Decision Problem. How do the Bengals convert the large number of gameday tailgaters into ticket purchasers? What value can the Bengals offer these fans in order to bring them into the stadium? Explain the economic, social, and industry factors pertinent to the Bengals decision problems. Use secondary data to provide context to the local, regional, and national trends that affect the Bengals marketing strategy.

Blackout policies: * Since 1973, the NFL has maintained a blackout policy that states that a home game cannot be televised locally if it is not sold out 72 hours prior to its start time * The league will sometimes change this deadline to 48 hours if there are only a few thousand tickets left unsold; much more rarely, they will occasionally extend this to 24 hours in special cases * The NFL authorized a new rule loosening the league's blackout restrictions during the 2012 offseason. * For the first time in NFL history, the new rule will no longer require a stadium to be sold out to televise a game; instead, teams will be allowed to set a benchmark anywhere from 85 to 100 percent of the stadium's non-premium seats. * Any seats sold beyond that benchmark will be subject to heavier revenue sharing * The NFL defines a team's market area as "local" if it is within a 75-mile radius of the team's home stadium. * Therefore, a blackout affects any market where the terrestrial broadcast signal of an affiliate station, under normal conditions, penetrates into the 75-mile radius * If the blacked out home game is a nationally televised game on a broadcast network, such as NBC Sunday Night Football, where no other NFL games are played at the same time, all local stations inside the 75-mile radius must broadcast alternative programming * If the blacked-out nationally televised game is on a cable television network such as ESPN or the NFL Network, all cable and satellite television providers in the affected markets must black out the cable network's signal to customers in the affected markets during the game (this is a condition of the channels' agreements with both the league and the providers) * If the blacked-out home game is played on a Sunday afternoon, all local stations inside the 75-mile radius must show a different NFL game during that time slot—the network typically chooses the game * Critics claim that these blackout policies are largely ineffective in creating sold out, filled stadiums. They contend that there are other factors that prevent sellouts, such as high ticket prices and low enthusiasm for a losing team. Furthermore, blackouts hurt the league; without the television exposure, it becomes more difficult for those