What is the purpose of the NFL blacking out games that are not sold out?

The league makes more money selling 70,000 tickets than from TV ad revenues attributable to 70,000 TV viewers, so the league would rather you buy a ticket than stay home and watch TV. The blackout is the NFL's way of strong-arming people into buying tickets and, yes, penalizing them for not.

Now, the amazing scam is that the TV networks go along with it and the government permits it. The practice should really be illegal.

Its the same reason the NHL does it, blacking out games will put more people in the seats because they'll want to see their team play. If games sold out week after week there would be no need for a blackout, which is why its rare in the NFL because most teams, even the crappy ones, can sell out games.

I suppose the NFL believes that die-hard fans will pay up the next time and attend the game in person if they blackout the game. It's always about revenue.

The idea is to sell game tickets. Local fans are more likely to go to the game if they cannot watch it on TV.

It is to encourage more people to attend the game in hopes of eventually selling out the stadium.

From what I've heard it was originally done so that TV viewers wouldn't hurt ticket sales.

it tries to force people to buy tickets. to see the game.

sometimes local businesses will buy blocks of tickets. then it gets shown on tv. and the business gets pub

yeah, more or less the idea is that if its blacked out more people will go to the game

to get people to go to the games instead of setting at home watching the game.....

Yes.