NFL Relaxes on Blackout Rules

NFL teams can individually determine how much of their (publicly-financed) stadiums they will require to be full, denture meaning that some cities may still be subjected to blackouts.

The new policy does not mean lower ticket prices, which continue to go up. The average ticket price last year was $77.

According to a Wall Street Journal report last week, “Team owners have passed a resolution that starting this season will allow for local broadcasts of NFL games even when as few as 85% of tickets are sold. Under the new rule, each team has more flexibility to establish its own seat-sales benchmark as long as it is 85% or higher. To discourage teams from setting easy benchmarks, teams will be forced to share more of the revenue when they exceed it.”