Blackout rules could be far different if NFL li...

So the nfl says you don;t by enough tickets in your home town we are going to punish you.. that;s so 1970's.. we are in the digital age... the old thought needs to go away.. time for congress to step up and protect the citizens against this type of tyranny.... oh.. wait... folks just like to through thousands of dollars a year at big folks that stand around chase a ball then fall down and do it again..that must take a great deal of intelligence..

As a Buffalo Bills fan, needless to say we've not had the greatest teams on the field the last few years BUT we have supported the team for years. Even though a game may be blacked out we have always had pretty close to sellouts of a game with or without blackouts...it is a fact!. Regarding blackouts therre are two issues I have problems with. One is the size of each stadium and how many tickets have to be sold...in other words some stadium seating is huge and others are small making it easier to sell out in some locales....there is no defined number. Secondly, the requirement is 72hrs before and this makes it a Thursday...people really don't get paid until usually Friday so this has always been unrealistic. Something can be worked out!

Being from Virginia, NFL blackouts are what drove me to the Arizona Cardinals. Growing up, I'd see Fox promoting a game between the Cowboys and 49ers and get excited to watch it because it was the two best teams in the NFC. Instead, I'd get the 3-11 Redskins against the equally hopeless Buccaneers. I didn't want to watch that at all.

When the Redskins finally rose above total incompetence in the late 90's and started to challenge for a playoff spot, I never forgot being forced to watch them when they sucked and began to root for them to fail. During that stretch, the Redskins had a habit of blowing a game (or two) to an awful Cardinals team that had no business winning. When they added Jake Plummer, I was sold.

Without the NFL blackouts, I might very well be a Redskins fan today.

I don't have a problem with the current black out rules. If your fans in your city don't buy tickets, maybe they would rather see a top game than see your crappy 4-12 team. I remember this season Tim Tebow played Tom Brady and us in Philly couldn't see it because an Eagles game was on. I wished the Eagles game was blacked out. Not everyone in every city wants to see every game of their home town team and if they can't sell out their stadium maybe they are saying that.

They mention that cincinnati and tampa bay had the most blackouts, lets see in cincy the fans were tired of a cheapskate owner putting crap out there on the field, and coming off a 4-12 season the fans there have seen enough, now lets see what happens the 2012 season, the bengals coming off a 9-7 season, with a young qb and wr, 2 1st round picks, i bet the fans will be back, as for tampa again tight fisted owner and a bad product, and there is tons of things to do in tampa, And tampa is a bad place for pro sports none of the teams sellout, and that is a shame as the Rays are one of the best run teams in all sports,

I give this one a big who the ^$%* cares ! WTF**** ?

The problem I have is if a home game is sold out, no other games can be shown in the local area.

I like the blackout rules as they are. You only hear from the minority about the complaints.

This message has been removed by the administrator.

after seeing 1000 commercials during the superbowl....they can black-out all the games for all i care....soccer and hockey...and baseball rule...hell id even rather watch basketball then dont hit tom brady to hard football...football is all hype

In the Bay Area we have one team- the SF 49ers that have sold out games for years and I can't remember the last time one of their games wasn't televised. On the other hand the Oakland Raiders seldom sell out games. Both teams have two of the oldest stadiums in the NFL (Candlestick and Oakland Coliseum) . SF is making plans to open a new Green energy, state of the art outdoor stadium in 2014. The Raiders now have a new owner and hopefully better management and will be able to follow the 49ers lead.

The government really should not be able to legislate a private business entertainment entity that isn't acting illegally to prior established laws or harming others in a criminal way. Watching football games on regular TV isn't a right and I don't see how it should be something congress regulates. They probably used the interstate commerce clause to regulate it, but I've long hated that clause being extended to things it obviously shouldn't be. But in this case, it probably built the NFL to what it is today. I know I would never have watched it if I had to pay for it.

nmEVER HAPPEN

Maximum profit should never be your ultimate goal.

For businesses. Are you insane? Maximum profit should always be your ultimate goal.

The blackout rule is insane. First, you want to create new fans but you black out the games because you do not have enough fans attending games. If people don't see the team then you have less prospects of those who will want to attend a game in the future.

Chicago Blackhawks fans know that blackouts don't work. Their old owner blacked out home games in an attempt to bring fans to games, but the result was no one watched and no one went to see the crappy product he put on the ice. Alexei Zhamnov an exiciting pickup? Please. Now that he's dead, the game has changed. Patrick Kane et al are rocking it and deliver an exciting product that people can watch on tv.

Usually teams don't sell out games because there's a crappy team on the field. If there's crappy team on field, who wants to see them on TV? Blackouts are incentives for players and management to put out a better product.

The untold story here:Congress was only able to pass the blackout lifting bill after the defeat of Emmanuel Celler and the ascension to the subcommittee chairmanship of Torbert Mc Donald,JFK's roomate at Harvard.As reported in The Sporting News at the time,Mc Donald vowed to get even with Rozelle for playing games on 11-24-63.

2 Problems with the blackout rules as it applies to Cincy. 1 - The team has consistently been garbage over the past 20 years with a decent season sprinkled in here and there. There are too many entertainment options in general for me to ever waste my time seeing a 3-13 team play, especially not in December/January in cold a$$ Cincinnati. 2 - The tax payers in Cincy funded Paul Brown Stadium, so the logic that tax payers should be able to watch the games regardless of a sell out still applies. How about "tahnks for building me a staduium, we'll show every game on TV"?

dont particularly like the blackout rule. it is a money maker for people that already billionaris, most of them. especially dont like it if taqxpayers paid for art of the stadium.