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49rs Fans Brace For Sticker Shock

So now the solution to have any individuals and not just corporations at games is to have a mortgage on the seats? Teams better get ready for lots of blackout games in bad years because ardent individual fans will still attend a 2-14 season. Corporations won't. And the whole vibe of the stadium will be different as well. Two-thirds of the seats around us are corporate and they are largely unenthusiastic and ignorant. (I don't mean someone scamming the IRS by running his tickets through his company and then shows up every week but truly corporate owned seats where someone different shows up each week).

It really is a damn shame it has gotten to the point you are basically spending a pretty nice TV every time you take your family of four to the game.
 
infantrycak said:
So now the solution to have any individuals and not just corporations at games is to have a mortgage on the seats? Teams better get ready for lots of blackout games in bad years because ardent individual fans will still attend a 2-14 season. Corporations won't. And the whole vibe of the stadium will be different as well. Two-thirds of the seats around us are corporate and they are largely unenthusiastic and ignorant. (I don't mean someone scamming the IRS by running his tickets through his company and then shows up every week but truly corporate owned seats where someone different shows up each week).

It really is a damn shame it has gotten to the point you are basically spending a pretty nice TV every time you take your family of four to the game.
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And a large number of these supposed corporate seats are, I'm sure you've noticed, uninhabited during the games, since these mostly disinterested people are using the general facilities higher up to have their social gatherings to shoot the breeze concerning anything but the Texans, eat and drink.
 
CloakNNNdagger said:
And a large number of these supposed corporate seats are, I'm sure you've noticed, uninhabited during the games, since these mostly disinterested people are using the general facilities higher up to have their social gatherings to shoot the breeze concerning anything but the Texans, eat and drink.
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You've been to our seats. For the most part the corporate people stay in them for most of the game. A good example would be the four seats to our right which are owned by Coca-Cola. What happens there is totally random. Many games it is a group that is "meh, what the hell free tickets." A lot of other times it is a group just there to be drunk and rowdy. I think it is a large part of the problem why we have problems with noise on offense. Seats which are handed out to clients and employees at random just aren't gong to provide the same knowledgeable interested fan base. I mean seriously, there was a guy last year who asked why they didn't put Rosenfels in instead of TJ.
 
Did you see the comments at the bottom? One poster said that they had season tickets since the 40s and in order to keep their seats, they would have to pay over $300,000! Thats shameful.
 
jaayteetx said:
Did you see the comments at the bottom? One poster said that they had season tickets since the 40s and in order to keep their seats, they would have to pay over $300,000! Thats shameful.
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$320,000 for four seats to be exact. 80,000 per seat is just absolutely insane. I hope they fail to sell these because if they are successful in extorting this money, bank on these prices to to be the norm at stadiums all over.
 
Sounds like PSL's the Texans charge for. Which is also the reason I don't own season tickets.

And everything is more expensive in Cali. A two bedroom 600 sqft house cost $300K there and here you will pay $30K.
 
TEXANRED said:
Sounds like PSL's the Texans charge for. Which is also the reason I don't own season tickets.

And everything is more expensive in Cali. A two bedroom 600 sqft house cost $300K there and here you will pay $30K.
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In northern California, a loaf of bread goes for about $3.75 in the grocery stores and $4.00 -$5.00 in bakeries/bread stores
 
It's already happening here in Tampa. From what I am hearing the Bucs used to sell out all the time. Now that the economy is so bad here most can't afford the ridiculous amount of money you have to spend to go to a NFL game. So they get blacked out every home game which doesn't help anyone.

Personally, I think blacking out the game is counter productive to the teams and the NFL. I don't think that causes more people to go to the games. If anything, few get excited about the team because they are not seeing them on TV and will have no desire to go see them in person.

Case in point, since I moved here I started following and watching the Rays because they are on TV here. Because of watching them on TV I now have interest in going to see them live. If they were not televised here I would have no interest in going to one of their games.

The NFL seriously needs to reconsider their stupid blackout rules.
 
