[ttwarrior1]

The NFL has relaxed local television blackout rules, a league spokesman confirmed to NFL.com and NFL Network on Saturday.

Home teams now will have the option of selling 85 percent of game tickets to avoid a blackout in their local TV market. Previously, teams had to sell out games or receive an exception from the league for the game to be shown on local TV.
The change comes as league-wide attendance has declined over the past five years, the newspaper said.

Lowering the blackout threshold also is a matter of how revenue is shared, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said.
"It's optional if clubs want to do this and would only affect a few teams," McCarthy said in an email. "Last year only 6 percent of games were blacked out in a local market. This figure is down significantly from 15 to 20 years ago when 25 to 30 percent of games were routinely blacked out."
The blackout rule originally was meant to spur fans to attend games.
"If a team chooses to do so, it may set its capacity number needed for a blackout to be lifted at 85 percent of overall capacity," McCarthy added about the new rule. "More revenue than usual will be shared with the visiting clubs for tickets sold above that base number."
At the same meeting, owners also voted to add high speed wireless interent to all stadiums in an effort to add home-like services to the game-day experience.
"We believe that it is important to get technology into our stadiums," Goodell said in May. "We have made the point repeatedly that the experience at home is outstanding, and we have to compete with that in some fashion by making sure that we create the same kind of environment in our stadiums and create the same kind of technology."
The league also will begin showing the same replays in stadiums that game officials see when reviewing plays, the Wall Street Journal report said.

[big joe 1212]

[SparJMU]

The only aspect of this article that is interesting is the fact that they will begin showing the same replays in stadiums that they show on TV. Whenever there is a critical challenge on the field, everyone always turns to their cell phones to get information from friends at home. It will be nice to be able to see the same replays.

[Smoke]

Thanks Titty!

[slacker00]

I always thought the blackout rule was stupid.

[MartinBlank]

Good post Tits.

Thanks for the heads up.

[Mr KLC]

More people will now be able to watch the game on their regular TV now, instead of looking for it on the internet.