Quote :

"Jaguars anticipate all 10 home games blacked out in 2009 The Jacksonville Jaguars announced they're anticipating that all 10 of their home games this season will be blacked out on local TV because of insufficient ticket sales, the Florida Times-Union reports. NFL rules prohibit home games being broadcast in the team's local market if the stadium doesn't sell out 72 hours prior. The Jaguars, whose stadium has a game-day capacity of 67,164, have never failed to sell out at least one game in their 15-year history. "We certainly appreciate those that can make it, because when they’re here, they’re loud and very supportive," coach Jack Del Rio told the Times-Union. "I know it’s hard times. We’re going to entertain the ones that get here and put on a good show." DE Reggie Hayward told the paper he appreciates that the sour economy has made tickets a luxury for many people. "You’ve got to understand what the economy is and how it’s difficult for people to get out and spend that extra money on football and things of leisure," he told the Times-Union. "They have to provide for their families and put food on the table. If they can't support us in the stadium, at least support us in the heart and out here on the streets by wearing and supporting what we do. I can't tell anybody it's more important to come see a football game than to go to work and try to make ends meet." "

Do I hear a nomination for worst sports city?

http://blogs.usatoday.com/thehuddle/2009/08/jaguars-anticipate-all-10-home-games-blacked-out-in-2009.html

8/21/2009 3:58:10 PM

if they win the first few the bandwagoners might scoop up the rest of the tickets

8/21/2009 4:00:02 PM

The best part of this is that they have a Tarp over 10,000 seats and still can't sell out the rest

Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2012 Los Angeles Jaguars !

[Edited on August 21, 2009 at 4:06 PM. Reason : x]

8/21/2009 4:04:41 PM

Atlanta is hands down the worst sports city

8/21/2009 4:47:28 PM

im not criticsizing


but why on earth is that a rule? does the League pay for the broadcasting or something?

i could understand if it was national broadcasts but the local market?

Quote :

" If they can't support us in the stadium, at least support us in the heart and out here on the streets by wearing and supporting what we do."

for real

[Edited on August 21, 2009 at 5:09 PM. Reason : f]

8/21/2009 5:09:04 PM

If the fans arent paying to come see the team in person, they don't deserve to see them on TV


is their way of thinking

8/21/2009 5:10:32 PM

i feel you i just hope theres a better reason than that

a better reason than "whippin the dog"

8/21/2009 5:11:32 PM

I think its worth it to the team to buy out the remaining seats at least for a couple of games....you don't want to take a PR hit that would come with having all your games blacked out.

8/21/2009 5:11:47 PM

local tv stations buy out the remaining lot on several occasions so they can show the game instead of informercials during that slot

The chargers affiliates have had to do this several times

8/21/2009 5:13:02 PM

Why the holy fuck do blackouts exist?

8/21/2009 5:14:41 PM

Its owners protecting their investments

I mean if you're sold out, then you have no problem letting the rest of the town watch your game, since you've squeezed every dollar out of them that you can

But if you have seats left, then you don't want the rest of the fans sitting at home watching the game for free when they could be putting money into your pockets

Sucks for the fan, but its not going to change anytime soon

8/21/2009 5:17:52 PM

Quote :

"The Jaguars, whose stadium has a game-day capacity of 67,164, have never failed to sell out at least one game in their 15-year history."

wait, what? if they've never failed to sell out, that means they always sell out. right?

why is that such a problem for every game this year?

8/21/2009 5:20:12 PM

so the jaguars are moving to LA soon?

8/21/2009 5:20:38 PM

Never failed to sell out at least 1 of their 10 games in any given season

8/21/2009 5:21:02 PM

Yeah, this used to happen in San Diego and in Arizona all the time.

San Diego: There's too much other shit to do here than watch a shitty pre-LT and Rivers team

Arizona: Used to have aluminum seats at ASU stadium. They've sucked balls until recently and it's still 100+ in AZ in September, haha

Now Jacksonville: Probably won't be the only team.

8/21/2009 5:25:08 PM

Quote :

"Its owners protecting their investments I mean if you're sold out, then you have no problem letting the rest of the town watch your game, since you've squeezed every dollar out of them that you can But if you have seats left, then you don't want the rest of the fans sitting at home watching the game for free when they could be putting money into your pockets Sucks for the fan, but its not going to change anytime soon "

good post makes perfect sense, by why would the NFL regulate this? that should be up to the franchise owners right

8/21/2009 5:29:21 PM

The TV deals are league wide, not team-by-team

This is why CBS and FOX sometimes buy up the remaining tickets, as to not fuck themselves out of advertising dollars, if they would be greater than the cost of the tickets

8/21/2009 5:30:57 PM

thanks for your patience bro

8/21/2009 5:31:33 PM

There is another rule in place where another game can't be shown at the same time the home team is playing at home

So say the Panthers are playing Atlanta here...fans in Charlotte will get that on fox, and some Merryl Streep movie on CBS instead of the Pats and Steelers

But you in Raleigh will get both games, since you are out of the 75 mile radius the League uses as its designated cut off

8/21/2009 5:35:40 PM

^^^I think its the local channels that buy up the tickets in those cases though, not the network (usually). Im pretty sure if the game is blacked out, that area will get a game, just not the one with the home team. The local affiliate buys up the tickets because they get better ratings for a game involving the home team than a Browns-Texans matchup.

10 games though? Are they counting two preseason home games? Preseason games can be blacked out? WTF...its a freaking preseason game.

