DownSwinging.com

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced today that 12 teams are in danger of facing TV blackouts due to the current economic climate, including the Jacksonville Jaguars. This season will be the first full one the NFL will have during the recession, and teams are definitely worrying about the effects on attendance. NFL rules state that teams that down sell out a game within 72 hours of a home game will face a cable blackout.

The reasoning behind this type of policy is relatively straight forward, if a team can’t sell out its home games, keeping fans from seeing the game on TV encourages more to attend future games. It’s the type of thinking that has dominated sports thinking for the majority of the 20th century, but unfortunately, it comes at a cost. Even if we’re going to assume that that fan wanted to see the game, the whole fact that the stadiums arent filling because of the economic downturn is still there, and shelling out the greenbacks to see the game may not be a feasible option. So what happens then? That fan cannot watch the game and eventually their interest declines. Regardless of whether or not the fan even considered going to the game, its pretty tough for them to maintain their level of fandom without the ability to watch half of the team’s 16 games.