SteVo+ 3,702 Posted July 13, 2014 NFL Blackout Policy Should the NFL lift its blackout rule, or should teams who fail to sell out be punished? Blots will argue in favor of lifting the policy, Ricky in favor of keeping it. Blots will speak first, and then the two participants will debate the topic back and forth until both feel they have clearly made their point and responded to their opponent, at which point both players will give their closing statements; Ricky gets the last say. For now, there is no set minimum or maximum in terms of time, post count, or anything. Let's just have a good football debate and see what happens. Spectators/Voters, please refrain from posting in this thread until both have posted their closing statement. You are, of course, free to use the rep system to +/- posts you find to be strong/weak arguments. Blots, you have the first word... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
blotsfan 2,112 Posted July 13, 2014 The NFL gets over 3 BILLION a year in TV revenue. The NFL just split six billion dollars in national revenue for each team. With a cap of $133 million, thats 50 million in profit before a team gets one penny of ticket sales. Maybe ensuring people going to games was important back in the 60s, but the NFL would be making money if tickets were free. Taxpayers pay hundreds of millions of dollars to build new stadiums, these teams are in many ways a public entity. People are going to go to games regardless of a blackout rule. If someone doesn't want to go to a game but its blacked out, he's not going to change his mind and buy a ticket. He's going to find some way to stream it online. The NFL is doing nothing but hurting fans by having a blackout rule. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JetsFan4Life 542 Posted July 17, 2014 The argument against the blackout constantly points to the fact that the NFL is not in need of the money. There is no denying the NFL is and has been a cash-grab league trying to get the maximum money out of people as possible. But, getting people to go to the games works to the advantage of the fans too. With the way that the home television experience has expanded through the years the stigma of a live NFL game is going to the wayside. Imagine this. You're a fan of a professional football team and watching the game at home and your team is trying hard to preserve a lead. Unfortunately, the crowd is only at 3/4's capacity. This doesn't sound good for your team nor does it sound good for the NFL product. I believe the NFL has a right, by serving the product, to not show it on television if they feel the fan support is not there for a certain game. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
blotsfan 2,112 Posted July 20, 2014 If fans aren't going to an NFL game, its the team's fault. For games to not sell out, the team is most likely bad and not giving fans a good reason to go to the games. People like to call doom and gloom on TV ruining the NFL experience, but it never will be that. People like going to games when the team is good. Its not right for the NFL to punish fans for the team being poorly managed when those same fans pay massive taxes to build the stadiums they play in and often have massive subsidies for the teams too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JetsFan4Life 542 Posted July 23, 2014 If you remember correctly the NFL had problems selling out their playoff games last year so I'm not sure what that has to do with a team being bad or how that could be perceived as the "team's fault." I will never say that television has ruined the NFL experience either but a lot can be said when millions of tax-payer dollars are put into these stadiums and they are not getting used to their capacity. I believe that the NFL is serving us a product and by serving us this product they reserve the right to blackout games. It looks better for them if people are there live, cheering and screaming because it directly affects how that product comes across on the television platform. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
blotsfan 2,112 Posted July 26, 2014 It does look better when there are more fans, but its their responsibility to get fans to want to come to the games. Don't threaten your customers. Put more work into making a fun game day experience. I would say that if stadiums built with public money are not being filled, that just shows that the team got a subsidy they didn't deserve, only making it more unfair that the team is blacking out the games. And another thing, the NFL always wants to get fans. Do you think some kid is going to not care about football and start going to games? No. He'll watch it on tv. If the games aren't on tv, he'll like something else. Blacking out games puts the NFL at risk for the future. This is my last comment so you can finish up JF4L 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JetsFan4Life 542 Posted August 10, 2014 The NFL has been blacking out games for a long time and it obviously has not slowed down their growth one bit. To say blacking out games puts them at risk in the future doesn't make sense if it hasn't happened for the past 30 + years. I think a big question here is fan accountability. Do you feel the fans should be somewhat accountable to showing up and cheering for the team? Fan attendance can go both ways. Yes, the fans might not show up because the team is bad but also the team might be bad because they aren't getting the motivation that could help in front of a home crowd. Once again, by serving the product I do believe the NFL has the right to blackout games if the local crowd is not showing up to support the team in the stadium. The sensation of the NFL on television is making people less and less likely to come to the games and enjoy the game-day experience. If blacking out games for fans not showing up to cheer their team is the way they need to fill some stadiums to not make it look like some teams are playing in empty stadiums then so be it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
