On February 18, 1,800 people went to a San Francisco 49ers town-hall gathering featuring head coach Mike Singletary and chief operating officer Andy Dolich. In another move, the team opened to fans an ESPN filming of a show featuring Jerry Rice, and 2,000 fans attended.

“For many years, as you know, the major marketing program here was to display another Super Bowl trophy,” Dolich said. Now, Dolich has added a 10-person ticket-service group, which includes an office at Candlestick Park, and spearheaded renovations to the team’s stadium, including a hall-of-fame wing.

Another factor driving the teams is central oversight from the league, which created a team-services group two years ago. Team executives in charge of tickets have met twice since last November to share best-practices information.

“There has been a renewed emphasis in the last 12 to 18 months,” said Neil Glat, an NFL senior vice president who oversees team services. “I don’t know if it is the economy or just how the business is evolving.”

Part of what the teams are trying to accomplish, he added, is to move the business relationship with fans from one tied just to games into a 12-month-a-year endeavor.

Nevertheless, while NFL clubs are certainly trying more than ever, some still have not fully embraced the new world. Take food. Packaging food in with tickets is an obvious lure to penny-pinching fans.

“Tickets plus food is a very attractive package in the current economic climate,” said Amy Trask, chief executive of the Raiders, which for the first time this season sold value tickets, and also created a program so season-ticket holders could earn points toward awards, including free food.

However, only three other teams surveyed by SBJ—the Arizona Cardinals, Lions, and Jaguars—offered food discounts. Only six teams reported giving away free items to season-ticket holders for the first time this off-season. The Cleveland Browns employed a contest to give away prizes for renewing season-ticket accounts, while the Miami Dolphins are giving handheld TV devices to their club-seat holders.

Just three teams—the New York Giants, Atlanta Falcons, and Vikings—added customer-service groups this off-season (the 49ers created their division at the start of the 2008 season). Other clubs beefed up fan communications through email, social media, and marketing.

Some teams are responding with multigame packages. Many teams traditionally sold only season tickets, with limited inventory available for individual games. But even the New York Jets, surprisingly struggling to sell out, offered a half-season package for the first time, and just two weeks ago launched a viral video campaign to move remaining tickets. The video includes a contest whose winner will run out with the team before the October 18 home game against the Bills.

The Jaguars doubled to a dozen the number of ticket packages they sell, though apparently to little avail as the club said all of its home games will endure blackouts. And the Cincinnati Bengals offered a four-game package and brought back their two-game package, last sold in 2005.

“The four-game package does not seem to be getting a lot of traction; it is still a lot of money for people,” said Andrew Brown, the Bengals’ manager of ticket sales. “Other sports have had a lot more flexibility in discounting tickets and being more creative. Our teams are being forced to get into that now.”

Some executives worry the discounting and hyperaggressive selling hurts revenue.

“When focusing on blackouts, you are shorting yourself on revenues,” said the Rams’ Demoff. “If you are looking at group sales, you are not looking at the highest level of tickets. Some teams are discussing whether you should sell a group package of 1,000 at a group price, knowing it may hurt your revenue number.”

That is not just because individually those seats prorated are worth more, but to avoid a blackout, teams must sell these seats but do not have to move all the premium ones. Because club seats and suites do not count toward blackouts, Demoff argued teams scrambling to ensure local TV coverage focus sales pushes on low-end inventory at the expense of pricier ducats.

“Maybe this is the year,” Demoff concluded, “people don’t pay to avoid blackouts.”

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Daniel Kaplan is finance editor for Sports Business Journal.