A small collection of United States senators have lodged a complaint with the federal communications commission denouncing the current policy of the NFL in blacking out home television markets that fail to deliver a sellout crowd on game day.
The five senators signing a letter to the FCC, all Democrats, were Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Tom Harkin of Iowa, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. In Brown’s home state the Bengals were blacked out in six out of their eight home games this past season.
“These blackouts are ruining the experience of rooting for the home team and are unjustly hurting fans,” the senators said in a joint letter to the FCC. “That many of these stadiums were constructed or remodeled using taxpayer dollars underscores the disservice done to fans by blackouts.”
On other side the NFL claims that the blackout policy, which has been in effect since 1975, has been extremely effective at keep attendance up while limiting the amount of games actually blacked out. The NFL pointed out to the FCC that in 2011 only 16 of the 256 games were blacked out.
“These numbers show that the league’s decades-long commitment to promoting each week of the NFL as an event that attracts wide fan support is working, both for fans in the stadium and fans watching on television. The current system is working and should not be altered.”
The over-arching question in my mind is this: Is holding a gun to consumers’ heads and forcing them to buy a product (in this case, a live NFL experience) the right way to go about putting more butts in the seats?
If fans aren’t compelled to go to games the league shouldn’t be forcing them artificially, nor should it be punishing viewers who in all likelihood contribute tax revenue to the building of stadiums that the league always seems so eager to erect.
The fact is that in some ways the NFL competes against itself in terms of a home viewing experience versus an in-stadium experience. Watching a game at home is convenient and with the improvement of HD quality television it also brings a remarkable level of detail to the viewer that is far superior to what the average NFL TV game looked like from twenty, or even ten years ago.
Rather than punish people who enjoy this experience more than buying a ticket and going to a game, the NFL should be seeking ways for each franchise to improve their live experience or perhaps even (gasp) lower the cost of attending a game.
It only makes sense, right?
