FCC NFL Blackout ends, communism begins.

[norseamd]

Free football? The taxpayers who get to watch "free" football have already footed the bill to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for each NFL stadium. I believe new stadiums are now pushing 1 billion dollars - for 8 games a year. Oh, let's not forget that the teams "lease" the stadiums and pay the local governments. But, the rates of those leases would be like me building a house next week for $400,000 and then leasing it to a family of illegal immigrants for $20 a month.

And, that's just for starters. There are quite a few other special privileges that the NFL teams enjoy on the backs of the taxpayers.

This.

 

[rockyct]

Hell, the Chargers game was almost blacked out last weekend.

Heck, I bet the game this Sunday would have been blacked out. Businesses stepped in last week to buy thousands of tickets, I wonder if they would have done the same this weekend.

Blackouts have been the bane of San Diego and the Chargers for 15 years. The city is going to be very happy that they are over for good without those weekly threats.

 

[twinrider1]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/09/30/fcc-eliminates-nfl-blackout-rules/16480131/

A quote from an NFL statement.

"The NFL is the only sports league that televises every one of its games on free, over-the-air television. The FCC's decision will not change that commitment for the foreseeable future."


Really? Please tell me how to get Monday Night Football (and NFL Network) games over-the-air.

 

[smackababy]

That's not entirely true. Maybe at the box office nose bleed seats with cost $100 but on the secondary market they go for a lot less depending on the team.

My brother and I just bought Rams tickets for around $19 a piece on Stubhub. We bought 6 tickets and we get to see the Rams play the Seahawks. Sure the Rams suck but it's cool to take the family to an NFL game for around $150.

Any game I've tried to see, even second hand market tickets are incredibly expensive (granted it was the Cowboys or the Bears or the Cowboys playing the Bears). I suppose if you have a crappy team, in a crappy market, you are getting cheap tickets. =)

When I saw Astros during the Killer B era, it was $5 a ticket. Granted, the Astrodome had been a shithole for 20+ years by then.

 

[rockyct]

That's not entirely true. Maybe at the box office nose bleed seats with cost $100 but on the secondary market they go for a lot less depending on the team.

My brother and I just bought Rams tickets for around $19 a piece on Stubhub. We bought 6 tickets and we get to see the Rams play the Seahawks. Sure the Rams suck but it's cool to take the family to an NFL game for around $150.

The Chargers perhaps have one of the shittiest, if not the shittiest, stadiums right now and even the $60 alcohol-free family zone tickets start at $50 on Stubhub for the Jets game this weekend. No one would be bitching if we could get tickets for $20.

 

[bbhaag]

Any game I've tried to see, even second hand market tickets are incredibly expensive (granted it was the Cowboys or the Bears or the Cowboys playing the Bears). I suppose if you have a crappy team, in a crappy market, you are getting cheap tickets. =)

When I saw Astros during the Killer B era, it was $5 a ticket. Granted, the Astrodome had been a shithole for 20+ years by then.

Oh ya I totally agree with ya on seeing good teams. We're in the Peoria area and when we priced Bears tickets they were just way to much money. Thankfully the Rams stink so prices are cheap.
We get to see the defending SB champs play and get the NFL experience.
I remember in the late 80's my dad taking us up to see the Cubs because tickets were cheap back then. So seeing the Rams is kind of the same.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Yes, they are. Albeit, not a lot, they are still getting money. The stadiums are funded through loans by the city. That loan is then repaid to the city. If the city didn't give a loan, and the team wished to remain in that market, some other entity could give a loan to the organization building the stadium. They, then receive the repayment with meager interest AND, I'm sure there are some other terms included (I don't believe the terms are ever fully disclosed to the public) that likely are for staffing, pricing, promotion, etc. The cities definitely benefit by making these loans, even if it is only by keeping a team in their market. Do you think Santa Clara is going to profit from the 49ers being there? You bet they will.

No they're not, as they'll exempt the team from taxes which means they lose out on tax revenue while waiting for meager payouts from issuing bonds. That's on top of the tax bullshit already involved (where a lot of teams are not paying anywhere close to the taxes they should be). A lot of times the city doesn't end up better off at all. They do it because sports franchises are considered a public good, but if I'm not mistaken the economics do not show that sports teams bolster local economies (especially with leagues like the NFL where most of the profits ends up in owners pockets).

I doubt they will be raking in as much as you think, and that's largely because most of the people going to the games aren't from Santa Clara so it's more tourism and even then I don't think it's enough to offset the concessions a lot of cities make for teams/stadiums. If the team is located in the area where most of the fans come from that immediate area then they don't end up better off. That's how a lot of small market teams are and those are perpetually complaining about how they don't do well enough so they threaten to move the team. They basically hold the cities hostage as they'll easily be able to find another one that would make as many concessions as they can.

With the profits the NFL makes, there's no reason at all that cities should even have to be asked about it, between the owners and the NFL they should absolutely be fully funding it all themselves.

 

[Chaotic42]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/09/30/fcc-eliminates-nfl-blackout-rules/16480131/

A quote from an NFL statement.

"The NFL is the only sports league that televises every one of its games on free, over-the-air television. The FCC's decision will not change that commitment for the foreseeable future."


