As a team that often struggles to fill its stadium, San Diego is in the habit of announcing each week whether or not the local TV blackout has been lifted. But that changed this week. Sort of.
This week, after the FCC dumped the blackout rule, the Chargers again announced that their home game against the Jets on Sunday will be on local television. But the Chargers made a point of avoiding the word “blackout” entirely.
Last week, when the team announced that its home game would be televised locally, the headline on Chargers.com read, “Chargers-Jaguars Blackout Lifted.” This week, the headline is, “CBS to Carry Chargers-Jets Live in Southern California.”
Even as the Chargers conspicuously avoid saying “blackout,” they still link ticket sales and local television, noting in the same story that the only tickets left are the limited number of tickets returned by the visiting team and some club-level seats. By linking the game’s TV status with ticket sales, the Chargers are implying that if enough tickets hadn’t been sold, the game would have been blacked out. Even though they’re avoiding saying that explicitly, after the FCC’s ruling.
We still don’t know what the NFL will do if a team fails to sell enough of its tickets to lift the blackout under the old rules. Given how rare it’s been in recent years for a game to be blacked out, this might not be an issue the NFL needs to worry about. But the Chargers want fans to think that if they want to see the game, then the game better sell out.
