Chargers Home Opener Blacked Out On Local TV

Added on Sep 18, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

Heading into Sunday’s home opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the San Diego Chargers were riding a 48 game sellout streak. That will apparently come to an end and even if there is enough walk up business to keep the streak alive it won’t be in enough time to prevent the game from being blacked out on local TV. According to NFL rules, teams must sell out home games by 72 hours before kickoff or else get the game blacked out on local TV. The Chargers were 7,000 tickets short when Thursday’s deadline passed.

The last time a Chargers’ home game was blacked out was in 2004, and fans responded creatively. Some headed up to El Centro which is just out of the league’s mandated blackout area. Jaime Honold of El Centro-based Burgers and Beer remembered:

“In previous years, we had a lot of people when they blacked out the games. We had a lot of people come watch the games.”

Other fans are taking a more time honored approach–they’re complaining about it as if the right to televised home games of the local NFL team was enumerated in the US Constitution. Obviously local businesses aren’t happy because they take a financial hit like the owner of local eatery Oggi’s:

“On a regular Sunday, we will do about $5,000. On a football Sunday, we will do $12,000. Without the Chargers, we’ll probably do $8,000.”

One of his employees is also feeling the pinch:

“It’s kind of a bummer for me because I use this money to pay rent. It’s a big moneymaker on that day.”

The local TV station quoted this guy who’d head over to the stadium if he were somehow comped the ducats:

“If I could win tickets or something like that, definitely I would go.”

Politicians are attempting to curry favor with voters by getting involved in an issue they have no real business dealing with. To some extent, I’m sympathetic–it costs a lot to go to a NFL game, SoCal’s economy is still shaky, so on and so forth. Still, if the games are important enough to you you’ll find a way to see them either on TV or at the arena. Much of the whining is just the typical entitlement mentality of so many in our country. The rules governing NFL blackouts are well known, so its not like this snuck up on anyone. I’ll listen to the argument that they should be changed, but its not like the NFL hasn’t been consistent in their application. Basically, there’s a lot of people out there who want everything handed to them and just assume that someone else will pick up the tab. Here’s my tip–get a little creative and you can find someone, somewhere streaming the game online. If you won’t make the effort to do a quick Google search and find such a feed, quit complaining. Just listen to the game on the radio. Or go outside and enjoy some sunshine. After all, its just a football game….