Treating blackout

Don't be surprised if you turn on your TV on Friday night expecting to see the 49ers-Raiders game and instead find yourself watching Xena, Princess Warrior (now in syndication!). The game is being blacked out, per NFL policy. Most Bay Area outlets are playing a tape delay at 10 p.m. If you live in the Bay Area and want to see when and where the game will be carried, here's a link to AOL's television listings guide.

It really pisses me off when a game is blacked out. For the uninitiated, the NFL requires local television to blackout any game that doesn't sell out within 72 hours of game time. Often times, the local TV station that would air the game will buy the remaining tickets themselves, allowing them to carry the game in spite of the empty seats. Other times, the team's owner himself will purchase the remaining tickets, just to keep the game on for the local fans. Dr. J., for all his shortcomings, has done this in the past. Al Davis, not so much.

In an era of tax dollar-funded stadiums, I think owners owe it to the cities in which they play to provide tickets that are affordable to the average citizen. Especially when you consider the evidence that these stadiums do not "pay back" the city in revenue, as some would argue. But if they won't provide reasonably-priced tickets, at least let the average folks watch the fucking game on TV. Denying fans not only hurts league-wide revenues, it hurts the team's local fan base in the long-run.

For an anecdotal explanation of how the blackout policy works, click here. For an interesting attempt to explain the rule, including some of the rule's history (in the comments) click here. For any reader who's interested in the issue of public money in sports from an economist's perspective, get a used copy of Sports, Jobs & Taxes, by Roger Noll from Stanford and Andrew Zimbalist from Smith College. This book was forced upon me as a part of my education in economics and I liked it so much I read it twice.