Jacksonville is expecting 10 Blackouts this season!

[The Dean]

You are correct that they don't count towards the sellout. However there are more than 10,000 covered seats. The NFL "capacity" is 67,164. The capacity for the annual Florida UGA game better known as the World's Largest Cocktail party is north of 84,000. So there are at least 17,000 fewer NFL seats.

 

Also, tickets in premium "club" areas do not count against the blackout. In Jacksonville, every lower bowl seat between the 20's is a "club" seat. (Link to the Jags seating chart, see the gray areas)That's, conservatively, 25% of the remaining uncovered capacity of the entire stadium. So really Jacksonville only needs to sell about 50,000 seats to be allowed to call it a sellout.

 

So let's say it plainly, Jacksonville's stadium can accomodate about 5 to 10 thousand more people than ours (Super Bowl attendance was 78k+). They have to sell fewer tickets than we have season ticket holders to avoid blackouts, have 300k more people in the metro area to sell them to, have a consistently good playoff team, and can't do it to the point that they are announcing season long blackouts in August. They can't even get close enough for it to be worth anyone's while to buy up the rest to get them on TV.

 

BTW - The city of Jacksonville covers almost all of Duval County which is why it's population is so high. The city covers 875 square miles. All of Erie County covers about 1,050. Buffalo would jump dramatically in size if it encompassed the whole metro area. (which is a good idea because it gets you more federal money, but that's a different discussion).

 

Jacksonville is a pathetic excuse of an NFL franchise and if they ever move the Bills before a team with tarps the NFL should be ashamed of itself.

 

 

Excellent info.

 

I believe NFL attendance (before the tarping) was always around 78,000 (the same as the Super Bowl number) and not the college capacity, That's where I came up with the 10,000 estimate. But you are correct, the numbers are way worse than they look on the surface, and that's pretty bad.

[Chalkie Gerzowski]

Looks like Karl Childers doesn't have 50,000 friends to help him out.

 

[Delete This Account]

the storm last night caused a blackout at our place in Buffalo. i don't know what the big deal is. i'm sure Jax gets itself a share of storms, this especially being hurricane season and all.

 

jw

 

bye for now.

[bdelma]

My source (the506.com boards) says the Chargers' last four blackouts were in 2004, but I've heard those same stories. In fact, a previous version of their lease with the city (1999-2003 is the period cited) included a provision that San Diego had to buy any remaining tickets, thus guaranteeing sellouts. So after residents got used to not having to pay to watch the team, it makes sense that the box office got hammered in '04.

 

Also interesting to learn that one-third of NFL games were consistently blacked out even in the mid-90s.

I've been told by the locals, its the economy here in san diego. That is the reason. Don't forget their mortgages are $3000 a month.

[Lori]

the storm last night caused a blackout at our place in Buffalo. i don't know what the big deal is. i'm sure Jax gets itself a share of storms, this especially being hurricane season and all.

 

jw

 

bye for now.

Everybody's a friggin' comedian. What are you, a professional writer or something?

 

Good weekend, sir.

[BillsWatch]

I listen to 1050AM out of NYC every day, and I can tell you on their "NY Football Tonight" show they were talking about blackouts, and they couldn't understand how ANY NFL team blacks out. Thought in my head at the time: "Well, dumbasses, of course YOU can't imagine it...your teams have a 65000 seat stadium in a metro area of what, 10 million?"

 

 

Being a dumbass is almost a requirement to live in NYC.

 

Everybody's a friggin' comedian. What are you, a professional writer or something?

 

Good weekend, sir.

 

Don't give up your day job JW

[The Dean]

Being a dumbass is almost a requirement to live in NYC.

 

 

 

Sarah? Is that you?

[EndZoneCrew]

There's a Bills fan from Jax on here that defends the Jags not moving...

 

He is a douche

[RLflutie7]

I like this response on PFT:

 

 

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2009/...ckouts-in-2009/

 

# Bender says: August 21, 2009 8:09 AM

 

This whole "we know its hard times" line is total bull. They want blackouts. If they didn't they would price seats so that a family of four could reasonably enjoy a day at the game for the same as a night at the movies.

