It's already crunch time for Jimmy Buffett, Gloria Estefan, Serena Williams and the other celebrities the Miami Dolphins have recruited to boost attendance.

Football fans across the country are bracing for what the NFL warns could be a season pocked by television blackouts as a grim economy cuts into ticket sales and sponsors' willingness to buy empty seats.

Though the Dolphins sold out Monday's home opener with about 24 hours to spare before the Friday night deadline to avoid a TV blackout, tickets remain plentiful for the remaining games at Land Shark Stadium.

Add to that a depressing debut in Atlanta, where it took Miami nearly 57 minutes to score, and the stakes are even higher for new majority owner Stephen Ross' novel plan to use celebrities to boost excitement at home games.

``Nobody's tried this,'' said Lee Igel, an assistant professor of sports management at New York University. ``All bets are off.''

Ross hopes to remake his stadium into more of an entertainment venue, with pop stars performing to connect to younger fans and celebrity attendees adding cachet to the stands.

With a new ``orange carpet'' VIP entrance and an invitation-only club modeled after South Beach's party circuit, the stadium has been retooled as a ``place to be seen,'' said Dolphins CEO Mike Dee.

Central to the effort: a roster of stars that Ross, a billionaire New York developer, signed this summer as promotional partners.

Ross renamed his stadium after Buffett's beer in exchange for some appearances by the iconic Florida singer and having Buffett rewrite the lyrics of his hit Fins to be a Dolphins song. Then Ross signed five celebrity owners with ties to South Florida: Estefan and her husband, Emilio; tennis champs Serena and Venus Williams; and Latin pop singer Marc Anthony.

Ross, a graduate of Miami Beach High, also sees the stars as a way to tie the Dolphins to an integral element of South Florida: its celebrity party scene.

``It's like the Lakers,'' Ross said of the Los Angeles basketball team that's famous for A-listers like Jack Nicholson and Leonardo DiCaprio sitting courtside. ``This is what this community is about. It's not like it doesn't exist already. It's about taking it and creating a party atmosphere with something for everybody.''

The strategy is set to debut in full force Monday before a prime-time television audience for Monday's 8 p.m. game.

A source familiar with the preparations gave a strong hint that Buffett would play during Monday's tailgate party. The source said the pregame performer ``is someone Parrotheads will definitely be interested in seeing.''

And the team predicts all its celebrity owners will be there for the game, too -- along with singer Jennifer Lopez, Anthony's wife. They'll be joined by T-Pain, the hip-hop star who was commissioned to sing a reggae dance-hall version of the Dolphins 1973 fight song.

While the moves have some fans grumbling -- the Change the Dolphins Fight Song page on Facebook has 296 members -- they are getting attention in the NFL as the league struggles with the weakest demand for game tickets in a decade.

``I think a lot of the NFL teams will be watching them to see if this works out,'' said Patrick Walsh, a professor of sports management at the University of Miami. ``If it's successful, I think other teams will follow suit.''

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