For backers and/or masochists, buying a ticket is the best way to see a Buffalo Bills game. But those who choose to tailgate in the kitchen deserve to be able to catch the action in the den.
That’s true regardless of whether every in-person seat is filled. After all, they’ve also thrown money on owner Ralph Wilson’s pile just by paying taxes in the the Evil Empire State.
Football partisans can’t just enjoy cheering for their preferred sport: they must also contemplate Washington’s puzzlingly invasive role in it, which is especially galling considering that the hometown Redskins are presently barely better than the horrid Bills.
As a result, fans contemplate whether it’s worse for one government to fund a private business or another to decide if they will be stuck listening to their team on fall Sundays if a few hundred seats remain unsold. Thinking about which Bills squad since 2000 has most insulted the game of football is miserable enough.
This republic won’t let us call our own plays. Fans are left begging the FCC to please let us watch our fantastically lousy local football side on our home screens:
The Federal Communications Commission is looking for the public to comment on the NFL’s blackout rules.
The move by the FCC came in response to a petition filed by groups who object to the rule.
The feds have a say for the same reason that they choose which failing companies deserve to be propped up with our money, namely because they feel like it:
An FCC rule dating back to 1976, requires all other broadcasters, including cable and satellite companies, to abide by the blackout agreement.
But now, the FCC is taking a second look at that rule.
They’re checking to see where their power to set arbitrary rules is found in the Constitution. Just kidding. Fans are understandably ticked that the availability of tickets is even an issue in whether a contest is broadcast locally:
Brian Frederick, Sports Fan Coalition: ”Well it’s extremely important, and it’s even more important that fans speak out now because what the FCC is looking for is to hear from fans in these affected areas. So it’s going to be up to the fan bases in Buffalo and Tampa and Cincinnati where there have been pervasive blackouts to say ‘enough is enough, where we shouldn’t have to pay for the stadium with our tax dollars and then be blacked out at home as well.’”
He’s certainly correct that locals who fund the stadium should be able to see games played within it. But the issue lies with why the community pays for stadiums with tax dollars in the first place.
Forget trying to grow the area’s economy so that there are naturally more NFL nuts than tickets. New York’s stimulus-style approach assumes that businesses will only set up shop and remain if politicians who coincidentally haven’t succeeded in the private sector offer suspiciously generous gift bags.
We couldn’t dare let people figure out if they want to invest in industries like professional athletics by themselves. Instead, we get massive compulsory spending of our own money with a rotten economy as a reward.
But at least the Bills might continue to play home games in Orchard Park and Toronto instead of Southern California if they get more state money in exchange for playing not particularly decent football. Of course, Albany must first tax the stuffing out of us to raise enough so they can throw more from the communal pile at an affluent private business.
Big public-money spenders like Andrew Cuomo claim they aim to keep the Bills around. But their schemes in fact initiate the exact government-initiated drag that leads to unfilled seats. Their solution creates the problem. They can never determine why filling a 73,079-seat stadium is a struggle despite all their bribes.
Stadiums should be run as for-profit private enterprises owned by whoever thinks they’re good business investments, including the one in suburban Buffalo. Subsidizing a participant in a multibillion-dollar enterprise does not quite qualify as helping the less fortunate.
Either way, we’re left figuring out how the FCC has any say in a football league’s broadcast decisions. Of course, winning football played in a thriving town would inherently lead to sellouts. And owners like Wilson could get off the dole and set any blackout rules they want. But it’s easier to bribe an official who doesn’t even know the game’s rules.
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Blacking Out the FCC
For backers and/or masochists, buying a ticket is the best way to see a Buffalo Bills game. But those who choose to tailgate in the kitchen deserve to be able to catch the action in the den.
That’s true regardless of whether every in-person seat is filled. After all, they’ve also thrown money on owner Ralph Wilson’s pile just by paying taxes in the the Evil Empire State.
Football partisans can’t just enjoy cheering for their preferred sport: they must also contemplate Washington’s puzzlingly invasive role in it, which is especially galling considering that the hometown Redskins are presently barely better than the horrid Bills.
As a result, fans contemplate whether it’s worse for one government to fund a private business or another to decide if they will be stuck listening to their team on fall Sundays if a few hundred seats remain unsold. Thinking about which Bills squad since 2000 has most insulted the game of football is miserable enough.
This republic won’t let us call our own plays. Fans are left begging the FCC to please let us watch our fantastically lousy local football side on our home screens:
The feds have a say for the same reason that they choose which failing companies deserve to be propped up with our money, namely because they feel like it:
They’re checking to see where their power to set arbitrary rules is found in the Constitution. Just kidding. Fans are understandably ticked that the availability of tickets is even an issue in whether a contest is broadcast locally:
He’s certainly correct that locals who fund the stadium should be able to see games played within it. But the issue lies with why the community pays for stadiums with tax dollars in the first place.
Forget trying to grow the area’s economy so that there are naturally more NFL nuts than tickets. New York’s stimulus-style approach assumes that businesses will only set up shop and remain if politicians who coincidentally haven’t succeeded in the private sector offer suspiciously generous gift bags.
We couldn’t dare let people figure out if they want to invest in industries like professional athletics by themselves. Instead, we get massive compulsory spending of our own money with a rotten economy as a reward.
But at least the Bills might continue to play home games in Orchard Park and Toronto instead of Southern California if they get more state money in exchange for playing not particularly decent football. Of course, Albany must first tax the stuffing out of us to raise enough so they can throw more from the communal pile at an affluent private business.
Big public-money spenders like Andrew Cuomo claim they aim to keep the Bills around. But their schemes in fact initiate the exact government-initiated drag that leads to unfilled seats. Their solution creates the problem. They can never determine why filling a 73,079-seat stadium is a struggle despite all their bribes.
Stadiums should be run as for-profit private enterprises owned by whoever thinks they’re good business investments, including the one in suburban Buffalo. Subsidizing a participant in a multibillion-dollar enterprise does not quite qualify as helping the less fortunate.
Either way, we’re left figuring out how the FCC has any say in a football league’s broadcast decisions. Of course, winning football played in a thriving town would inherently lead to sellouts. And owners like Wilson could get off the dole and set any blackout rules they want. But it’s easier to bribe an official who doesn’t even know the game’s rules.
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