NFL "Recession" and Blackouts

As the NFL season kicked off tonight, the league begins its first year under our recession. Last season they had sold all their seats and sponsorship before the economy truly tanked in late 2008 as Lehman Brothers went bankrupt about a year ago this week. Much has been written about the effects of the economy on the NFL but I don't buy it. 2/3 of the NFL funds come from national sources such as their broadcast deals and licensing which are steady even in this downtimes. So let's say for example you are the Lions, who were last in revenue last year per Forbes and brought in a mere $208 million. $130 million is coming in from the league you do only 66% due to the "bad economy" of the 33% that is local you are still bringing in almost 90% of the revenue from last year. If your company is only down 10% in revenue this year I think your company is going to be OK. The economy is only a crutch because the league could be headed for a lockout so everybody is crying poverty but in reality everybody involved in the NFL is banking due to the national TV contracts.

One real problem the league will face though is going to be local blackouts throughout the country on TV for your local teams. As I type this the Cardinals, Bengals, and Raiders are all facing a potential blackout if can't clear out their inventories by the end of business day today. The Cardinals made the Super Bowl last year. As much as I blame the economy or the fans, some blame is on the teams for not allocating their seats properly to avoid these blackouts. The NFL rolled out a "solution" to the problem by announcing one could watch the game on their website at midnight. Who wants to watch live sports the day after? People will find a way to stream games by using "slingbox" technologies which allow people in the market to to get the game to logon to a website and stream it from somebody who doesn't face the blackout. I imagine a ton of these websites will pop-up soon. If you live in Cincy, Cleveland, Jacksonville, San Diego, Oakland, Detroit, Tampa, St. Louis, or Seattle this same fate might be coming to your team soon so find a friend with Slingbox out of town and an adapter cord so you are all good.