viking tickets for sunday $3 and they still can't sell

[CaliforniaCheez]

http://www.startribune.com/510/story/1401946.html

Vikings may require help to prevent blackout
A surplus of 3,500 tickets left for the season opener


The Vikings might need corporate intervention to avoid a television blackout of Sunday's regular-season opener against Atlanta.
In the seven days since acknowledging a dangerous ticket surplus, the team has only sold about 2,300 tickets — less than half the total they must move by Thursday at noon. As of Tuesday afternoon, the Vikings had 3,500 tickets available, according to Vice President of Sales and Marketing Steve LaCroix.

Asked Tuesday if the Vikings are close to entering into a corporate agreement, LaCroix said: "At this point, there is no plan for that. But certainly as we get closer to the deadline and have discussions with the league office, we'll pursue every option possible."

LaCroix acknowledged the Labor Day long weekend left the Vikings "with a lot of work to do in the next 48 hours.

The NFL occasionally grants extensions. If granted, the decision would not come until Thursday.

If the game is blacked out, no one in the Vikings' primary or secondary television markets — those roughly 75 miles from the Twin Cities — would be able to watch the game.

Although nearly 65,000 can squeeze inside the Metrodome, the NFL considers 62,000 tickets there a sellout. The Vikings narrowly avoided a blackout for last Thursday's preseason finale against Dallas, announcing 62,938 tickets sold — a figure that included 4,000 discounted for area youth football players as part of an annual NFL program.

The game qualified as the smallest announced attendance for a Vikings game at the Metrodome — preseason, regular season or playoffs — since the 1998 preseason, when their 96-game sellout streak began. Their last blackout was Dec. 21, 1997, when 54,107 tickets were sold for the Vikings' 39-28 victory over Indianapolis.

Complicating matters have been thousands of discounted tickets available on eBay and through StubHub and other distribution companies. Those tickets already have been sold, and therefore don't count as part of the 3,500 remaining, but the prices and location are in some instances better than tickets the Vikings are offering.

Tuesday night, tickets were available for as low as $3 from StubHub, the cheapest ticket available from StubHub for any NFL game this weekend.
On eBay, a pair of tickets in the upper corner of the Metrodome sold for $10.20 ($2.25 plus $7.95 for shipping).

Ticket King's Mike Nowakowski said he has unobstructed views for $15; face value for those tickets is $19.61.

************************************************** *********

Tickets available for 3 bucks and the Metrodome cannot be sold out for an NFL game!! The league office will not like that.

Fox will lose money also and not like it.

Bet they could do better in Las Vegas, Portland, Charleston, or LA.

[Badgerinmaine]

Gee--I guess some people don't think of Joey Harrington as a marquee draw :P

I presume, though, that the tickets StubHub has on sale are ones someone has already bought and is trying to unload. Even if those all got sold, the team apparently still has seats that need to go to lift the blackout. And if the game is blacked out in the Twin Cities, maybe they'd show the Packers instead. I think a lot of people in Hudson and River Falls (to say nothing of Pack fans in Minnesota) would love that.

[oregonpackfan]

Can't sell out tickets to the season opener? Pitiful.

How many decades ago did that happen to the Packers, if ever?

Patler, can you look this up in the history books? :)

[CaliforniaCheez]

if the game is blacked out in the Twin Cities, maybe they'd show the Packers instead. I think a lot of people in Hudson and River Falls (to say nothing of Pack fans in Minnesota) would love that.

They won't, at least not this week of the Fox double header. It is part of the NFL contract.

In all of California and across the nation the Packer game will be televised.

In Minneapolis, near the Metrodome, some sucker will be trying to unload his tickets. People at home will do somthing besides watch the vikings. On Monday nobody at work in the Twin Cities will talk about the Viking game. Few care to see it.

[KYPack]

$2 is too much for a bad seat in that baggie dome.

[swede]

The smell of scorched plastic in the warm autumn sun... $50 million in TIF funds.

