Print edition: 
The date was Dec. 16, 1990, when Warren Moon and the Houston Oilers rolled up 527 passing yards against the Chiefs.
A crowd of 61,756 at Arrowhead Stadium on a gray day witnessed the second-greatest passing game in NFL history. But no one else in Kansas City saw it.
The game failed to sell out, and the telecast was blacked out.
It was the last time the telecast of a Chiefs game had been blacked out locally. Until this week.
Unless Santa Claus shows up by noon today and buys the remaining 3,500 tickets for Sunday's game against the Buffalo Bills, it will be blacked out within a 75-mile radius of Kansas City, including satellite services at sports bars. That would end a streak of 155 consecutive Chiefs games, regular-season and postseason, that have been televised locally.
It's possible the Chiefs could ask the NFL for a 24-hour extension in an effort to preserve the streak, but it most certainly would end next week when even more tickets will be available for the final home game of the season against the one-win Cleveland Browns.
During the last few years, as the Chiefs' fortunes on the field have faded and the season-ticket base waned, corporate sponsors and either KCTV-5 or Fox-4, whichever station had the local rights to the game, would pick up the remaining seats to assure a sellout when needed.
Every week of the season, the Chiefs telecasts are the highest-rated television show of the week in Kansas City, which justifies the stations' decision. Even this year, during a 3-9 season, Chiefs games attract an average 54 share of all televisions in use, or 14 percent better than this time a year ago.
So again this week, KCTV took on its share of tickets, but that still left the game 3,500 shy of a sellout at the start of the week.
Consequently, the Chiefs may join four other teams — Jacksonville (six), Oakland (five), Detroit (three), and St. Louis (one) —as playing home games blacked out this season. Several others, including division-leading San Diego, Cincinnati and Arizona, have had to request 24-hour extensions from the league at different times this year to sell remaining seats for some games and avoid the blackouts.
"It's as much the economy as it is the Chiefs," said Robert Totsch, vice president/general manager of KCTV. "My counterparts in the television industry are facing similar blackout situations.
"From my perspective, and KCTV, we certainly don't want to lose a Chiefs game and the audience it brings. We've helped them as much as we can. As unfortunate as it is, there is only so much folks can do. The underlying problem is the economy. If the Chiefs had a better record, and the weather was better and the economy was better, you'd probably see the streak continue."
A sellout is defined by selling all non-premium and club seats. The Chiefs list Arrowhead's capacity as 74,777 including 7,462 club and 1,771 suite/boxes, leaving 65,544 as the threshold for a sellout, less some complimentary seats, visiting- team allocation and ADA seating.
Because of the economy, the issue of blackouts throughout the NFL was a hot-button topic before the season began. A year ago, there were just nine blackouts all season, or 4 percent of the games. This year's 15 blackouts through 13 weeks is 8 percent. That percentage is likely to rise as Jacksonville and Oakland have two more home games, including this weekend; as do Detroit and St. Louis during the final two weeks.
If all are blacked out, including the Chiefs' last two home games, that would bring the total to 25 for the year, or about 10 percent of the 256 league games.
Brian McCarthy, NFL vice president/corporate communications, points out that as recently as 2004, 11 percent of the leagues's games were blacked out; and in 1999, 16 percent were blacked out. Shortly before the Chiefs began their 155- game sellout streak, 38 percent of the league's games were blacked out in 1989. And, McCarthy said, during 1980-85, every Chiefs home game was blacked out.
"Don't get caught up on blackout figures," McCarthy said. "The better question to ask is how is attendance overall? We're down a couple of percentage points, which is in line with what we anticipated.
"Once again, it reflects the value of NFL games. In these tough economic times, the fans understand there is no better entertainment option than going to the stadium and tailgating for a couple of hours and enjoying the game with 70,000 screaming fans. And people at home are watching in record numbers. Our ratings are the most viewers in 15 years."
Those television ratings explain why the NFL is unlikely to change the blackout policy, which went into effect in 1973. Commissioner Roger Goodell told The Star during his visit to Kansas City in October that having the blackout policy makes it possible for the NFL to televise every team's games on free television.
NBC, CBS and Fox pony up billions of dollars in rights fees because they're confident stadiums will be filled, which translates into appealing telecasts. NFL games on ESPN and the NFL Network are made available on over-the-air television in the cities of the participating two teams.
Royals games, in contrast, except for a rare appearance on a national network, are available in Kansas City only on a cable outlet, as are most Big 12 college football and basketball games.
"The blackout policy itself has been around for decades," Goodell said. "It has been good for everybody. It has allowed us to keep our games on free television and reach hundreds of millions. The challenge is now staying on free television so people don't have to buy a cable service. We're the only league to be able to continue to do that.
"It's a balance of trying to keep our game available on free TV to the broadest possible audience, and balance it with attracting people coming into your stadium, and to support it. We want our stadiums full. It's great for television."
The NFL made one concession this year to cities where games are blacked out by showing them on NFL.com on a delayed basis beginning at midnight on the day of the game, and they will remain available for 72 hours (except during the ESPN Monday night telecast).
So this Sunday, if the Chiefs are blacked out, the over-the-air games available to Kansas City viewers will be New Orleans at Atlanta at noon (Fox) and Dallas at San Diego (CBS) at 3:15.
KCTV's Totsch is confident the blackout issue is just temporary.
"I'm confident the Chiefs will get it turned around.," he said, "and when they do, the passion for buying those tickets and being in that stadium is going to come right back. I don't see this as a long-term thing."