8/21/2009 5:53:27 PM

The local affiliate of the network...ex. Wral for CBS if Raleigh had a team...and yes the road team's market always gets the game...they obviously don't expect their fans to travel

8/21/2009 5:55:31 PM

^Yea I didnt think that preseason games ever really sold out. There are definitely tons of empty seats at all of them

8/21/2009 6:00:13 PM

i thought that someone usually buys the rest of the tickets and just gives them away to charities or something

8/21/2009 6:07:15 PM

if there's a couple thousand, maybe

not 5 figures

8/21/2009 6:09:21 PM

sounds like an ATLanta Falcons thread.

8/21/2009 6:20:22 PM

You know why the Chicago Blackhawks had fucking terrible home attendance for years?

Because they didn't broadcast the home games, so no one watched the team, and thus no one wanted to pay to see them play every now and then, let alone 41 times.

The NFL is chock full of terrible rules and ideas, but this might be the worst.

8/22/2009 1:05:39 PM

yeah, worst run sports league is US history

8/22/2009 1:16:44 PM

and the NHL is a perfect example of a great sports league

8/22/2009 1:38:27 PM

I never said the NFL was a poorly run league, I said it's a terrible idea, and while I'd never argue that the NHL doesn't have problems (the main one being that it's run by a basketball executive), they don't run around telling teams that they can't show games on TV.

I understand the idea that blacking out games should get people in the stadium, but I just don't see how it not being on TV translates to a family of four spontaneously dropping $300 on tickets on game day.

8/22/2009 2:10:14 PM

blacking out the preseason games locally is stupid (not that seeing preseason games live is that big of a deal, but still...)

i just discovered last week that LA is in the chargers blackout area, which is ridiculous -- it's 100+ mi from san diego but because LA broadcasts reach to within 75 mi of the stadium (down to southern orange county, apparently), the whole city is blacked out

it just seems against the nature of the blackout, while plenty of people in LA will drive down for the games since there's no team here (including me, just not for the preseason), it's not the same market and it's just not that close

8/22/2009 5:26:11 PM

Do blackouts apply to NFL Sunday Ticket as well?

8/23/2009 9:17:51 AM

Quote :

" NFL rules prohibit home games being broadcast in the team's local market if the stadium doesn't sell out 72 hours prior."

not unless you want to watch the DirectTV Destroyers suit up every sunday

8/23/2009 10:20:11 AM

Quote :

"The NFL is chock full of terrible rules and ideas, but this might be the worst."

Actually it's a very good rule, because it keeps people in the stands. If no one went to the games because they could just sit at home and watch them on tv then the owners wouldn't make any money and they would move their team to a city that actually cares about them.

8/23/2009 3:41:17 PM

not looking good regarding blackouts this season, the chargers last preseason game on friday is gonna be blacked out (are other cities really selling out their preseason games?)

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/sep/01/n94435195959-picture-bleak-watching-live-tilts/?chargers

i can appreciate not changing the whole blackout rule in a down economic year, but i think it could be temporarily adjusted (like changing the percentage required for a 'sellout' for this season, for example)

as a chargers fan, i'm disappointed in this even though it won't affect me directly as i'll be at all the home games -- the team already doesn't have a great relationship with the city and alienating local fans (even though this is an NFL rule, the casual fan won't care whose fault it is) isn't helping their cause

9/2/2009 4:26:37 PM

do people really care about preseason games? pretty sure they don't.

9/3/2009 10:11:29 AM

If the Jaguars moved, LA would be the only choice, but I'd rather see them in a city that will appreciate them.

San Antonio could support a team. If the Bay Area can have 2, then there's no reason why the Cowboys should get exclusive rights to central Texas.

9/3/2009 10:41:05 AM

just another way for the nfl to pad stats and pretend to be by far the most popular league in the world.

9/3/2009 10:55:28 AM

It's the most popular league in America.

And the most PROFITABLE league in the world. Maybe there are a half billion people in bumfuck africa that watch La Liga and the English Premier League, but they aren't contributing the ad money that the NFL's "paltry" couple hundred million are.

9/3/2009 11:16:23 AM

most profitable always=most exploitative

and most evil

9/3/2009 11:33:16 AM

This and other similar rules are horrible. It's dumb that I can only watch a home team game and no others. It's dumb that games a blacked out when the stadium isn't full. If I'm not in the stadium, there is a good reason - work, money, etc. I would much rather be at the game than watch it on TV.

9/3/2009 11:36:31 AM

Good thing the Panthers don't ever really have to worry about that shit since the large majority (63,000) of the seats are PSLs / season tickets (since by definition, the PSL seats are already sold)...all the Panthers have to sell out are the single game tickets...too bad other franchises like the Jaguars are stupid as fuck for not having PSLs

9/3/2009 11:42:41 AM

Quote :

"You know why the Chicago Blackhawks had fucking terrible home attendance for years? Because they didn't broadcast the home games, so no one watched the team, and thus no one wanted to pay to see them play every now and then, let alone 41 times. "

I was about to mention this. Worst ownership in sports, and they were raising ticket prices at the same time.

9/3/2009 1:35:28 PM

I hate this rule, but understand why the NFL does it. The NFL is pretty much the only league too that can do this and actually get a response from people. If MLB did this, pretty much no one would give a fuck outside of die hard fans in NY/Boston/Chicago/St Louis.

9/3/2009 1:40:49 PM

NFL only has 8 (plus preseason and playoffs) home games a year, so it makes more sense than with basketball with 40 and baseball with 80. There's more need to sell out each game, since there are less chances to sell tickets.

9/3/2009 2:09:28 PM