To avoid TV blackouts, Raiders will reduce Coliseum capacity

In the television-driven world of the NFL, here’s the Raiders’ solution to a nagging inability to put butts in seats: Shrink the size of the Coliseum for football games. The Raiders will, ala the A’s, put a tarp over the east stand upper reaches known affectionately as Mount Davis, and thereby reduce capacity to 53,200 for next season. It will make the venue the smallest in the NFL. Bottom line: it means the Raiders will only have to sell 45,220 tickets (85 percent capacity is a sellout in NFL parlance) to avoid games being blacked out locally. Mercury News