Hookem Horns said:
It's already happening here in Tampa. From what I am hearing the Bucs used to sell out all the time. Now that the economy is so bad here most can't afford the ridiculous amount of money you have to spend to go to a NFL game. So they get blacked out every home game which doesn't help anyone.

Personally, I think blacking out the game is counter productive to the teams and the NFL. I don't think that causes more people to go to the games. If anything, few get excited about the team because they are not seeing them on TV and will have no desire to go see them in person.

Case in point, since I moved here I started following and watching the Rays because they are on TV here. Because of watching them on TV I now have interest in going to see them live. If they were not televised here I would have no interest in going to one of their games.

The NFL seriously needs to reconsider their stupid blackout rules.
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I don't know how many games get blacked out, but does it happen all that often?

I would think that the NFL agrees with your point and almost uses the threat of a black out as a scare tactic. I could be wrong though as I have no clue about how often they actually do it.

Any jags fans here?
 
I literally live one mile from the new stadium. Since I'm a Texans fan, I could care less. I'm actually trying to convince the wife we should move.
 
16 games in 2011. Keep in mind some games were "saved" from blackout by some entity buying out bulk tickets remaining prior to deadlines.

13 2011 NFL Blackouts to Date (December 12)......3 more making a total of 16 were to come before the end of the season

9/11 Lions at Bucs
9/25 49ers at Bengals
9/25 Falcons at Bucs
10/02 Dolphins at Chargers
10/02 Bills at Bengals
10/16 Colts at Bengals
10/16 Saints at Bucs
11/13 Texans at Bucs
11/27 Browns at Bengals
12/04 Panthers at Bucs
12/04 Titans at Bills
12/11 Texans at Bengals
12/11 Bills at Chargers

NFL Blackouts: 16 Games in 2011, NFL Cares 0
 
Rey said:
I don't know how many games get blacked out, but does it happen all that often?

I would think that the NFL agrees with your point and almost uses the threat of a black out as a scare tactic. I could be wrong though as I have no clue about how often they actually do it.

Any jags fans here?
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According to what Cloak posted below 5 Bucs games got blacked out. Surprisingly 0 Jags games were blacked out. I think the difference is the Jags buy out the remaining seats to get the games on TV and I was reading that the Glaziers (Bucs) refuse to do that. In 2010 every home Bucs game was blacked out.

BTW, buying the NFL Sunday Ticket doesn't help. My brother in law has the Sunday Ticket and the Bucs games are blacked out there too. However because we are more than an hour away from the stadium bars are allowed to air the games (go figure). So if I would have lived here last year I could have gone to a bar to watch the Texans at Bucs game.
 
infantrycak said:
So now the solution to have any individuals and not just corporations at games is to have a mortgage on the seats? Teams better get ready for lots of blackout games in bad years because ardent individual fans will still attend a 2-14 season. Corporations won't. And the whole vibe of the stadium will be different as well. Two-thirds of the seats around us are corporate and they are largely unenthusiastic and ignorant. (I don't mean someone scamming the IRS by running his tickets through his company and then shows up every week but truly corporate owned seats where someone different shows up each week).

It really is a damn shame it has gotten to the point you are basically spending a pretty nice TV every time you take your family of four to the game.
Click to expand...

Yep, football is beginning to price itself out of the market. When I was a kid, I dreamed about being a season ticket holder for the Oilers. My dad and I went to a few games and I loved the experience. I would always tell him the first big purchase I would make (after getting a job) would be season tickets.

When I was in college and grad school, I would make it a point to go to sportsbars every week to watch the Texans. Every year around Christmas, my dad and I would attend a Texans game together. The first game in the inaugural season against Tennessee cost us $35 a piece. The last game we went to (a couple of years ago against the Jags) cost us nearly $75 a piece.

Recently my dad asked me if I was going to get season tickets and I said nope. The tickets are far too expensive. I spent years watching the Texans on crummy bar tvs. I recently bought a 52 inch HD TV for my apartment and with the advent of really good broadcast signals the experience at home is fantastic. Obviously it is not as good, as being at the game, but for a fraction of the cost, its a pretty good substitute.

The NFL has to be careful. It was people like me who grew up wanting to be season ticket holders and now no longer think it is financially worthwhile.
 
