Due to the NFL's blackout policy which aimed to protect gate receipts, until , fans in a team's home market could not watch their team's regular season and playoff games on television, even if they were title games. New York fans made reservations for motels in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Connecticut so they could watch the game out of the blackout zone, and even though the game was played in temperatures with winds, only 299 of the 65,000+ Giant fans who bought tickets to the sold out game stayed home.