How do blackouts work?

Can someone explain to me how not selling 2,500 tickets leads to a game getting blacked out? I mean I can understand 17,000 unsold tickets but other then that it confuses me how this whole system work. Also I don't get why Fox and CBS can't show two games a piece every week. Why am I stuck watching a Cops marathon half the time?

The San Diego Chargers, with 2,500 tickets left midweek for an attractive matchup with the Baltimore Ravens, were anticipating a blackout and that could happen in Detroit as well. Detroit and San Diego applied for extensions but Jacksonville, with 17,000 tickets remaining, did not and will be blacked out.

Gotta sell out

I agree Dirtbag, I think you still want to fill a stadium, say to 90% capacity, so you don't see stadiums like Jacksonville's yesterday. But the league ought to lower the blackout standards some.

Ive wondered the same thing. For 2500 seats at 100 each its 250k loss, but if you blackout then you loose the ad revenue in your market. I would think that ad revenue is more then 250k for the San Diego market though, so it has allways made me wonder. Plus if you black out maybe you sell a few more tickets but not all 2500. Just doenst make sense to me.

Blackout (broadcasting) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackout_%28broadcasting%29#NFL_blackout_policy)

In the NFL, any broadcaster that has a signal that hits any area within a 75-mile (120 km) radius of an NFL stadium may only broadcast a game if that game is a road game, or if the game sells out 72 hours or more before the start time for the game.[5] If sold out in less than 72 hours, or is close to being sold out by the deadline, the team can sometimes request a time extension. Furthermore, broadcasters with NFL contracts are required to show their markets' road games. Sometimes if a game is very close to selling out, but not quite there, a broadcaster with rights to show the nearly sold out game will buy the remaining tickets (and give them to local charities) so it can broadcast the game (usually, this would involve no more than a few hundred tickets because of cost). Other teams elect to close off sections of their stadium, but cannot sell these tickets for any game that season if they choose to do so.[6] As a result, if the home team's game is a Sunday day game both networks can air only one game each in that market. (Until 2001, this rule applied whether or not the game was blacked out, however, this was changed because some markets virtually never aired doubleheaders as a result.) Usually, but not always, when each network can show only one game each in a market, the two stations work out between themselves which will show an early game and which will show a late game. This only affects the primary market, and not markets in a 75-mile (121 km) radius, which always get a doubleheader each Sunday.

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It's an archaic system set up back in the early years of television so the NFL owners didn't feel the pinch from fans who decided to watch the game on TV instead of in person. Those who suffer are the local fans who don't go to the stadium and have to settle the movie of the week.

I am more confused now. I thought the owners made the decision individually so that they could sell more tickets, looking to get over that breakeven point of tickets sold vs revenue from television ads. It almost seems like this proctecs the network from possibly airing a game that has little interest. Plus what is this all about:

Other teams elect to close off sections of their stadium, but cannot sell these tickets for any game that season if they choose to do so.[

What would happen if a team that covered up its seats ended up hosting a playoff home game (stranger things have happened ie skins take 3 recievers in the second round of the 2008 draft).


This whole thing just seems real backwords.

The NFL does not count unsold luxury seats toward the blackout rule. Supposedly, all of the other seats must be sold, and in the Skins' case, those are all sold via season ticket packages.

Can someone explain to me how not selling 2,500 tickets leads to a game getting blacked out? I mean I can understand 17,000 unsold tickets but other then that it confuses me how this whole system work. Also I don't get why Fox and CBS can't show two games a piece every week. Why am I stuck watching a Cops marathon half the time?

I've always wondered this. There is only one real day of football, you think we could get two doubleheaders, it's not like they are preempting primetime shows.

I've always wondered this. There is only one real day of football, you think we could get two doubleheaders, it's not like they are preempting primetime shows.

I Agree blackouts are trash... hey by the way on your wishlist why do you say no to Sanchez?? It looks like he is going to be pretty damn good to me..

A blackout happens when you drink too much booze. What usually happens is you wake up in the county lock up. When you sober up the magistrate makes you swear that you'll not break the law until your court date. Then they let you go. Sometimes you wake up with an ugly chick. You remember nothing except drinking a lot. The rest is a blur.