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It looks like one 12 year old girl, Hope Stout, has more strength of character than the entire NFL. Her final wish — to make the wishes of all the 155 local Charlotte area critically ill children on the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s list — and story was aired on an NFL broadcast just last week. The Make-A-Wish Foundation determined that it needs to raise $1 million to make Hope’s wish come true. City officials, local organizers and Make-A-Wish board members worked together to plan a public downtown fund raising party, looking to secure rights to show the telecast game publicly during the party. The NFL refused to allow them to show the copyrighted telecast as it would hurt the game’s and the NFL’s ratings — ironically a measurement of how many pairs of eyes watch the telecast game.. This just after they announce that paid attendance was at a record high league wide, and that NFL Games were the #1 show in all 30 markets where the league has teams.
While I do understand protecting those broadcasting, branding and marketing rights, it really seems a shame that no accommodation could be made with the city and the fundraisers. Without the broadcast rights, the downtown party/fundraiser was canceled for concern (most likely justified) that turnout would be poor as people would be at home or private parties watching the game. Hope died this past Sunday of a rare bone cancer.
Details available at the Charlotte Observer (free registration required).
Hat tip to Chad Everett