Hookem Horns said:
According to what Cloak posted below 5 Bucs games got blacked out. Surprisingly 0 Jags games were blacked out. I think the difference is the Jags buy out the remaining seats to get the games on TV and I was reading that the Glaziers (Bucs) refuse to do that. In 2010 every home Bucs game was blacked out.

BTW, buying the NFL Sunday Ticket doesn't help. My brother in law has the Sunday Ticket and the Bucs games are blacked out there too. However because we are more than an hour away from the stadium bars are allowed to air the games (go figure). So if I would have lived here last year I could have gone to a bar to watch the Texans at Bucs game.
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And the funny thing is, by blacking out the signal, all the NFL is doing is forcing people to seek out pirated signals. If they allowed the bars to televise the game, they would probably make a decent amount of money of it. Sometimes the NFL is very penny-wise, pound -foolish.
 
CloakNNNdagger said:
16 games in 2011. Keep in mind some games were "saved" from blackout by some entity buying out bulk tickets remaining prior to deadlines.

13 2011 NFL Blackouts to Date (December 12)......3 more making a total of 16 were to come before the end of the season

9/11 Lions at Bucs
9/25 49ers at Bengals
9/25 Falcons at Bucs
10/02 Dolphins at Chargers
10/02 Bills at Bengals
10/16 Colts at Bengals
10/16 Saints at Bucs
11/13 Texans at Bucs
11/27 Browns at Bengals
12/04 Panthers at Bucs
12/04 Titans at Bills
12/11 Texans at Bengals
12/11 Bills at Chargers

NFL Blackouts: 16 Games in 2011, NFL Cares 0
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Wow, I was way off. I didn't realize it was that much. I guess they actually don't give a damn.
 
Rey said:
Wow, I was way off. I didn't realize it was that much. I guess they actually don't give a damn.
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That number would be two or three times higher but the NFL has a couple special provisions to avoid blackouts. They will extend the deadline for selling the tickets. Then I don't know the details but there is a way for the teams to dump tickets at something like 34 cents on the dollar in bulk.
 
CloakNNNdagger said:
16 games in 2011. Keep in mind some games were "saved" from blackout by some entity buying out bulk tickets remaining prior to deadlines.

13 2011 NFL Blackouts to Date (December 12)......3 more making a total of 16 were to come before the end of the season

9/11 Lions at Bucs
9/25 49ers at Bengals
9/25 Falcons at Bucs
10/02 Dolphins at Chargers
10/02 Bills at Bengals
10/16 Colts at Bengals
10/16 Saints at Bucs
11/13 Texans at Bucs
11/27 Browns at Bengals
12/04 Panthers at Bucs
12/04 Titans at Bills
12/11 Texans at Bengals
12/11 Bills at Chargers

NFL Blackouts: 16 Games in 2011, NFL Cares 0
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MERCY!! Glad I'm not a fan of a B team!! :)
 
CloakNNNdagger said:
16 games in 2011. Keep in mind some games were "saved" from blackout by some entity buying out bulk tickets remaining prior to deadlines.

13 2011 NFL Blackouts to Date (December 12)......3 more making a total of 16 were to come before the end of the season

9/11 Lions at Bucs
9/25 49ers at Bengals
9/25 Falcons at Bucs
10/02 Dolphins at Chargers
10/02 Bills at Bengals
10/16 Colts at Bengals
10/16 Saints at Bucs
11/13 Texans at Bucs
11/27 Browns at Bengals
12/04 Panthers at Bucs
12/04 Titans at Bills
12/11 Texans at Bengals
12/11 Bills at Chargers

NFL Blackouts: 16 Games in 2011, NFL Cares 0
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A lot of folks aren't going to Bills, Bucs and Bengals games. :lol:
 
Hookem Horns said:
LOL, so true .. both B and C teams.
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SheTexan said:
MERCY!! Glad I'm not a fan of a B team!! :)
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Another "C" team may add its name to that club.........the COLTS!

The post-Peyton Colts have 3,000 season tickets available, even after going through their waiting list. Which gives the term “waiting” a far different meaning.

