Q: When a football game is not sold out, the game is blacked out in the home team’s viewing area. But when a baseball game is not sold out, it is still televised. Why the double standard? — Andy Sims

The leagues set broadcast policies. The NFL has a blackout policy; NASCAR, the NHL and the NBA do not. In baseball, a team is guaranteed 81 home games. That means that the Braves have 4,033,611 tickets to sell for every game to be sold out. In the Atlanta market, it is not realistic that the Braves can sell out every game, Byrne said. But they sell enough tickets to stay in business and make a profit, he said. The Falcons have eight regular-season home games, which means they have only eight games to make their money. To sell out, they need to sell 71,288 a game, or 570,304 in the regular season. So the NFL and the teams need to protect their gate, he said. In some cases, the NFL reduced the Congressionally mandated 72-hour advance sellout rule so that economically strapped markets such as Detroit might have a better chance of selling all their tickets.

Lori Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or e-mail q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).