Fasano's admirable folly: Messing with NFL's blackout rule

Column

In his rush to defend Florida's couch potato NFL fans, state Sen. Mike Fasano burnishes his populist credentials at the risk of alienating an industry that surely knows how to play hardball.

Fasano thinks, for instance, living on or near the coast is a right that should be subsidized by all Florida taxpayers (through state-run Citizens property insurance and tight lids on private carriers' premiums). And he has famously gone to war with the Public Service Commission over utility rate increases when the board's decisions are largely dictated by existing statute.

Now Fasano (R-New Port Richey) has discovered another beleaguered constituency: Sunshine State pro football fans victimized by the National Football League's television blackout policy. (To refresh, when games are not sold out 72 hours before kickoff, they cannot be broadcast locally, a condition that has affected 11 of the past dozen Tampa Bay Buccaneers home games.)

Don't these guys play in stadiums paid for and their maintenance subsidized by taxpayers? And the NFL is sticking it to working-class, salt-of-the-earth fans who would have to take out a home equity loan — assuming their homes had equity — to afford even a single Sunday at the stadium with the family, let alone a season-ticket package?

"At the minimum, we should be telling these sports franchises around the state that get these tax breaks, these tax credits from the taxpayers of Florida, that any year there's a blackout, you won't get those tax credits," Fasano said in a television interview Tuesday.

"The taxpayer should be able to see their home team when they're the ones that are building those stadiums and providing any type of a tax credit to a sports franchise in the state of Florida."

For openers, Miami, Jacksonville and Tampa will never host another Super Bowl. The tourist industry is going to love that. Imagine the commissioner addressing NFL owners deciding between, say, finalist presentations from Buffalo and Jacksonville.

"Fellows, Buffalo is frozen over every Super Bowl Sunday, and the wind off Lake Erie can stop your heart. There's nothing to do, nothing to see, and our sponsors attending the game will be absolutely miserable. On the other hand, Florida taxes our franchises any time we enforce our TV blackout rule. So we're awarding the 2018 Super Bowl to … Buffalo!"

By the way, Orlando, don't even think about trying to lure an NFL team. Your candidates would all be swimming upstream. If the Legislature tries to muscle the NFL, the state's three teams will back up the Mayflower vans faster than you can say Robert Irsay's Midnight Move.

That gaping NFL hole in America's No. 2 media market? How does the Los Angeles Buccaneers sound? How about the Birmingham Jaguars and the El Paso Dolphins? The fact is, there are more NFL-ready cities than there are NFL teams, and with the Southern California dilemma solved — with the pleasant upshot of not having to irritate fans of the San Diego Chargers – the league would no longer be in an expansion mood.

No, not even after a chastened Florida Legislature returns to its senses.

No Super Bowls. No NFL teams. Three empty stadiums with a combined value of close to, what, nearly $1 billion? And no prospects for refilling them, the pool of NFL owners having been poisoned by legislative activism.

Is that really how the good senator from the Nature Coast wants to be remembered?

Look, shake your fist all you want. I'm right there with you. Sorry bunch of billionaires up in their tax-subsidized luxury boxes while we're left to choose among celebrity poker, curling and some minor league golf tournament.

Alas, sometimes, the futile gesture is the best available option. Where messing with the NFL's business is concerned, it's always fourth-and-long for the public and elected officials. Best punt, Sen. Fasano.