Following a great night of football at BC Place where the BC Lions took a share of first place in the CFL west, some fans are complaining that the game was blacked out on standard definition cable.

Boo hoo.

You have a brand new stadium and a team playing in it’s biggest game in a  long time and you can’t get off your butt and head to the stadium? The team hasn’t had a blackout in over a year and a half, and it hasn’t exactly resulted in sold out games. It seems there is always an excuse for “fans” not to buy a ticket. It’s too hot, it’s too cold, it’s not the NFL, it’s the Lions, I can afford a Canucks ticket but the Lions are too expensive.

I’m sick of it.

The CFL is a gate driven league. They don’t have a huge TV deal that ensures a profit for each team before a ticket is sold. They count on ticket revenue to be profitable and to run their business. Do you provide your services for free?

There seems to be a sense of entitlement by BC football fans that they should be able to sit on their couch and not contribute to that business model. I have no sympathy for them.

In a day when more and more households have high definition TV, where the games are not blacked out, it’s really not that hard to see the game anyway. If you can’t afford a ticket, and you don’t have HD, you could head to a friends, a bar or a restaurant like Boston Pizza to watch the game. If you’re outside the GVRD the game isn’t blacked out anyway.

The real question you should be asking yourself, is why didn’t I buy a ticket to one of the biggest football games this city has seen in three years?

I realize there are people that simply can’t afford to go out to a game or can’t afford HD cable. People that are REAL fans of the BC Lions that would kill to be in the stadium if they could. Unless you’re one of those people, I really have no time for you sense of entitlement.

The Lions are great value for your entertainment dollar. Many of their players are making less than some of the fans complaining about blackouts.

If you were there last night you would have witnessed a record be broken and a great moment on the final play of the game. I’m pretty sure the 30,622 that were there got their money’s worth.

The Lions next game is October 29th versus the Edmonton Eskimos and will be another big battle for playoff positioning in the West. Good tickets are still available.