After a 2-14 season in 2011 and in recognition of the reality that the Colts were 3-13 in Peyton Manning’s rookie season, Colts fans aren’t waiting for the ability to buy tickets. They’re waiting for a team that gives them a reason to.

Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star is “shocked” (and possibly perplexed) by the availability of season tickets, and he thinks those who are choosing to wait for a winner will regret their decision, in time.

“We’re not a football town or a basketball town; we’re a winners town,” Kravitz writes. ”More specifically, a Peyton Manning town. You win, people show. You lose, people go to the movies instead.”

Or maybe watch the Broncos game.
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link
 
infantrycak said:
That number would be two or three times higher but the NFL has a couple special provisions to avoid blackouts. They will extend the deadline for selling the tickets. Then I don't know the details but there is a way for the teams to dump tickets at something like 34 cents on the dollar in bulk.
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That's crazy. I guess I'm just spoiled. When I'm not at games I'm almost always able to watch.

If I couldn't go to a game and it was blacked out I'd be hurt.
 
Rey said:
That's crazy. I guess I'm just spoiled. When I'm not at games I'm almost always able to watch.

If I couldn't go to a game and it was blacked out I'd be hurt.
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If the Texans weren't selling out and you lived in Houston the only way to watch the game (besides being there) would be with a pirated stream. Local bars couldn't even carry them.

Didn't the Oilers go through this in the late 80's?
 
June 05, 2012
Why is the Government Propping Up NFL Blackouts?
You may not know it, but the NFL is allowed to black out fans because of government subsidies it lobbied for 50 years ago. The Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 — which was pushed through Congress by then-NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle — allows teams to collectively negotiate broadcast contracts and allows teams to black out home games on broadcast television in the local markets. The SBA thus codified the anti-fan practice of blacking out fans from seeing their favorite teams play home games.

Here’s the provision of the Sports Broadcasting Act that relates to blackouts:

[The Sports Broadcasting Act] shall not apply to any joint agreement… which prohibits any person to whom rights are sold or transferred from televising any games within any area, except within the home territory of a member club of the league on a day when such club is playing a game at home.
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Because the SBA only refers to broadcasting of games, the FCC later adopted its sports blackout rule, which states that if a local broadcaster can’t air a home game, then cable and satellite providers cannot either. As you may know, Sports Fans Coalition has asked the FCC to eliminate its rule. (We eventually plan to target the SBA’s language on blackouts.)

So the NFL has lobbied for — and received — multiple subsidies from the federal government, including:

1) the right to collectively negotiate television broadcast contracts
2) an antitrust exemption for its merger with the American Football League
3) nonprofit status so it doesn’t have to pay taxes
4) the right to black out fans from games on broadcast television
5) the right to black out fans from games on cable and satellite television

And then there are numerous subsidies granted by state and local governments and the over $7 billion in stadium subsidies…

Given the massive resources we’ve devoted towards the National Football League, it’s completely unethical that they repay fans by blacking them out. But it’s totally unacceptable that the government is in the business of propping up those blackouts.
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MLB fans are already fed up........this could very well spill over to the NFL et al.

May 22, 2012
Fans Suing MLB, DirecTV, Comcast Over TV Package Costs, Blackouts
This story slipped under the radar last week, but is definitely a huge stroy in the world of sports, media and politics. According to the Hollywood Reporter, several fans have filed a class-action suit against MLB and some of its broadcasting partners, including Comcast and DirecTV. The suit encompasses several different claims, including how much out-of-market fans should have to pay to see their favorite teams and how baseball’s convoluted blackout rules keep some fans from seeing their favorite teams even with packages that show all games. According to the Hollywood Reporter:

The latest challenge comes from a class of plaintiffs led by Fernanda Garber, who lives in Oakland and pays for Comcast service; Marc Lerner, who lives in Mississippi, and would prefer not to pay high out-of-market package fees to watch his favored New York Yankees; Derek Rasmussen, who lives in Indiana and has to pay a lot to see his favored Milwaukee Brewers; and Robert Silver, who lives in Philadelphia and canceled DirecTV because of high prices allegedly attributable to the defendants’ actions.

