Higgins Asks For New Blackout Rules

[BLeonard]

http://wgr550.com/pages/12040355.php?contentType=4&contentId=9797318



In Higgins’ letter he argues that the blackout rule disproportionately hurts communities like Buffalo, “As one of the largest stadiums in the National Football League, Ralph Wilson Stadium has seating for over 73,000. The blackout rules require that the stadium be sold out in order to broadcast the game locally. The league average for attendance last year was 67,000. This requires the Bills to sell 6,000 more tickets than the average team in one of the League's smaller communities just to be shown on local television, and do so 72 hours before the game. I do not believe this is fair to the people of my community.”


-Bill

[Scumbag College]

Totally unfair rule that one of the smaller markets in the league has to sell more tickets. And to extend the blackout into the Syracuse market is ludicrous.

[OpIv37]

I've been making that argument for 20 years.

[OpIv37]

Totally unfair rule that one of the smaller markets in the league has to sell more tickets. And to extend the blackout into the Syracuse market is ludicrous.

it's that stupid 75 mile rule.

Television signals don't stop at arbitrarily determined mile markers, so, while Syracuse is way outside the 75 mile radius, the TV signals from Syracuse reach within that 75 miles.

When I was a kid and games got blacked out in Rochester, I'd head East to some friends who lived in Wayne County. Some of them had the big old-school TV antennas and could pick up the Syracuse signal. It took the NFL a long time to figure it out and shut it down.

[BLeonard]

it's that stupid 75 mile rule.

Television signals don't stop at arbitrarily determined mile markers, so, while Syracuse is way outside the 75 mile radius, the TV signals from Syracuse reach within that 75 miles.

When I was a kid and games got blacked out in Rochester, I'd head East to some friends who lived in Wayne County. Some of them had the big old-school TV antennas and could pick up the Syracuse signal. It took the NFL a long time to figure it out and shut it down.

I'm not an expert or anything, but I would think the switch from analog to digital minimized that significantly, if not eliminated it entirely.

It's not like you can buy a big-ass set of rabbit ears at Radio Shack and get a signal from a greater distance anymore, correct? With digital TV, you either get a signal or you don't. At least that's how I understand it.

-Bill

[BuffaloBlitz83]

True but buffalo has really cheap tickets. I pay 40 to 60 for tix. For giant n jet games the lowest i ever paid was 120

[YardRat]

Ticket sales are such a drop in the bucket these days, almost a completely insignificant revenue source.

The NFL makes their money from tv viewership.
No blackout = more viewers = higher ratings = more advertising dollars = more money for networks = more money for the teams.

Duhhh...

[BLeonard]

True but buffalo has really cheap tickets. I pay 40 to 60 for tix. For giant n jet games the lowest i ever paid was 120

8 Million plus people live in NYC... The Buffalo area has maybe 1.5 million people.

RWS holds 73,000 people. MetLife Stadium (and Giants Stadium before it) hold about 10k more people.

So, do the math:

73k/1.5 mil = 4.8%
83k/8 mil = 1.0%

So, for a sellout (which is what is currently required to lift a blackout) the Jets/Giants need 1% of their population to show up to the game... The Bills need almost 5% of their population... Nearly 5 times as much.

So, given that, shouldn't Jets and Giants tix cost 5x as much, in order to really level the playing field? Is it really fair to ask teams like the Bills to have 5% of their population to buy tickets, when the Jersey teams only need to have 1% of their population buy them?

The fairness of the sellouts is the main bullet point in the blackout issue, not the ticket prices. of course the Jersey teams can sell out much easier than teams like the Bills can... They have a 8 million pool of people to get 1% of, where the Bills have to get 5% of their 1.5 million pool.

I rememebr reading somewhere (can't remember where, otherwise, I'd link it) that, asking a city the size of Buffalo (and surrounding areas) to fill a 73,000 seat stadium would be like asking the city of Chicago to fill a stadium that seated somewhere around 375,000 people for every game.

I would like them to get rid of the blackout rules altogether, but, if they insist on them, they should at least be rewritten to require all teams to fill a percentage of their stadiums, tied to the population of the area. That gives all teams en even playing field, as far as potential blackouts are concerned.

-Bill

[Bert102176]

ty so F'n much Mr. Higgins

[Johnny Bugmenot]

Mr. Higgins of course carefully glosses over the fact that the Bills' ticket prices are 30th out of 32 teams in the league. So, it's either sell 73,000 seats at reduced price, or charge "league average" and tarp over 6,000 seats to get to league average. Besides, big-market teams seem to be able to fill 80,000+ seat stadiums without any problems whatsoever at prices far above the league average.

It may be unpleasant, but nobody forces Ralph Wilson to have all 73,000 seats available for sale. Heck, the county even took out 7,000 seats during the last renovation to increase sellouts. It's certainly not "unfair" as Mr. Higgins puts it.

[BLeonard]

Mr. Higgins of course carefully glosses over the fact that the Bills' ticket prices are 30th out of 32 teams in the league. So, it's either sell 73,000 seats at reduced price, or charge "league average" and tarp over 6,000 seats to get to league average. Besides, big-market teams seem to be able to fill 80,000+ seat stadiums without any problems whatsoever at prices far above the league average.

