Vikings Stadium Bill: Amendent To Block Blackouts Passes, Could Be Of Interest To Jaguars

The Minnesota Vikings are currently in a battle with state and local government to pass a bill allowing for the Vikings to begin construction on a new NFL stadium. The problem is, the local government does not want to pass the cost of the stadium off to taxpayers. There have been amendments to the bill, including increasing the share of the cost of the stadium to the Vikings, but there is another interesting addition to the bill.

The Minnesota Senate passed an amendment on the stadium bill that would block local blackouts of Vikings games, according to Tom Hauser of KSTP-TV. If this passes and the NFL does not throw a fit about it, it could spark a domino effect of teams trying to amend their current leases and deals with cities to add the same thing. The problem is, it's likely the NFL will throw a fit about the provision.

The amendment makes perfect sense however, as significant public money is going to the construction of a football stadium. Naturally the public should have the ability to watch any games played there, without all non-premium tickets have been sold 72 hours before kickoff. This will be something to watch going forward if the bill as a whole passes, because it's something that many other cities and franchises could push for, including the Jacksonville Jaguars.