Are blackouts a possibility?

It’s pretty clear that Roger Goodell, and the NFL owners, have no intention of waiving the television blackout rule anytime soon . . . . . . . . . . .

Senator John McCain spoke out against the blackout rule recently on the Senate floor, but they have so much to do in Washington these days, the issue kind of fizzled.

The NFL blackout issue is way down on the pecking order in Washington D.C. these days, and governmental action is probably the only way that the blackout rule gets killed.

If the Jets season heads south fast, and they have a bad record entering the second half of the season, you have to wonder a little a bit about the possibility of a Jets blackout, for the first time, in a long time.

The specter of blackouts reared their ugly head at times over the last couple of substandard Jets seasons.

Before leaving the organization, VP Matt Higgins repeatedly told us that the Jets will never be blacked out.

Woody Johnson said the same thing last year.

Clearly they rarely sell all 82,500 tickets to home games.

So how do they get around blackouts?

A few ways.

First of all, they buy the remaining tickets to avoid the blackout.

This is how it works.

To buy the remaining tickets, the team only needs to pay 33 cents on the dollar.

Why only that amount?

You only have to account for the visitors’ share of the gate.

As part of the NFL’s revenue-sharing plan, the visiting team gets 33 percent of the gate on the road.

So in order to fulfill the NFL’s rules, you have to buy up the tickets at 1/3 of the ticket price.

Also, we have to ignore the 82,500 number as the target to hit the sellout number in MetLife Stadium.

We have to remember, the club seats, and the luxury boxes, don’t count towards the sellout number. Those seats aren’t included.

Okay, with all this being considered, you have to wonder, moving forward, how many times will Johnson, along with a local television station, want to buy up these tickets.

Let’s say the Jets are 3-11, and the fans are losing interest, and the Cleveland Browns are coming to town on December 22. Will Johnson (and the local TV affiliate) be inclined to buy up let’s say 10,000 tickets, even at 33 percent on the dollar.

There is no question the NFL is looking at a rough fall at the gate.

The economy is terrible, and a lot of people don’t have the disposal income to be throwing around for a NFL tickets.

The Labor Department issued a jobs report last week, and in it, they reported only 47% of Americans have a full-time job.

Baseball attendance is down 3 percent this year.

Expect NFL to also take an attendance dip.

Also, the NFL has a huge attendance challenge on top of a bad economy.

The home viewing experience is outstanding for NFL fans, with Direct TV, the Red Zone Channel, and amazing, enormous, flat screen HD televisions now much more affordable.

It will be interesting to see how Johnson handles the blackout issue in the fall.

Especially if the team fall out of contention.

July 7, 2013

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