Really? Please tell me how to get Monday Night Football (and NFL Network) games over-the-air.

The Thursday night games are on CBS now and technically they do broadcast the Monday game over the air, you just have to be in one of the markets.

 

[KLin]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/09/30/fcc-eliminates-nfl-blackout-rules/16480131/

A quote from an NFL statement.

"The NFL is the only sports league that televises every one of its games on free, over-the-air television. The FCC's decision will not change that commitment for the foreseeable future."


Really? Please tell me how to get Monday Night Football (and NFL Network) games over-the-air.

NFL televises the game on a local market's OTA channel for MNF and TNF.

 

[Dirigible]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/09/30/fcc-eliminates-nfl-blackout-rules/16480131/

A quote from an NFL statement.

"The NFL is the only sports league that televises every one of its games on free, over-the-air television. The FCC's decision will not change that commitment for the foreseeable future."


Really? Please tell me how to get Monday Night Football (and NFL Network) games over-the-air.

As a bay area 49er fan, all 49er games are ota. If they are on espn or nfl network, they are also shown ota.

So it's limited, but fans of a local team can see all games ota.

 

[smackababy]

No they're not, as they'll exempt the team from taxes which means they lose out on tax revenue while waiting for meager payouts from issuing bonds. That's on top of the tax bullshit already involved (where a lot of teams are not paying anywhere close to the taxes they should be). A lot of times the city doesn't end up better off at all. They do it because sports franchises are considered a public good, but if I'm not mistaken the economics do not show that sports teams bolster local economies (especially with leagues like the NFL where most of the profits ends up in owners pockets).

I doubt they will be raking in as much as you think, and that's largely because most of the people going to the games aren't from Santa Clara so it's more tourism and even then I don't think it's enough to offset the concessions a lot of cities make for teams/stadiums. If the team is located in the area where most of the fans come from that immediate area then they don't end up better off. That's how a lot of small market teams are and those are perpetually complaining about how they don't do well enough so they threaten to move the team. They basically hold the cities hostage as they'll easily be able to find another one that would make as many concessions as they can.

With the profits the NFL makes, there's no reason at all that cities should even have to be asked about it, between the owners and the NFL they should absolutely be fully funding it all themselves.

The NFL doesn't make a profit. It isn't a pro-profit organization. All the money the NFL makes, is paid to it's employees and then divided among the teams for the salary cap. The owners and teams, and their tax status, has little to do with the NFL and it's tax status.

 

[Perknose]

People feel entitled to free football. so now they can watch football for free and the NFL has to suffer due to liberal socialism.*

Liberal socialism? Communism? I hope for your sake you're joking.

If you're not joking, I hope for humanity's sake that you never attempt to reproduce, not that you'd be able to find the honey pot on your own anyway. :awe:

 

[darkswordsman17]

The NFL doesn't make a profit. It isn't a pro-profit organization. All the money the NFL makes, is paid to it's employees and then divided among the teams for the salary cap. The owners and teams, and their tax status, has little to do with the NFL and it's tax status.

Yes it's distributed, but that doesn't even matter as that's just semantics. The NFL (as a group of teams and owners) has the money to be able to fully fund their stadiums. That is the point.

I'm not even talking about how the NFL is tax exempt or whatever, but when teams go to build stadiums they'll get tax exemptions and/or other concessions while they're paying off the public bonds. The cities do not end up making money off of it. The economics are as stuck in the past as the all the other bullshit the NFL is constantly under fire for and just like they're getting hammered for that shit they need to get hammered for their financial horseshit.

 

[smackababy]

Yes it's distributed, but that doesn't even matter as that's just semantics. The NFL (as a group of teams and owners) has the money to be able to fully fund their stadiums. That is the point.

Not even close. The NFL salary cap is $133 million. The estimated cost for the just opened Niner's stadium is $1.3 billion. Few teams have the collateral to do that. Maybe the Cowboys could take a loan of that size based on their value, but few others would or could do that. If the NFL put out $1 billion from their revenue, that is a $31.5 hit to every team in the league. There goes every starting QB and starting RB for every team. Poof! And that is for a single team to get a new stadium. Now, if we let the owners build their own stadiums, and own them, as it would be, does that sound like a great idea?

 

[SlowSpyder]

Finally! The Packers can stop crying when they can't sellout a home playoff game now.

Packers fans kind of take for granted greatness. It happens when you're in the playoff picture almost every year for 20+ years.

 

[smackababy]

Packers fans kind of take for granted greatness. It happens when you're in the playoff picture almost every year for 20+ years.

Must be great being slightly better than the likes of the Lions, Vikings, and Bears... oh my! Two are lucky to win 5 games a year (even if both have the arguably the best player in the league at either WR or RB) and one has the average player age of 123.

 

[pete6032]

i agree. glad the FCC finally did something about it. though i fear the NFL will just start moving games to the NFL channel.

arrrrrr' matey, arrrr'.

 

[lupi]

Packers fans kind of take for granted greatness. It happens when you're in the playoff picture almost every year for 20+ years.

yeah....remember times not being so good prior to someone named favre.