These plaintiffs assert that MLB’s 30 teams are an “illegal cartel” that make “agreements to eliminate competition in the distribution of games over the Internet and television.”

Baseball has traditionally relied on its antitrust exemption when push comes to shove, but it’s uncertain if MLB will do so in this case, or — given the Supreme Court’s recent decision in American Needle that the NFL could not collude to license its properties — whether the courts would overturn that antitrust exemption.

Stay tuned…
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Hookem Horns said:
If the Texans weren't selling out and you lived in Houston the only way to watch the game (besides being there) would be with a pirated stream. Local bars couldn't even carry them.

Didn't the Oilers go through this in the late 80's?
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I remember some of the run & shoot years being blacked-out...or at least threatening black-out until a local company bought the remaining tickets.

I was way to poor to buy an Oiler ticket for every game. Lucky if I could scrape together enough funds for one game a year.

Sucks to ask taxpayers to fund these stadiums but then screw the poor folks by playing these black-out games.

I just dawned on me in this thread that we have generations of football fans in this city that have never experienced the dread of the black-out deadline. Man, I used to hate that feeling, not knowing if we had a game to look forward to, and then the relief when someone picked up the rest of the tickets right before a deadline.
 
Double Barrel said:
I just dawned on me in this thread that we have generations of football fans in this city that have never experienced the dread of the black-out deadline. Man, I used to hate that feeling, not knowing if we had a game to look forward to, and then the relief when someone picked up the rest of the tickets right before a deadline.
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Heck we are almost the same age and I have never faced a blackout having been an evil Cowboys fan and then a Texans fan. Even when I was gone from Texas the local team was the Niners so it wasn't an issue there either - they made the playoffs every year I was there except one and that was a 10-6 season.
 
lol! Good point. The reason that I know so much Cowboys history is because the games were always on!

I remember the Oilers black-outs and my dad saying how much he hated the Cowboys. But, often being the only game on tv, it was either watch that game or no football at all.
 
infantrycak said:
Heck we are almost the same age and I have never faced a blackout having been an evil Cowboys fan and then a Texans fan. Even when I was gone from Texas the local team was the Niners so it wasn't an issue there either - they made the playoffs every year I was there except one and that was a 10-6 season.
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Talk about being spoiled. We had a perennial playoff team and the damn games were still blacked out. I was fortunate enough to have lived down the street from a pool hall that let in minors so I could watch the game.

The one thing I loathed more than anything is having to listen to the radio for the game. I cringe at the thought of having to do so again.
 
This might bring back some memories............BAD memories. Excuse me, I think I'll go and play darts with Bud's face now.

Oilers playoff tickets still available
JOHN WILLIAMS Staff
WED 12/30/1987 HOUSTON CHRONICLE, Section Sports, Page 2, 2 STAR Edition

For Houston Oilers fans who want to attend Sunday's playoff game with the Seattle Seahawks, you're in luck - tickets are still available.

But for fans who want to watch the game on television, luck may be running low - again. If the remaining tickets are not sold by 3 p.m. Thursday, the game will be blacked out in the Houston area, as has every Oilers home game this year.

And at least two managers of agencies that resell tickets predicted Tuesday a blackout could be inevitable because, they said, the Oilers have had problems getting tickets in customers' hands.

"This has been the biggest rush we have ever had for a sporting event, even bigger than when the Rockets were in the playoffs," said Jim Barr, owner of Ticket Attractions, which is selling 50-yard-line seats for $100 even though the Oilers are selling tickets for the same location for $30.

"The Oilers have done such a poor job of selling the tickets that no one wants to wait in line. They'd rather purchase from us at higher prices than wait hours. And I do mean hours."

The problem is two-fold, said Barr and Steve Schnarr, manager of Front Row, another ticket agency.

The Oilers did not have enough salesmen processing tickets at the Astrodome and Oilers headquarters, where the tickets for better seats are being sold, Barr and Schnarr said.

Secondly, Oilers management accommodated season-ticket holders even though they had passed the deadline for renewing their tickets and becoming eligible for the playoff ducats. The process was time-consuming, they said, and unfair to others who wanted tickets.

