Millions of Cablevision subscribers are pissed off right now. And they should be. The three million plus subscribers who mostly live in New York missed the New York Giants game on Sunday because of a dispute between Cablevision and Fox Broadcasting. They also missed the first two games of the NLCS. Some of these Cablevision subscribers are in the Philadelphia region and may miss the entire NLCS and World Series.

Meanwhile, millions of DISH subscribers have not been able to access Fox’s regional sports networks because of a contract dispute. That means they are missing coverage of their local NBA and NHL teams and NCAA football. And DISH subscribers could lose Fox’s primary broadcast signal on November 1 if the two sides don’t reach an agreement.

All parties share the blame here. But Fox made the decision to take down its signal from these carriers. It is clear that without the unique nature of sports coverage – live broadcasts to extremely passionate fan bases – broadcasters like Fox wouldn’t have much leverage in these disputes. Fox can – and should – put its signal back up while it works with Cablevision to resolve their differences. Cablevision, in turn, should quit using its own MSG HD signal as leverage to drive out the competition.

These retransmission disputes are often messy. There’s only one thing that is certain: It’s time to put and end to the practice of using blackouts as leverage once and for all. But that’s why it’s all the more important to have someone representing the interests of sports fans here in Washington.

There is some hope for sports fans looking ahead. Sen. John Kerry has promised a “systemic reform” of the retransmission rules system, which he said would ensure that customers don’t lose programming during these disputes (i.e. no more missed games).

In addition to retransmission blackouts, there are blackout rules that harm Fox and its local broadcasters. The primary one is the NFL’s blackout rule, which is supported by the FCC’s sports blackout rule. The FCC rule prohibits a broadcaster from showing a game when it isn’t sold out. When this happens, local broadcasters are often forced to buy up blocks of tickets to ensure the game is shown and they sell their allotted local advertising time. And Fox Broadcasting also loses out on national advertising and the ability to promote its own shows in these markets.

These types of local blackouts should also be eliminated. In almost every city, taxpayer subsidies went to help build the stadiums where these games are being played and/or the roads and facilities around them. Hardworking taxpayers have already made an investment in their local teams – they at the very least deserve to see the games on television.

Every Buccaneers game is expected to be blacked out in Tampa Bay this season even though the city entirely financed the $168.5 million Raymond James Stadium after Bucs owner Malcolm Glazer threatened to move the team if they didn’t. Tampa Bay already showed its commitment to the Bucs. It shouldn’t have to prove it again and again. Nor should the taxpaying sports fans in Buffalo, San Diego and Oakland.

Senator Sherrod Brown has called on the NFL to reconsider its blackout rules and Sports Fans Coalition has expressed the same concern to the FCC and members of Congress.

Only when enough sports fans have joined together will these media companies and sports leagues end the terrible — and increasingly routine — practice of using blackouts as negotiating tools. If all Cablevision subscribers, DISH subscribers and NFL fans join Sports Fans Coalition, we will most certainly be heard.

Don’t just be pissed off again. Do something about it this time.

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Brian Frederick is the Executive Director of Sports Fans Coalition. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication and lives in Washington, D.C. Email him at bfrederick@sportsfans.org.

After Friday night, it looks as though Cablevision subscribers in New and Philadelphia will not be able to watch Fox until the latest contract dispute is resolved. This means no Giants or Eagles games and Phillies fans will lose the NLCS games. (ALCS games are scheduled to be on TBS, so Yankees fans are safe for now, unless they make the World Series.)

Needless to say, if millions of Giants and Eagles fans don’t get their game on Sundays, they will go crazy. As they should. Both sides should figure out a way to resolve their differences behind closed doors while keeping the game on.

SFC recently wrote Rupert Murdoch asking him not to engage in this practice following his yanking of Fox sports coverage from DISH network subscribers. Now he’s doing it again with Cablevision subscribers.

SFC opposes blackouts of any kind. In the past, SFC has criticized Cablevision for engaging in the practice of using sports programming as a negotiating tool. SFC has also called for an end to blackout rules that hurt broadcasters like Fox.

It’s time that sports fans to join together to put an end to blackouts once and for all.

Fan-Ownership: A Novel Concept

by Jeremiah Tittle

If the idea of ownership is relative, today’s sports franchise owners feel they owe fans absolutely nothing, and fans are anything but family. These days, the owner-fan relationship is more like Ike to Tina than it is father to son or even that of distant cousins.

As sportswriter and SFC board member Dave Zirin has repeated on the Bad Sports book tour, “we’ve seen an economic model in which there is the socialization of debt and the privatization of profit.’ That means owners are more than happy to exploit taxpayers financially building subsidized stadiums and charging exhorbitant fees for parking and concessions, but they don’t want any input on how to run the team and bank every dime.

It’s a scam and it needs to stop.

Fan ownership is alive and well in Green Bay here in the states. Overseas, soccer clubs Barcelona in Spain, Benfica in Portugal, and if one politician is successful, Liverpool will wrest power from their despised owners in the UK. Walton MP Steve Rotheram tells the Liverpool Echo, “Those who are most under-represented – the fans – should have the most say.”