 

Right now they are getting ZERO dollars for every empty seat, when they could be getting 15 or 20.

 

They want blackouts, they want a reason to move the team.

 

 

Um, don't they have the cheapest seat in the league?

 

 

I think cheap tickets are the biggest problem with a team selling out. If tickets are too much, then people won't go.

 

But the weather is a factor in Jacksonville too. It's too hot in September. Trust me, I know. I lived in Phoenix for 10 years and the Cardinals had games with 19K in the stands. The Cards got a new domed stadium and every game sold out.

 

An exception would be Tampa Bay. They seem to show up and support their team and every game is sold out. However, the Dolphins always have trouble in September. I see a lot of empty seats in that hot weather.

 

I think the USFL had problems when it was too hot and I think the UFL will have trouble in Vegas with over 100 temps.

[RLflutie7]

Watching the Bengals game last night on NFL Network, they were pumping tickets for their HOME OPENER all through last nights game. Teams will be struggling this year, and I'm guessing while the NFL's popularity is at an all time high, teams that are bad are going to start encountering sales problems and blackouts.

 

 

And this could be a problem for years to come with the credit cards and home equity loans being cut off.

[Big Turk]

But if you include the greater metropolitan areas surrounding cities, Jacksonville (#40) is not much bigger than Buffalo (#47) and is actually much smaller when you combine Rochester (#51) and also parts of the Toronto/Golden Horseshoe area:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_Unit...atistical_Areas

 

Bottom line: it's a 6-team race (Bills, Jags, Raiders, Chargers, Vikings, Rams) to fill the 1-3 market voids that the NFL is interested in filling (L.A., a 2nd team in L.A., and Toronto). The wild cards for us Bills fans are Ralph's health and the economy's health.

 

Yeah, this area still has a very large population living within 90 minutes of Buffalo....always makes me laugh when they call us a small market...there is only what, like 15 million people within 90 minutes of Buffalo?

[Yoho]

During my teens years ( i'm 45 now, you do the math) I don't remember any Bills home games on TV. When the Bills played at the Rockpile on Jefferson Ave My Father, Mother and I used to walk to the Stadium and watch the games. (we lived only 6 blocks away at the time.)

 

Think I went to every home game between 69-76 when I was a kid. The only reason we went because my Father loved to see OJ run.... thanks Dad for the season Tickets.

 

I remember asking my father one Sunday on the way to the game, why don't we watch the games on TV ?

He said they never show the home games on TV because of the Blackout rule.

Back in those days either you saw the game live or waited for the highlights to come on TV. Channel 7 was my favorite back then because of Rick Azar, who did the broadcasts on the Radio before Van Miller got the job.

 

But most of the time when I was a teenager I listened to Vans Broadcast of the home games . I start going to the games with friends ( which means the parking lot experience)on the regular after we signed Jim Kelly back in 86'.

 

I have to make this correction. Rick Azar did NOT do the Bills broadcasts before "Van Miller got the job". Van had the job beginning with the Bills in 1960. For some awful, godforsaken reason, for a few years in the 70's the Bills hired Al Meltzer (from Philly) to do the play by play and Rick Azar to do the color. So for the rest of eternity we have to listen to their description of OJ breaking the 2000 yard barrier instead of Van. It is just wrong. And for those of us following the Bills for the whole 49 years, just an injustice.

[RJ (not THAT RJ)]

I have to make this correction. Rick Azar did NOT do the Bills broadcasts before "Van Miller got the job". Van had the job beginning with the Bills in 1960. For some awful, godforsaken reason, for a few years in the 70's the Bills hired Al Meltzer (from Philly) to do the play by play and Rick Azar to do the color. So for the rest of eternity we have to listen to their description of OJ breaking the 2000 yard barrier instead of Van. It is just wrong. And for those of us following the Bills for the whole 49 years, just an injustice.

