Blackout? More like blackmail

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/09/2010 (5525 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The CFL lost a generation of young fans to the blackout but they haven’t learned the lesson — the archaic marketing ploy remains in use.

Teams activate their blackout option in an attempt to bolster their gate but it’s ineffective and counter-productive.

The Bombers faithful have been tested by some lacklustre play this season but Friday night’s loss to the Montreal Alouettes provided an opportunity for some of the best PR they could ever get. The 44-40 barnburner was the CFL at its best. Long bombs, ripping runs, crushing hits, lots of drama and, for better or worse, some officiating calls that had fans screaming-mad.

Sadly, the team opted to black out a game that convinced even this cynic that the Bombers, despite their 3-9 record, have vast upside and are worth watching again.

Winnipeg is young, fast and talented. If you saw the game, you had to come away with the feeling that this team is close to being good and might actually turn out to be very special. It’s the kind of product that should be advertised — not hidden with an outmoded, little-picture strategy.

In the 1970s and ’80s the CFL constantly issued blackouts and teenage boys and girls across the country forgot about the league.

As a teen growing up in southern Ontario I gravitated to the NFL, which broadcasts its games each Sunday.

I can recite the entire Pittsburgh Steelers lineup of 1980 but can’t even guess who played quarterback for the Argos, Hamilton Tiger-Cats or Ottawa Rough Riders that season.

None of my buddies in Toronto care about the Argos. They don’t identify with them because the team didn’t play a role in their youth.

The TV broadcast blackout is a shortsighted and flawed strategy that no longer serves a purpose.

The outdated thinking is that if the game’s not available on TV some folks will opt to buy tickets rather than miss out entirely. The should call it ‘a blackmail’ — not blackout.

It’s a slap in the face to fans that for one reason or another can’t make it to the game that night.

Ticket sales were lagging this week so the club announced Thursday the game would not be available on TV in Winnipeg. Did sales surge as a result? Of course not.

And the blackout wasn’t really a blackout. The game was available in Winnipeg for those with TSN HD, which I happen to have. So the strategy has no actual traction, but only serves to infuriate those without the specialty channel in their homes. Your neighbour got the game at his house but you didn’t. That’ll warm you up to the Big Blue.

Bombers games are available on radio, the Internet and TV. A blackout these days is more like a grey-out. It’s like a tool that no longer works. So kick it to the curb like that broken-down chainsaw. The Bombers, and the CFL must adapt or perish.