Couldn’t have said better myself.

This is the basis for SFC’s existence. Sports Fans Coalition formed to give fans a voice, a seat at the table when important decisions are made. Without SFC, what method do fans have to organize, mobilize, and affect change in this extremely dysfunctional system in which owners take, take, take leaving fans no money and no recourse.

The question of fan ownership is a complicated one, and it would take an extremely organized and passionate fanbase combined with political support to make this dream a reality. Duplicating the success of a team like the Green Bay Packers where profits are reinvested into community schools and charities rather than stuffing a greedy owner’s coffers is idealistic, but we’d like to believe it is an attainable long-term goal.

In the meantime SFC, with your support, seeks accountability from the leagues, owners, and politicians. If even one dime of public money goes to build or refurbish a stadium, the fans deserve affordable seating and media access to the games. Blackouts and PSL’s be damned.

Jeremiah Tittle is the Managing Editor of SportsFansCoalition.org. Reach him at Jeremiah@SportsFansCoalition.org. Apply for a position with the SFC Sportswriter Fellowship here.

For those who have been too busy worrying about their fantasy drafts to notice, several NFL teams are in serious jeopardy of having multiple games blacked out this season. Taxpayers and fans in cities around the country should be outraged.

If an NFL game is not sold out 72 hours prior to kickoff, league rules mandate that the game be blacked out in the local market. Last season, the NFL blacked out 22 games and this season looks worse.

A lot worse.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers became the first victims of the league’s blackout policy, having failed to sell out this weekend’s game against the Cleveland Brown before the deadline.

While Browns fans will get to see this game because it’s in Tampa, they may miss future games played in Cleveland. On Thursday, Sherrod Brown, the junior Democratic senator from Ohio, released a letter to NFL-commissioner Roger Goodell calling the NFL’s blackout policy “deeply troubling.” That’s Senator-speak for seriously f’d up.

Brown may be primarily concerned about fans of the Browns and the Bengals, but the problem affects sports fans around the country. Especially in this economy.

Consider that 18 of the 32 NFL teams raised their ticket prices this year.

And according to Team Marketing Research, it cost an average of $413 to take a family of four to an NFL game last season. That’s for one game.

Now, some may argue that this is just a matter of capitalism and that the owners have every right to blackout television broadcasts if their games aren’t sold out. That would be fine if most of these owners weren’t benefitting from taxpayer funded stadiums.

The Buccaneers, for instance, play in Raymond James Stadium, which cost $168.5 million and which was financed entirely by raising taxes. The taxpayers of Tampa built the stadium only after Bucs owner Malcolm Glazer threatened to move the team if they didn’t. (It’s one of the key steps in what “Field of Schemes” author Neil deMause calls “the Art of the Steal.”) So now Tampa taxpayers who paid for the stadium and who can’t afford to go to the games can’t even see the Bucs on television thanks to the rules of the owners — most of whom didn’t pay for the stadiums they play in.

Browns fans are intimately aware of the “art of the steal,” having lost their team after refusing to cave to Art Moddell in the mid-90’s and being forced to build a new stadium in order to reactivate the Browns. The team now plays in the $283 million Cleveland Browns Stadium. Meanwhile, Bengals fans (actually, Hamilton County taxpayers) forked over $455 million for Paul Brown Stadium, which opened in 2000. And despite all the money Clevelanders and Cincinattians paid because they love their NFL teams, their loyalties may be rewarded with blackouts.

Fans in Kansas City, Detroit, San Diego, and St. Louis, among others, may also feel the same sense of betrayal this season.

These fans, and fans around the country, need to stand up and demand that the NFL end the practice of blacking out games, at least in cities with taxpayer financed stadiums. Fans should contact their representatives and senators and ask how they feel about the practice.

With any luck, a few more senators will be willing to join Sherrod Brown in asking the NFL to remember that “football has long been a source of pride for communities” around the country and that blackouts betray loyal fans.

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Brian Frederick is the Executive Director of Sports Fans Coalition. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication and lives in Washington, D.C. Email him at sportsfanscoalition@gmail.com

I traveled last week to Salem, Oregon to testify before Members of the Oregon General Assembly with regard to Comcast Cable’s blacking out of Portland Trail Blazers home games. Thousands of Trail Blazers fans are denied enjoying their favorite past time because of the greed and control exercised by a cable provider who refuses to provide the feed for home games to competitors in areas they cannot and do not service.

SFC struck a nerve in Oregon and challenged lawmakers and fans to take on Comcast, the Trail Blazers, and  satellite providers to “do the right thing” by fans. There is no good reason why tens of thousands of sports fans are unable to enjoy Trail Blazers home games in the comfort of their homes, their favorite restaurant or bar.

Now it is up to the fans to get off the bench and take to the court and take on this issue, head on. There is no doubt that fans can make a difference and SFC is there to help.

Sign the petition directing Oregon State representatives to take on this issue.

Become a fan of the Local Chapter in Oregon, SFC-Portland, on Facebook.

Follow SFC-Portland on Twitter.