It may be unpleasant, but nobody forces Ralph Wilson to have all 73,000 seats available for sale. Heck, the county even took out 7,000 seats during the last renovation to increase sellouts. It's certainly not "unfair" as Mr. Higgins puts it.

I take it you didn't read the quote in the first post... Let me highlight the important part:



The league average for attendance last year was 67,000.


Also, there are exactly 3 NFL stadiums that have "80,000+ seats." Metlife Stadium (Jets/Giants), Fed Ex Field (Redskins) and Cowboys Stadium (Cowboys).

RWS is the 11th largest stadium of the 32 teams. "Big market teams" like New England and Chicago (among others) have smaller stadiums than the Bills do. Soldier Field in Chicago has the smallest stadium, capacity-wise in the NFL.

Only 4 of the 20 stadiums with smaller capacity than the Bills were built before RWS. That means 16 were built after RWS and have smaller capacities... If all of these "big-market teams seem to be able to fill 80,000+ seat stadiums without any problems whatsoever," then I have to ask, why would they have made the stadiums smaller?

As I said in the post just before Bert's, it's a lot easier to get 80,000 people to buy tickets when you have 8 million living in the area than it is to get 73,000 people to buy tickets, when maybe 1.5 million live in the area.

Finally, part of the reason that the ticket prices are low is due to the fact that the lease benefits Ralph Wilson if they remain low. Here's the lease: http://www.erie.gov/billslease/stadium.phtml

Now, the relevant part:



ARTICLE 3 RENT

3.1 Rent. On or before March 31st of each Lease Year, the Bills shall pay to the ECSC, as rent for the Stadium Complex, fifty percent (50%) of the amount by which Net Ticket Revenue exceeds NFL Average Net Ticket Revenue for the NFL Season concluded on or about February 1st of such Lease Year. Such rent shall be paid to the ECSC without notice or demand and without abatement, deduction or set-off in lawful money of the United States of America at the ECSC's Address and shall be accompanied by a certification, in form and content satisfactory to the ECSC, from an independent nationally recognized certified public accounting firm reasonably acceptable to the ECSC, setting forth the calculations used by the Bills in determining such rental payment.


In lehman's terms: If the Bills' ticket revenue is more than the NFL average, the Bills (or more specifically, Ralph) would have to pay rent on the stadium.

So, Ralph keeps tickets low, is able to use that as a "goodwill gesture" towards the fans and, as a result, gets the stadium rent free. Win-Win-Win for Ralph, his image and his bank account by not having to forego any cash for the stadium.

In the end, it's not really about ticket sales. We all know that ticket money is a drop in the bucket, as far as the NFL is concerned. The real reason the NFL wants full stadiums is so the viewers at home don't see empty seats while broadcasting their product on TV... Which is where the NFL's REAL money is made.

-Bill

[BLeonard]

Another point, as illustrated here: http://sportsfans.org/2012/01/want-to-tell-the-fcc-how-you-feel-about-blackouts-here-you-go/



The FCC’s rule props up the leagues’ own blackout rules by prohibiting cable and satellite carriers from carrying a game if local broadcasters are prohibited from carrying the game because of league blackout rules.


Let's be clear: The FCC is only discussing ending their own blackout rules, not the NFL's. The difference, while subtle and a bit confusing, is important.

Let me try to explain: If the FCC eliminates their blackout policy, if a game is not sold out, it would still fall under the NFL's blackout policy, which would still prohibit local broadcasters from airing the game.

What would be different is that, no longer would the games also be blacked out on cable or satellite carriers. So, if you lived in the Buffalo area and had NFL Sunday Ticket, you would be able to see the Bills game, even if RWS wasn't sold out.

Personally, if you're paying $300 plus for NFL Sunday Ticket (or whatever the cost is now) I'm thinking you have paid for the right to watch every NFL game, regardless of where you live. after all, that's how they advertise it:

http://www.directsattv.com/dstimages/banner_nfl.gif

If you need more info, ask a Sabres fan how fair they think it is that they have paid for Center Ice, but, because of the BS with Time Warner and MSN, the games were blacked out on there as well. Assuming the FCC dropped their blackout rules, those people would then be able to watch the gaemes on Center Ice... You know, what they PAID FOR.

-Bill

[BertSquirtgum]

True but buffalo has really cheap tickets. I pay 40 to 60 for tix. For giant n jet games the lowest i ever paid was 120

it doesn't matter what the ticket cost is.

[OpIv37]

I'm not an expert or anything, but I would think the switch from analog to digital minimized that significantly, if not eliminated it entirely.

It's not like you can buy a big-ass set of rabbit ears at Radio Shack and get a signal from a greater distance anymore, correct? With digital TV, you either get a signal or you don't. At least that's how I understand it.

-Bill
I honestly don't know either. I've had cable or satellite ever since things went digital.

[BLeonard]

This kind of talk from Goodell might not help the NFL's case in keeping the blackouts rules in effect: http://www.billszone.com/fanzone/showthread.php?t=209365



"People want to feel part of a group, feel like they're connected, and right now during these difficult times, they can turn on free television and watch the greatest entertainment that's out there," Goodell says. "They can forget their worries for just a few hours."


Yeah, but that's only true if the games aren't blacked out...

-Bill