The Bengals-Jaguars game this Sunday “will be televised locally -- but it took a little creativity to avoid the blackout this time,” according to Tania Ganguli of the FLORIDA TIMES-UNION. The Jaguars “partnered with Bud Light to buy the tickets remaining, which Bud Light, the team’s official beer, will distribute through charitable organizations and radio partners locally.” Jaguars Senior VP/Sales & Marketing Macky Weaver said, “I want to stress it is a one-time deal, the one and only. They’ve done this in a couple of other markets, and they are a league sponsor. It was a difficult decision, but it felt right for this game. Going forward, we’re not going to have a golden parachute.” Weaver said that as of Thursday afternoon the Jaguars “still had 3,354 tickets remaining” for the game at Everbank Field (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 10/7). In Jacksonville, Gene Frenette wrote while it is “convenient to have deep-pocketed Anheuser-Busch fork over the money to buy enough tickets to avoid a television blackout of Sunday’s game against [the] Cincinnati Bengals, it ultimately sends the wrong message.” Frenette: “If this was the 9/11 season opener against the Tennessee Titans, then pulling out all stops to get that game on local TV would be understandable. But at some point, the ticket giveaways and not abiding by the true spirit of NFL blackout rules have to stop because that devalues the product.” Frenette wondered, “What happens the next time the Jaguars have a big number of unsold tickets for a home game? There’ll be no sense of urgency among fans to buy tickets” (JACKSONVILLE.com, 10/6).