 

Well put, Yoho... Since I started listening to the Bills, I started out hearing Meltzer, Azar, and Rutkowski, but remember well how excited my father was in 1978 when the Bills announced that "Van and Stan [barron] were back."

 

I wonder what was behind the decision to drop Van in 1971. Was is a power play by WKBW when they got the rights to the games?

[eball]

I have to make this correction. Rick Azar did NOT do the Bills broadcasts before "Van Miller got the job". Van had the job beginning with the Bills in 1960. For some awful, godforsaken reason, for a few years in the 70's the Bills hired Al Meltzer (from Philly) to do the play by play and Rick Azar to do the color. So for the rest of eternity we have to listen to their description of OJ breaking the 2000 yard barrier instead of Van. It is just wrong. And for those of us following the Bills for the whole 49 years, just an injustice.

Yoho...ho.

 

Anybody see my rum?

[BillsZubaz]

It baffles me they won't be able to sell out a single game this season even while tarping sections off.

 

They don't deserve and NFL team.

[flmike]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacksonville

 

Jacksonville is already the larget city in Florida & the 13th largest in the US. There should be no excuses to fill that stadium.

 

Could you imagine what their attendence would be if they missed the playoffs for a decade? That team is a joke.

 

It's only the largest because they count the entire county in the Metro count. Miami is much bigger in actual city size. I go there frequently and find it to be just a big spread out suburb without much of a center city identity. With the big hispanic population, it would be a good soccer city, but most of the folks care more about college football.

[Yoho]

Yoho...ho.

 

Anybody see my rum?

 

 

Named after the great Mack Yoho. The Bills original kicker. During kickoffs, as he approached the ball the fans would yell "yo" and when he kicked it they would finish it off with "ho". Actually if you check out his stats, he was an absolutely horrible kicker but he also played defensive end.

[SouthGeorgiaBillsFan]

I remember that the comeback game vs the Oilers was blacked out, and I was really pissed. It is hard to believe considering it was a playoff game, but I had to listen to it on the radio =[.

[beerme1]

http://www.jaguars.com/news/article.aspx?id=8125

 

"Saturday’s game between the Jaguars and the Tampa Bay Bucs will be blacked out to local television in Jacksonville. It’s a game that could produce the lowest attendance figure for any game, regular season or preseason, in Jaguars history. The all-time attendance low is 43,363 for a regular-season game against the Houston Texans on Dec. 7, 2003. The preseason low is 44,314 for a game against the Washington Redskins on Aug. 28, 2003.

 

“The fans that can make it, we appreciate you,” coach Jack Del Rio said about the prospect of blackouts this season. “When they’re here, they’re loud and we appreciate them very much.”

 

 

How is it that this teams all time low attendance figure was for a regular season game and not a pre season game?

 

I am now thinking about making this a road trip game. Fly down for about $250 you know you're gonna get a decent seat and it should be warm on Nov 22.

[kasper13]

Bills-Oilers. If I remember correctly, for some reason that year the Bills didn't make season ticket holders buy playoff tickets ahead of time. Bills got crushed in Houston the week before to end the regular season. Plus it was right after Christmas/New Year's and also at that time nobody expected the Bills to go back to the Super Bowl for a 3rd straight year. They did sell 75,411 tickets in 6 days and don't forget that was the pre-internet days. You actually had to go to Rich Stadium or Ticketmaster (may have still been Ticketron at the time) and buy them. Nowadays with the interweb, it would sell out in less than a day. I can remember only two other games not being on TV here in the 90's. The 96 Jacksonville playoff game was blacked out and I believe the opener the following year was blacked out as well.

 

I remember the 1980's very well. Very rare for a Bills game to sell-out in time for the blackout to be lifted until Jim Kelly showed up in 1986. Even in 1980 I think only the Raiders game was on local TV. Really, it didn't get crazy until 1988. I believe only a Packers game didn't sell-out in time to be on TV that year. I taped all the games and that was the only one I can remember. I was at them all so it didn't really matter to me.