NFL Suspends Blackout Rule For 2015

I don't know about the Ohio teams but, you're spot on about the Chargers!

 

Didn't Jacksonville used to like cover up seats with tarps or something to avoid blackouts? Also I wonder if this means that if you have Sunday Ticket you can still watch the game on the Sunday Ticket app even if it's playing in your area?

 

Oakland has also put up a tarp in their stadium. If the game is blacked out locally, it's not shown on Sunday Ticket.

 

It's inevitable that attendance will drop throughout the league during this experiment. The bengals were having a hard enough time getting the capacity to 80% on any given Sunday and having corporations snatch up the rest of the tickets so that it could be shown locally. Now, with High def TV's, a fridge full of cheap beer, your own clean bathroom and free parking, it will make many fans say why bother.

The league is shooting themselves in the foot on this one just to appease a few teams fan bases.

 

Well what I was saying was when the game is on a major network they black it out on Sunday Ticket. I was curious if now that they aren't blacking anything out I wonder if they will show it on Sunday Ticket even if it's on a major network. The reason I'm asking is because sometimes when we have a late afternoon game and I have to leave for church I can watch the game on my phone on the way to church. I let my wife drive and I just watch it but if the game is on a major network Sunday Ticket won't show it. I'm curious now if they will.

 

I read once that the only time the Bengals could sell out their own stadium was when they played us. Other franchises have benefited from our huge fanbase as well. You should see LP Field when we play the Titans. This past year was the coldest game in the history of that field and there was THOUSANDS of no shows but the majority of people that were there were Steelers fans. We took it over in 2012 also and Kevin Dyson was talking about it on the post game radio show and saying that he'd never seen a fanbase take over a stadium like that. Made me feel great to be a part of it even though we lost that game.

 

It's true. I moved to Cincinnati in 1987. They went to the Superbowl in 1988. In 1989, my Bengal friend scored 4 tix to a supposedly home Bengal game. 3 Bengals fans picked me up at my apartment at 11 am and I am decked out from head to toe in Black N Gold. The guy who scored the tix told me that I looked ridiculous and was jokingly laughing the whole way to the stadium telling me that I need to wear Orange and Black. Two things I will never forget. Watching the morning news and the news person said the Steelers are in town and they brought 56 busloads of fans with them. Two - My tix buddy looking around the stadium right before kick and saying. Geez, It's 70% Steelers fans here.

 

Yep! My buddy that went with me this past year to Nashville is actually a die hard Titans fan and I was like "when we get here you're gonna be super embarrassed" and he was like "it's not gonna be THAT bad" and we got in there and were on the 2nd row on the 20 and I said "turn around and look behind us" and there was pretty much nothing but black and gold and he was like "DAAAANG!!!!" I just grinned and said "I told you..." When I was down by the tunnel during warm ups and getting autographs and stuff he was really impressed by how many of us Steelers fans would talk to each other and just naturally know a lot of deep facts about the team. There's just a "passion" or something that comes with being a Steelers fan that must look different to people that aren't.

 

They always knew they would have to skirt the rule after the initial shock value of the team subsided. Once that happened the NFL let them cover several thousand seats with those tarps and they still couldn't give the tickets away. The stadium was always going to be too large for a pro team to fill as it was meant for the big Fla/Ga and bowl games. IIRC the first owners wanted a much smaller stadium, but the bowl committee actually wanted way more seats than they eventually got and had provisions for extra seating designed in.

Weird area as far as the popularity of High School and College football versus Pro-football. I loved it when I was there as the USO had $8 tickets that eventually went up to $24 I think.

 

Who said Steelers fans don't travel, That there just relocated. I have been on many of these bus trips to Baltimore, Cleve, Cinci.

 

With no blackout in place, what would be the motivation for going to the stadium? Chargers, Bengals, Jaguars owners think their stadiums are empty now?

 

Mike Brown, The Bengals owner was the only team owner to vote against it. The vote was 31-1 in favor of lifting it. I would have thought that more owners would be in favor of trying to keep their stadiums full.

 

In Spanos' case, He's trying to run to a new stadium in L.A. If Qualcomm is half full, that gives him a good excuse.

 

I'd guess the assumption is that the advertising dollars for the televised game would be greater than the empty seats and/or keep ratings up in the local area so those dollars would stay constant?

Also, for the masses, they'd think the NFL was giving them something for nothing.

 

You might have something with the ad revenue. Here in San Diego, the city was giving people something for nothing for years. With the tax payer funded ticket guarantee, the stadium could be half empty and the city would pick up the tab for unsold tickets. With my tax dollars. Good deal for Spanos.
With no blackout, It'll be much more comfortable to watch the game from my living room.

 

Could be. Just strikes me as a "Yes, but look at the television ratings this crappy team that couldn't fill the stadium just posted!".

 

Early seventies before the Steelers were great,
it was nothing for my family and others being big football fans to drive out of the PGH viewing area where we lived and get a hotel room and watch our beloved Steelers because the game was blacked out locally. The times they are a changing.

 

Man that's hard to believe. I mean I KNOW the team sucked before the dynasty but in all my life as a fan they've been one of the hugest draws in the league. It's sorta like how for the first couple of Super Bowls at least you could just walk up to a ticket booth that day and get a ticket for the game. That happened but it's unimaginable now. Probably a good trivia question would be when was the last time the Steelers were blacked out.

 

From the Wiki page it says the last year was 1972, before 1973 rules.

From that list only Washington and Denver have a longer streak.

 

BFT , I paid $3o dollars for a SB ticket when the Steelers beat the Rams. 1979-1980 My last time in Cali, I got to get back before I croak, what a trip. WOW what fun we had.

 

Man I ALMOST went in 08 and still kick myself for not. However, it was gonna cost me about $1,000 for a ticket and I thought that was a GOOD deal! A Titan fan had gotten the ticket for buying a box at LP Field and just wanted to get rid of it. I got a hold of him not long after he had sold it. I figured that was the best deal I was gonna get down there. Times have changed for sure.

 

You don't want to be any where near the neighborhood where the coliseum is now! Unless you're a Raiders fan that is!