The taste of purple jello salad with marshmallows...$4.75

The crisp feel of a Vikings ticket in your hand on a Sunday afternoon...

Priceless!

No wait...three bucks.

[Cheesehead Craig]

The Packer game is going to be shown here in the Twin Cities if the Vikes are blacked out. At least that is what several of my co-workers told me today. I'm just waiting until noon tomorrow to see what happens.

Rumor is that the local FOX station is looking at buying the tickets so that they can broadcast the game and keep their advertisers happy.

[]{ilr]3]

The Packer game is going to be shown here in the Twin Cities if the Vikes are blacked out. At least that is what several of my co-workers told me today. I'm just waiting until noon tomorrow to see what happens.

Rumor is that the local FOX station is looking at buying the tickets so that they can broadcast the game and keep their advertisers happy.

I get my FOX station out of Mankato, I would LOVE to see the packers on opening day instead of the vikings!

Common you vikings fans, stayyyyyy, stayyyyyy.......Good Boy! :P

[Scott Campbell]

Hey Ras - this is unbelievable. WTF? $3 a ticket?

[MJZiggy]

Considering what I paid for Packer/Bear tickets, this is actually kind of depressing... :o

[Mazzin]

I honestly want to hear what ol' Rastak has to say haha. One another note, Ras, you BETTER be going to that game!

[Scott Campbell]

Seriously, can you even go to an Arena league game for that?

A Viking ticket is now worth less than a gallon of gas.

[BallHawk]

Seriously, can you even go to an Arena league game for that?

Put it this way, high school football tickets cost $5.

So basically, you can see a high school team for the price of seeing an NFL team.

Even though the talent levels are probably very similar. :wink:

[oregonpackfan]

Considering what I paid for Packer/Bear tickets, this is actually kind of depressing... :o

"You get what you pay for..." :)

[Bretsky]

I would rather stay home and watch football on TV than pay $3 to go watch Tavarius Jackson

[Cheesehead Craig]

I would rather stay home and watch football on TV than pay $3 to go watch Tavarius Jackson
It's actually Tarvaris (have to correct Bretsky when I can :D )

The locals here are simply in a state of resignation that it will be a blackout. I've tried baiting them several times on how pathetic it is but they simply won't bite.

I would be stunned if I didn't know first hand how Minnesotans view their sports teams. If there's not big name player (Garnett, now gone) or successful team, they simply don't care. They are the biggest band-wagon, fair-weathered fans I've come across. There are of course exceptions like Rastak, but the vast majority of "fans" are not like him.

[superfan]

I'm not sure if this is good news or bad news. Is the blackout completely effective? In other words, if a bar has NFL Ticket, will the game then be available in a Twin Cities bar, just not on the locals? I'm not sure how that works.

Last thing I need is more belligerent Viking fans crowding around while I'm trying to watch the Packer game...

On the other hand, if it is not shown anywhere, I should be able to pick any prime location to watch the Pack, instead of the usual 13 inch black and white tv in a broom closet that the average bar provides for the Green Bay game. That's assuming that I don't go to to one of the dozens of area Packer bars.

[GrnBay007]

I feel bad for Rastak and the team he loves. Very sad. Can you imagine how all of us Packer fans would feel if anything even half remotely happened to our fan base? .............not that it EVER would..........but just saying....

Edit....the team he loves during the course of his transition to the Green and Gold. :P

[CaliforniaCheez]

I'm not sure if this is good news or bad news. Is the blackout completely effective? In other words, if a bar has NFL Ticket, will the game then be available in a Twin Cities bar, just not on the locals? I'm not sure how that works.

Last thing I need is more belligerent Viking fans crowding around while I'm trying to watch the Packer game...

http://www.startribune.com/510/story/1388730.html

The Falcons game is scheduled to be televised on local Fox affiliate KMSP (Ch. 9), but a blackout would mean a noon game would air on CBS in the Twin Cities. Secondary markets such as Alexandria, Austin, Mankato, Redwood Falls, Rochester and Mason City, Iowa would also see a different game. There would also be a 3:15 p.m. game televised on Fox.

