Despite the potential for major antics during the 2009 NFL regular season that debuts tonight, up to 12 teams are facing potential blackouts or non-televised games. According to NFL regulations, a game is not aired in the home market if it doesn’t sell out 72 hours in advance.

Today, the league granted the Cincinnati Bengals a 24-hour extension to sell tickets for their season opener against the Denver Broncos. If a sell-out does not occur by Friday, 1 p.m. EST, the Bengals will have their franchise record of 44 consecutive sold-out games ended.

But their opponent has no worries. The Broncos, like the Pittsburgh Steelers, have perennially sold out their games since the 1970’s. On the NFC side, the Chicago Bears have sold out Soldier Field for their 25th straight season and season ticket renewals are, according to the organization, over 90 percent, a consistent figure.

Last year, nine of the NFL’s 256 games were blacked out. The Detroit Lions saw four games with a less-than-full stadium and the Oakland Raiders and St. Louis Rams were unable to sell out two of their games, respectively.

In addition to those affected last year, the Jacksonville Jaguars [once an AFC contender], San Diego Chargers [the defending AFC West champions], the Miami Dolphins, led by Chad Pennington, the NFL’s two-time Come Back Player of the Year, and the Minnesota Vikings, who with the Favre acquisition did lead to an additional 10,000 individual game tickets being sold, potentially face not having local games aired because of low ticket sales.

The Chargers already had a preseason game blacked out, which was a first in three years. The Cleveland Browns eluded a similar episode—an event that hasn’t happened since 1995. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said he doesn’t find the preseason difficulties as troublesome because the intensity level differs strikingly from regular season games.

The NFL is considering abbreviating the preseason schedule in favor of adding additional regular season games.

When the NFL imposed the blackout rule 36 years ago, blackouts had a more normative position. During the 70’s, more than half of NFL games didn’t sell out. But each proceeding decade saw improvements in fan attendance. On average, six to seven of 10 games were aired during the 1990s. In 2002, for the first time, the NFL sold out 90 percent of its games. 97 percent of games were sold out in 2007, with seven games having to be blacked out. Last year, attendance dropped 0.7 percent and two additional games were not televised.

With the continuation of the recession, which caused the league to cut more than 10 percent of its staff earlier this year, more teams are finding selling tickets problematic. For instance, season ticket sales for the Jaguars dropped from 42,000 to 25,000 this year and new ticket sales are down 75 percent.

“The economy is having that impact on us,” said Bill Prescott, the Jaguars’ chief financial officer. “As a very small market, I think we're feeling it more than some of the other teams in the league.”

Recently, The Media Audit survey of NFL fans found that 76 percent of adults in Jacksonville regularly follow the Jaguars. This ranks the team as the fifth best percentage of any NFL market. However, this affinity for the team isn’t being translated into enough ticket sales for the 1995 expansion team.

A few years ago, the Jaguars were allowed to close off sections of the upper deck, of The Jacksonville Municipal Stadium that holds over 70,000, to decrease the number of available seats counting toward the blackout policy.

To help alleviate ticket sale woes, the Jaguars and the New York Jets now offer half-season ticket plans. Also, the Jets and Dolphins have implemented an on-line marketing campaign courting potential attendees with a video of team players and executives speaking on the value and importance of the fan with e-mails personalized with the fan’s name.

Despite the troubles plaguing teams like Jacksonville, the Houston Texans (another expansion team), the New Orleans Saints, the Washington Redskins, the New York Giants, the Baltimore Ravens, the Seattle Seahawks all have sold out games for this season. Do not leave out the New England Patriots, the Green Bay Packers, and the Tennessee Titans as well.

Some teams have even been able to increase ticket prices also. The Indianapolis Colts, a team that has sold out all home games, is one of eight teams to raise prices and increase the cost of season tickets by 10 percent.

However, for those teams that face potential blackouts, fans now have an alternative—at least a delayed one.

The NFL announced today that blackout games will be aired on their website after midnight of game day and will be available for 72 hours. The game will only be available in local markets, meaning those living within 75 miles of the team’s stadium. Unfortunately, games will not be available during Monday Night Football.

“We understand that the economy is limiting some families and corporations from buying as many game tickets as they had previously,” Goodell said. “These free re-broadcasts on NFL.com will allow our fans that can't get to a blacked-out game an opportunity to see the entire game.”

Although Goodell’s decision seems to be a benevolent gesture, a league that has $6.5 billion in revenues could aspire to do more.