Schnarr said he went to the Oilers headquarters at 6910 Fannin at 6 p.m. Monday and was eighth in line. He spent the night bundled in heavy clothes and a sleeping bag. When the ticket office opened at 8 a.m. Tuesday, he was ready to purchase 10 tickets.

"I didn't get my tickets until 11:45 that morning," Schnarr said. "That means by noon - halfway through the day - they only sold tickets to about 10 people at the most."

Tickets are being offered for resale for $35 to $40 for end-zone seats, $60 to $69 for 10-yard-line seats and $100 to $125 for midfield seats.

Schnarr said he had others buy tickets for him and he had sold about 200 by 6 p.m. Tuesday.

"We do real good when the Oilers mess up," Schnarr said. "And if the game is a blackout, we will do even better."

Oilers spokesman Rick Nichols said that with the short notice given for the game - the Oilers got into the playoffs by winning Sunday - sales have gone well.

At 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, he could not estimate how many tickets had been sold, but he said, "We still have plenty in good locations."

Nichols said he doubted that people waited as long for tickets as Schnarr claimed.

He also said making special allocations for season-ticket holders just for Tuesday may have slowed things down "just a little bit" but did not "create a problem."

Tickets for the 3 p.m. kickoff are also on sale at Rainbow Ticketmaster and Ticketron outlets, where the wait is not as long. Prices range from $12 for standing room to $37 for sky-box seats. Each purchaser is limited to 10 tickets.
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PSLs may be a good investment, or a bad one
Posted by Mike Florio on June 17, 2012, 10:58 AM EDT

It’s fitting, we suppose, that a sport featuring a franchise that has made millions selling phony stock certificates also has multiple franchises selling phony seating rights that can become very real investments.

The concept of the Personal Seat License has become popular in the NFL over the last generation, with teams selling not only tickets to games but also the right to sit in the seats that correspond to said tickets. As detailed by Mike Rosenberg of the San Jose Mercury News, the PSLs can rise and fall in value over time, based in large part on the quality of the product that the home team puts on the field.

In Pittsburgh, PSLs have been resold at 17 times their initial value. In Dallas, where the Cowboys continue to be mired in a one-playoff-win-since-1996 slump, the PSLs to Jerry Jones’ palace in North Dallas are selling now for less than their original price. In Carolina, the success of the Panthers during their first decade of existence pushed the value of the PSLs to triple their starting price. During a 2-14 disaster in 2010, the PSLs were selling for less than their original 1995 price.

Despite the very real possibility of making money, Rosenberg explains that the SEC prohibits teams to advertise PSLs as an investment — and to include language in the PSL contract in which the buyers acknowledge that they have no expectation of profiting.

Still, that’s precisely what a PSL is. And so the folks in the Bay Area who will be paying anywhere from $2,000 to $80,000 per chair for the privilege/obligation of thereafter buying season tickets every year should understand that, unlike the folks who purchased stock* from the Packers, the PSL represents an ass-in-seat asset that may appreciate or diminish based on whether and to what extent the 49ers flourish or fail in the future.
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Sorry, I don't get why people are shocked or surprised at the PSL (or whatever term the 49ers want to use). This is no different than when the new Meadowlands stadium was built, the season ticket holders that had a PSL at Giants stadium were "caught off-guard" when they found out they'd have to pay a new PSL.

If I hold my current seats/tickets for 40 years, and the price doesn't increase between now and then, I'll have payed around $310,000 for my tickets and the PSL that I had to purchase.

I do agree with the comments about the NFL having too much power regarding the ability to blackout games. I also agree that the mentality behind blacking out games is one that doesn't quite pass the logic test and needs to be refreshed and tailored to better suit the attitudes of todays consumer, vice the consumers from the 60s/70s.

Edit: Yes, I understand that people might be up in arms about the minimum PSL fee being $2,000, but you have until 2014 to come up with that money. It really shouldn't be that big of a deal.

Edit: My price is for 2 tickets, vice what ever 49ers fan is complaining having that be 4 tickets. (not complaining about what I pay, just saying that "it could be worse" I guess).
 
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