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The blackout is about to be lifted. Tomorrow. And maybe forever.
The Edmonton Eskimos intend to lift the blackout of tomorrow's game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders with an eye to not having television blackouts as part of their future.
"We'd love to be in the position to lift the blackout and we think we will do it," said CEO Rick LeLacheur of the 53,000 tickets sold for the 4 p.m. game.
"We want to lift it and we likely will," he said.
LeLacheur said the tarps covering the 5,100 end-zone seats will be removed if the sales warrant it.
The organization, he admits, is going through a big rethink on the issue of television blackouts right now.
"Lifting the blackouts gives us that much more exposure to our fans," he said.
This decision reflects a changing way of thinking by the Eskimos organization which under Hugh Campbell and Norm Kimball believed if you blacked out games more fans would come out and buy tickets.
"That hasn't been definitively proved," said marketing manager Dave Jamieson of the concept.
Under the current contract with TSN the teams are allowed to black out two games each per season.
"It's a gate-driven league. You can't play in empty stadiums. But you need the eyeballs on the televised games to grow new fans -- young fans."
Would the Eskimos have drawn fewer than 46,212 for the Labour Day Replay against the Calgary Stampeders if they'd not blacked the game out? Maybe. But how many fewer? And what is the cost of not having a game televised from the promotional end of creating buzz and creating fans for the next game, the next season or the next decade?
This is a fascinating season for the Eskimos in terms of all that's involved here because it's been great game after great game and fabulous finish after fabulous finish.
What if they'd blacked out that Aug. 13 game here against Calgary? That was one of the greatest CFL regular-season games ever played and has spiked ticket sales ever since.
Jamieson, who personally thinks it's time to end the blackout business here, says he feels the organization would have been big losers if it had blacked that game out.
"I think it's criminal not to see every single game and that Aug. 13 game is the best example. This whole season has been a great example. It's absolutely the argument for lifting the blackouts. It's been a sterling advertisement for what kind of team this is and what kind of league we play in.
"This year has been nothing if it hasn't been entertaining. And for the people who watched a game like the one last weekend in Regina, it's the compelling argument for what we're doing (tomorrow)," he said of the ticket sales.
"Wrapped up in all of this is the fans who watched it on TV knowing it would have been better to be there."
The best example out there for putting every game you can put on free TV, Jamieson believes, is the Chicago Blackhawks.
Old -school owner Dollar Bill Wirtz refused to "give the games away" on free TV. When he died, the first thing his son Rocky did was get all the games back on TV in Chicago. And while the timing was great with an exciting new Blackhawks team ending a long stretch of losing, the fans came back to the building big time.
"Chicago is the most easy to point to," said Jamieson.
"It's getting your head wrapped around the ipod, Internet, Twitter, instant-gratification age we live in.
"Young people are used to getting anything they want and getting it now," said Jamieson. "To black out games puts you at risk of losing the interest of those people."
And maybe the CFL, which adopted the slogan "It's Our League," just found out something else with that game in Regina on Sunday. The two teams drew an all-time high regular-season TV audience of 1.127 million, about six times more than a really strong Oilers game, on TSN.
On Sunday. Against the NFL.
Sunday is football. Afternoon is football.
"We had one of the biggest walk-ups ever for a 5 p.m. Saturday game against Hamilton.
"This game is Saturday at 4 p.m. It's one of the elements of a perfect storm. Why wouldn't we try it if we can make it work with our TV partners," said Jamieson.
TERRY.JONES@SUNMEDIA.CA