Blackout!

[Antonio's Gates]

5:30PM today

you think it will get blacked out?

not like it really matters to us, theres always the internet. im speaking more so for the actual organization.

[TTK]

It seems like people in the know think it will be.

Yeah, it doesn't really matter. Just watch it online.

[BlazingBolt]

Yeah because those online feeds are so amazingly smooth and sharp.

Seriously, I would rather watch a game legitamately on my phone than choose to watch these crappy blackmarket online streams.

[Antonio's Gates]

Yeah because those online feeds are so amazingly smooth and sharp.

Seriously, I would rather watch a game legitamately on my phone than choose to watch these crappy blackmarket online streams.

national broadcast streams are usually pretty solid.

I mean shit, I watch some NBA preseason games where all I get is the jumbotron feed from the arena. Guess I'm used to it.

[TTK]

Yeah, the quality usually is bad but it works.

[Antonio's Gates]

also since its on national tv, there will be a million links. shouldn't be hard to find a good one.

just make sure to get adblocker

[oneinchpunch]

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/oct/10/chargers-blackout-antonio-gates-colts-johnston/

Of course the blackout threat isn't affecting how Antonio Gates prepares for Monday night's game.

But the Chargers tight end isn't happy about the prospect of a less-than-full Qualcomm Stadium, either.

"It’s unfortunate. You want to think that you have true fans as a player. It’s crazy that it’s hard to sell out a Monday Night game," Gates said Thursday. "I don't know what that's due to."

Gates is paid to catch passes, not sell tickets. Others Chargers employs price, marekt and sell the tickets, and the fans buy them or don't buy them. If not enough are sold, the telecast will be blacked out in San Diego. It's been 13 years since a Monday Night Football telecast was blacked out anywhere.

After nine years without a blackout, Chargers fans lost six local telecasts in the last three seasons. When four of the blackouts came last year, I posited that the Chargers may have priced the stadium experience out of the range of a telling number of fans. According to the Team Marketing Report's survey of NFL pricing, the Chargers' fan experience for a family of four was the seventh-most expensive in the league at $466.20 per game.

The team adjusted its ticket prices for this season -- some went down, some went up. Also, the Chargers decided not to imitate the Raiders and tarp off some sections in the upper deck. In February, club spokesman Bill Johnston explained the no-tarp decision.

“We just lowered the price of 10,000 season seats in an effort to help fill the stadium and enhance our homefield advantage,” Johnston told me via email. “Combine the lower price with one of the most attractive and competitive home schedules in memory and we’re optimistic about our chances.”

Johnston made two solid points: a full stadium enhances homefield advantage, and this year's home schedule is attractive. Actually, the visiting opponents may be more intriguing now than when the schedule came out, given the fast starts of the Chiefs, Colts and Broncos.

Still, did the Chargers size up and engage their customers as well as possible?

Gratitude for fan support and the desire for a loud home crowd have been consistent talking points from new head coach Mike McCoy in media interviews. A full house in San Diego, he has said, is one of the noisier crowds in the NFL. The last time the Chargers reached the playoffs, in January 2009, a shrill pro-Bolts crowd impressed the Colts traveling party that included Tom Telesco.

Like everyone else, Gates can't nail down the leading cause of insufficient ticket sales. "I really don’t have a lot of input on it because my main concern is about preparing for the Colts, doing the things that I can do to help us get ready to win a football game," he said.

But he can appreciate how crowd noise can limit a visiting team's communication and add to a home team's emotional fuel.

"It gives you a little bit of motivation when fans come out and cheer for you and it’s a full house," he said. "We like to call it that 12th man on the field. If that’s not the case, we’ve still got to go play the football game. We hope we can get enough ticket sales for people to cheer us on.”

[QSmokey]

Qualcomm/Jack Murphy Stadium was never known as a bad place to play as an opponent. Great place to visit; great weather; non-hostile fans; a ton of transplants (that still root for their 'original' team), etc, etc, etc. The stadium isn't even an attraction, and isn't a megaphone like Seahawks' stadium. In short, a House of Horrors it is not.

That's the nature of this CITY; that's why many of us chose to move here. It really has nothing to do with the Chargers. Although I'm surprised Gates doesn't have a clue (or so he says) as to "what's that due to".

[Stinky Wizzleteats+]

Winning cures fake fans....

[floydefisher]

It will take years to undo the damage to the fan base that team AJ and Norv caused.

Really? Did the Chargers have blackouts throughout the decade of decline also?

Don't forget people are hurting economically...even the Yankees can't sell out their stadium anymore like they used to.

[homeless simpson]

Did the Chargers have blackouts throughout the decade of decline also?

no, the city footed the bill during that era (riley) through the ticket guarantee.

[richpjr]

Really? Did the Chargers have blackouts throughout the decade of decline also?

Don't forget people are hurting economically...even the Yankees can't sell out their stadium anymore like they used to.

My point had nothing to do with the economy (though that obviously affects things) but rather that the combination of those 2 killed off a lot of enthusiasm from the fan base. Unenthusiastic fans have a much harder time ponying up the ridiculous amounts of money for tickets they need to to see a game. And when the team is in decline and has the 7th highest family game prices in the league it's not a good combination.