Blackout rules also apply to customers in those markets who have the NFL Ticket package on DirecTV.

Minnesotans wishing to view a blacked-out Vikings game must travel to a non-local market. Because the Vikings-Falcons game is scheduled to be shown to only 9 percent of the country, a blackout would limit the in-state broadcast to markets with independent Fox stations, such as Duluth.

************************************************** *

Sunday is a Fox double header.
With the viking blackout CBS gets a double header in the viking markets. Direct TV is blacked out locally as well.
No Packer game in Minneapolis on Fox.

[superfan]

Thanks, Cheez.

Shocking that only 9% of the country would get Falcons-Vikings. :shock: :D

[mngolf19]

Hey, I'll be watching on my Directv. :)

[superfan]

Guess we won't know until Friday. From the Star Tribune:

Extension granted
September 6th, 2007 – 11:19 AM by Kevin Seifert

The NFL has granted the Vikings a 24-hour extension to sell out Sunday’s season-opener against Atlanta. The team announced this morning that it has 1,700 tickets remaining.

Those tickets must be sold by 2 p.m. Friday, or the game will be blacked out in the Vikings’ primary and secondary television markets.

The Vikings have slowly been making headway since announcing Aug. 28 that they had 5,800 tickets remaining. They had 3,500 left Tuesday and cut that in half by today. They have not had a television blackout since the 1997 season, a span of 96 consecutive games.

[the_idle_threat]

Well I think Rastak is gonna be there anyway, so he's not gonna be SOL. Except that he paid face value for a $3 ticket. :(

[BallHawk]

Can you imagine how all of us Packer fans would feel if anything even half remotely happened to our fan base?

I can't even imagine what would happen if we left one empty seat at Lambeau. :shock:

[HarveyWallbangers]

I bet the TV station buys at the rest of the tickets. Just too much money they'll lose if the game isn't on. That shouldn't count for as a sellout.
:D

[Cheesehead Craig]

Fox has purchased the remaining 1200 season tickets to keep the game on locally.

Bad sign when you have to get corporate bailouts on the home opener. If the team starts out poorly, you can bet blackouts are going to start becoming more common in the Twin Cities.

[Scott Campbell]

Congratulations to the Vikings on their 97th consecutive sellout.


Blackout averted, normalcy returns
September 7th, 2007 – 12:22 PM by Judd Zulgad

Steve LaCroix, the Vikings’ vice president of sales and marketing, just stopped by to straighten out the situation on how a blackout of Sunday’s game was avoided. Local Fox affiliate KMSP (Ch. 9), which will air the Vikings-Falcons, actually purchased 400 tickets from the team.

The Vikings had received an extension from the NFL on Thursday and had until 2 p.m. today to sell the tickets. As of Thursday morning, the Vikings were 1,700 tickets shy of a sellout. The move makes sense for the Fox owned-and-operated station from the standpoint of ad revenues. Locally, KMSP had 16 30-second spots to sell during the game at between $15,000 and $20,000 apiece. If the game had been blacked out that would have meant the station would have lost more than $250,000 in ad revenue.

The team’s consecutive-game sellout streak will grow to 97. LaCroix said the tickets purchased by the television station will be donated to the Vikings’ “Heroes Day” initiative, which will honor the victims and their families, as well as the first responders, in the 35W bridge collapse. The Vikings’ already had donated more than 1,100 tickets for “Heroes Day.”

The Vikings will travel to Detroit and Kansas City after playing host to Atlanta. They won’t return home until Sept. 30 when they play Green Bay. LaCroix said there are fewer than 1,000 tickets left for the Packers game.

[pack4to84]

Now I know why the owner is going to move the Vikings to LA.