Scorecard

BAN THE BULL

The two-year-old ban on blacking out pro football games is due to expire Dec. 31. Renewal, perhaps permanent, is now under congressional consideration, and Rep. Torbert Macdonald's House Communications Subcommittee has been listening to testimony from interested parties. Most interested of all was the NFL's Pete Rozelle, who looked the committee straight in its eyes and said that NFL clubs had lost $9 million in two years, mostly because of a drop in season-ticket sales attributable to the lifting of local TV blackouts.

"Pure baloney," said an angry Macdonald later. "The legislation is not hurting them one iota. They can't show it. We were given a snow job, not a statement."

In the course of his testimony Rozelle pointed to Kansas City, Miami and Atlanta as the cities with the greatest losses in season-ticket sales and said the blackout ban was the reason. Said Macdonald, " Rozelle failed to mention that Kansas City had a disastrous season last year or that it imposed the blackout on every home game. So the club was totally unaffected by the law last season." Rozelle might also have mentioned that Miami televised only three games, and that Atlanta's record, 3-11, was one of the worst in pro football.

Meanwhile, on their own, two Vanderbilt economists, C. Elton Hinshaw and John J. Siegfried, have used "multiple linear regression analysis" to discredit the NFL's old argument against the blackout ban, which is that live televising of home games will increase no-shows and that the absence of live attendance will adversely affect the demand for tickets, as well as television ratings.

Using 360 NFL games over the 1973 and 1974 seasons, the period of the ban, as their sample data and taking into account the differences in weather and the quality of games, the economists found that "weather and game quality influence the decision to not show up for the game, but televising the game locally has no significant effect."

Besides, they point out, with what appears to be understated logic, "To demonstrate that the anti-blackout law harms professional football, it would be necessary to prove that no-shows eventually turn into no-buys. There is reason to be skeptical of this because games that are not sold out are not televised locally, thus encouraging ticket purchases."

The NFL may have good arguments for returning to the old blackout policy, but it hasn't come close to convincing Congress—or the fans.

CHIMP CHAMP CHUMPS

A cynic once remarked that no one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American public.