elimination of our sports blackout rules alone might not end sports blackouts, but it would leave sports carriage issues to private solutions negotiated by the interest parties in light of current market conditions and eliminate unnecessary regulation,” the FCC said.
![[Linked Image]](http://www.dawgtalkers.net/uploads/small-gator-chomp.gif)
