• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, February 3, 2012

To a degree, the NFL’s blackout policy doesn’t affect Buffalo Bills fan Matt Sabuda. Whether the game is on local TV or not, the Bills' season ticket holder is most likely in Ralph Wilson Stadium – no matter how cold -- rooting on the mostly hapless hometown team.

Yet, he’s taking a stand on principle this week, putting up the money for a TV campaign that backs efforts by the Sports Fans Coalition to get the government to change policy that would impact the NFL's blackout rules.

“I’m one of those sappy idealists, unfortunately,” the real estate investor said.

Sabuda’s beloved Bills had three games off the air in their home market last season. The team couldn’t sell all general-admission tickets 72 hours before kick-off, which the NFL mandates to keep the game on local TV.

With Sabuda’s funding (estimated at $2,000), the Sports Fans Coalition (SFC) is running the campaign on ESPN and the NBC Sports Network in the Buffalo market on Time Warner Cable. Broadcasting & Cable reported the initiative.

Sabuda, who is chairman of the Buffalo SFC chapter, stars in the spot and urges fans to go to EndBlackouts.com. There, they can send comments to the SFC, which will pass them on to the FCC urging the agency to reverse a rule that forces cable and satellite operators to follow local stations in going dark.

“It’s time to take action … it’s time for us to break our silence, end blackouts and unite as the fight for fans rights is counting on you,” Sabuda says in the ad.

(The production budget was considerably less than for the national Super Bowl spots on NBC as two Canisius College students did the work.)

After prodding from the SFC and other interest groups, the FCC has asked for public comments on whether it should take action. Those are due Feb. 13. The NFL would be the most affected by a policy change with cable and satellite operators, though other leagues would be, too.

A change would represent a victory for the SFC, but it would be mostly on paper. Local stations would still have to black out games. Cable and satellite operators could go find a way to air them, but would they really go through the trouble – and alienate the NFL en route?

Sabuda blames the failed sellouts in Buffalo on the Bills being out of playoff contention -- their last three home games went dark -- and having a large stadium, arguments not unique to Buffalo. While it may be unfair to expect fans to buy tickets to see the competition, one of the blacked-out games was against the Denver Broncos and their celebrity quarterback Tim Tebow.

U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins, who represents Buffalo, said on the House floor this week that Buffalo has to sell 6,000 more tickets than the league average to avoid a blackout.

Sabuda argues one reason the NFL continues to stand by the blackout policy is it doesn’t want to shine a bright light on its high ticket prices. “Right now, the blackout issue cloaks that,” Sabuda said.

Frequently, the local station or perhaps the team will buy the unsold tickets to avoid a blackout. However, if that stopped and more empty stadiums were seen on TV, the issue of the ticket costs may come more into focus.

Fans would say: hey, want to put more people in the seats? Stop charging so much. (The Bills did not raise prices in 2011 and SeatGeek rankings have their costs towards the bottom of the league.)

Of course, the NFL might be increasingly determined to keep the blackout policy because TV is its own competition. As NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said on “60 Minutes” last week, the game looks so good on a large HD screen at home, that getting people to keep coming to the games will be tougher.

The NFL has said that the blackout rule is “very important in supporting NFL stadiums and the ability of NFL clubs to sell tickets … and ensuring that we can continue to keep our games on free TV.” The league notes 16 games were blacked out in 2011, down from 26 in 2010.

Commissioner Goodell received a letter this week from Rep. Higgins and four colleagues representing markets where there were blackouts this year.

Surprisingly, it did not call for an end to the blackout rule, just a modification. The bipartisan group proposed altering the policy, so as to consider a game "sold out" for broadcast purposes if the amount of tickets sold meets or exceeds the average stadium size in the league. This would prevent an “unfair burden” from being placed on communities with stadiums larger than average, the representatives wrote.

The entreaty seems pretty reasonable, but the proposal would likely have little impact. For the most part, only winning will keep enough seats filled to keep games on the screen.

The issue might be less critical in Buffalo if the team had finished above .500 more than once since 1999.