The Archaic Blackout Policy
by ruffdaddy on Aug 24, 2009 7:02 PM EDT
27 comments
I got to the stadium Saturday night very early so I could watch the pre-game warmups. (Been a season ticket holder since day 1 of the franchise, BTW). Probably 50 people max in the stands.
Since I don't usually get there that early I wasn't concerned, but I started to panic with 30 minutes 'til game time when there couldn't have been more than 3-4,000 people in the stadium. But by kick-off it was representative ... disappointing, but a good group of vocal, hardcore Jagfans.
And then David and Troy found lightning in a bottle on the first play, the place erupted, and once I finished celebrating and sat back down I started thinking about all the people locally who didn't get to see that play. People who might have been considering buying tickets, people on the fence, people who would be reminded by that one exhilarating play how fortunate we are to have this team here, and how good it feels to have passion for your team when they pull off something magical.
I have a hard time believing that many people are going to buy tickets just because they can't watch it on TV. If they are planning to watch the game rather than attend it, that's the kind of fan they are. They are TV watchers. But I'm sure we all know a lot of people who used to have tickets, or who talk about maybe getting tickets, who just need a little push, like maybe from the rush of euphoria from a 74-yard TD pass on the game's opening play. The more I think about it the more certain I am that the NFL's blackout policy is ill-conceived.
Sometimes passion has to build over time, has to be cultivated. How are the people in this city going to get excited about the team's new direction and new young players if they can only watch half the games? And not the ones in which we're more likely to play well? I don't know, maybe I'm missing something, but it just seems like a really outdated policy to me. Thanks for letting me vent.
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It's not just you or this team
The Chargers, Chiefs, and several others are in the same pickle the Jags are in. It will be an interesting season league wide.
"It's always funny until someone gets hurt. Then it's just hilarious."-Bill Hicks
by Jonathan Loesche on Aug 24, 2009 7:39 PM EDT reply actions
Something interesting I found, just to ponder
"It's always funny until someone gets hurt. Then it's just hilarious."-Bill Hicks
by Jonathan Loesche on Aug 24, 2009 7:41 PM EDT reply actions
The most special times of being a ticket holder
is when your the only fan left and you alone get to see true perfection, which happeed when Troy Williamson catch that magnificant bomb. Nothing gets better than football its its best moments.
"HULU: An evil plot to destroy the world. Enjoy"
The Flavour of the Day is Turf. - Courtesy of the Jacksonville Jaguars
What's archiac is acting like Jacksonville should get special treatment.
If it doesn’t care about the team…the Jaguars will move plain and simple.
If you don’t sellout you get blacked out…plain and simple.
Hey slvrgun
I’m not talking about special treatment, I’m talking league-wide. I don’t care if it’s here, Buffalo, Kansas City, wherever, blackouts defeat the purpose.
I will be there to see them
If blackouts bring people to the stadium – black it out baby.
Big Cat Country!:: The Official Home of the Unofficial Blog of the Jacksonville Jaguars!
Dude
I remember thinking that same thing when that play happened. I was walking up the ramp to get a drink, and it hit me, wow, only about 40,000 people who live in Jacksonville got to see that play.
If hip hop is dead, then it happened the day that Dilla died.
-Akrobatik
According to Rick Ballou the other day...
Jacksonville averaged around 61,000 fans per home game last year, ranking 17th in the league in overall attendance. I was shocked to find out that almost half the teams in the NFL had lower per home home attendance than the Jags, including Pittsburgh. There may be only 40 or 50 thousand of them but the regular attending fans to Jags games are loud and involved.
exactly
and they have the third best local TV audience. This town is a football town, but not a crappy football town. They can’t stand to watch football played the way JDR and the Jags played it last year. It made everyone throw-up.
Big Cat Country!:: The Official Home of the Unofficial Blog of the Jacksonville Jaguars!
blackout trend
winning sells tickets. losing sells HDTVs. I believe NFL attendance peaked in the middle of this decade and more teams will face blackout problems because the NFL neglected the die-hard football fan who grew up watching & supporting NFL football. The NFL thought they could keep raising prices because corporate America would keep spending to go to games but then the recession came and corporate America decided to cut back on entertainment. The die-hard football fan decided to go out and buy an HDTV because the NFL didn’t give a crap about him as they were pricing this loyal fan and customer out of the market. Now the NFL is trying to get the die-hard fan back by slashing ticket prices, because the suits are baling out, but the die-hard fan has found HDTV to be the next best thing to being there and a lot cheaper.
by jagsrealist on Aug 25, 2009 5:47 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
There is not one word of this that makes sense.
Big Cat Country!:: The Official Home of the Unofficial Blog of the Jacksonville Jaguars!
Is this speculation or something similar?
"HULU: An evil plot to destroy the world. Enjoy"
The Flavour of the Day is Turf. - Courtesy of the Jacksonville Jaguars
Ha. No offense Bro
But this sounds like my last paragraph on my english class writing assignment. I need fifty more words to reach that 500 word minimum… time to start rambling.
If hip hop is dead, then it happened the day that Dilla died.
-Akrobatik
"Blackouts defeat the purpose"
I hate to sound too much like Vic, but you don’t get it.
The purpose is to make money. If you buy tickets, the NFL makes money. If you don’t buy tickets, the NFL does not make money. “Oh but TV revenues blah blah blah”. The NFL is not going anywhere in this country. It is the dominant #1 sport, and it will continue to be the dominant #1 sport for a very long time, and all of the networks negotiate their broadcasting deals with the league on that basis. They are not going to pay less money because little ol’ Jacksonville has their games blacked out, but they could easily demand that the Jaguars move to a more lucrative market.
It’s really simple, ruffdaddy: if you want to see the JACKSONVILLE Jaguars, buy tickets. Period.
by MoveThoseChains on Aug 25, 2009 12:37 PM EDT reply actions
Some friends went to the game
and found tickets hard to come by and the price jacked up by scalpers. The Tampa Bay pre-season game tickets were selling on the street at a premium. They said one guy got arrested for above face value selling.
I say black it out it is working
Big Cat Country!:: The Official Home of the Unofficial Blog of the Jacksonville Jaguars!
I thought they changed the law.....
for scalping a couple of years ago.
They did. No one got arrested for selling tickets at above face value.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~Carl Sagan
So they were mistaken - Sorry
Big Cat Country!:: The Official Home of the Unofficial Blog of the Jacksonville Jaguars!
They need to change it back
scalpers drive the price of the tickets up and don’t provide any added value.
I remember the good ol’ days when I could find Club seats out front for $50. Now the scalpers get there hands on them and jack up the prices.
Mr. M. T. Chains
Of course it’s all about money, but you don’t make money without the fans. I know the NFL is #1 but to stay there is has to continue to work to attract new fans and hang on to the ones it has. Why do you think the league is so bullish on Fantasy Football? It has nothing to do with revenue, it’s all about appealing to new customers and keeping everyone’s interest throughout the season. The blackout policy is not only outdated, it’s arrogant; if the NFL thinks it can’t lose market share in an increasingly competitive environment, it’s mistaken.
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