Vikings Beat Blackout, Lose Playoff Game

Coming from a huge deficit, with much riding on the outcome, the Minnesota Vikings needed a second overtime to score a big victory this past weekend.

No, we're not talking about the Vikings' playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles at the Metrodome, which they actually lost 26-14. We're referring to the efforts made to get the stadium sold out so the game could be seen on local television, which included extending the deadline twice, ads during bowl games, and embarrassing begging by players such as Jared Allen just to get folks to buy tickets.

This contrived drama, reported by the local media with the same importance as the recount between Norm Coleman and Al Franken for Minnesota's U.S. Senate seat, was necessitated by the National Football League's TV blackout policy. It simply states that, if the stadium isn't sold out for a game 72 hours before kickoff, it is blacked out on local TV.

The rule forces fans to pony up for expensive tickets, even in a down economy, unless some TV station or corporation bought the remainder first. This results in papering the house, as fans buy tickets but don't use them.

In the years B.C. (Before Cable), professional sports leagues routinely limited telecasts of home games out of fear that the gate would be harmed. Now the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball televise nearly every game to its home markets, whether it's a local or network telecast. And the teams' bottom lines haven't been hurt all that much.

So what's the NFL's excuse? Why are they still the only pro sports league with a blackout policy?

The NFL has dwarfed all other leagues in popularity and TV ratings, but still clings to a business model rooted in the 1950s. If Congress hadn't intervened back in the 1970s, the NFL would still be blacking out home games whether they were sold out or not.

Is this any way to encourage fan loyalty if you price them out of the (usually taxpayer-financed) stadium, then threaten to take away their games on TV if there's no sellout?

It's not as if the NFL and its teams are on the verge of bankruptcy. They'll still spend millions on players regardless of talent, and to twist the arms of local politicians to get them to fund new stadiums. But they shouldn't be taking its fans for granted.

There's one sure-fire way to avoid the weekly drama of sellout-or-no sellout: win games. The Vikings won the NFC North division title in spite of inconsistent play, two mediocre quarterbacks, players who have so far avoided suspension for allegedly using a diuretic banned by the league, calls for coach Brad Childress' firing, and the weakness of other teams in its division. No wonder they had trouble selling out this playoff game.