Vikings Home playoff game not sold out?

[chain_gang]

From Profootballtalk.com


BLACKOUT COMING FOR THE TWIN CITIES?
Posted by Mike Florio on December 29, 2008, 12:49 p.m.

The Minnesota Vikings have announced that 20,000 seats remain for Sunday’s playoff game at the Metrodome between the home team and the Eagles.

Given the manner in which the Vikings limped to the finish line, nearly losing back-to-back home games to end the regular season, we wouldn’t be surprised if the tickets don’t sell — absent the purchase of excess seats by the local FOX affiliate that will broadcast the game, if it isn’t blacked out.

Some of the seats could be bought by Eagles fans; the FOX affiliate in Philly is helping to reduce the price tag for the unsold seats by getting the word out regarding the availability of tickets — and the price of hotel rooms and plane fare.

It could be hard for the other three franchises hosting wild-card games to sell tickets as well. As pointed out in our Week Seventeen Ten-Pack for SportingNews.com, all of the home teams will be underdogs this weekend.




I find this very embarrassing to the Vikings organization, and fans. Your team gets a home playoff game and you still have 20,000 tickets available. I'm sure it'll end up being sold out, but still....

[LP]

It's Vikings football. What do you expect?

[Lurker64]

Think about it this way. Suppose you're a casual Vikings fan (as opposed to the face painting helga-horns wearing variety). Which sounds better:

1) Driving to the Metrodome, paying a lot for parking, paying a lot for your ticket, and watching a football game in the Metrodome that you don't have tremendous confidence in the outcome of anyway.

2) Staying at home, where it's warm, watching the game on the television with reasonably priced concessions as well as friends and families.

Now I'm sure there are true fans who will advocate for the former, but the dome isn't exactly an exciting venue in which to watch a football game. It's very loud, but it's ugly, cramped, and doesn't have great atmosphere other than the noise.

[Guiness]

Think about it this way. Suppose you're a casual Vikings fan (as opposed to the face painting helga-horns wearing variety). Which sounds better:

1) Driving to the Metrodome, paying a lot for parking, paying a lot for your ticket, and watching a football game in the Metrodome that you don't have tremendous confidence in the outcome of anyway.

2) Staying at home, where it's warm, watching the game on the television with reasonably priced concessions as well as friends and families.

Now I'm sure there are true fans who will advocate for the former, but the dome isn't exactly an exciting venue in which to watch a football game. It's very loud, but it's ugly, cramped, and doesn't have great atmosphere other than the noise.

I know what you're saying Lurker, and it's the age old argument. But you have to know that if you take it to its logical conclusion, then no one would go to a game at all.

Yes, NFL games are ridiculously expensive for what you get, but people spend their money on it if they like it. And the stadium doesn't much matter either. Thinking that building a new stadium will fix what ails a team is wishful thinking - it might help for about 2 yrs, but is a band-aid, not a fix.

[Cheesehead Craig]

It's Monday. They didn't know for sure if they would be in the playoffs when the games were going to be played.

This would be a story come Thursday but it's way too early. I think they sell out without the FOX help.

[red]

pft is saying this morning that 45% of season ticket holders past on the option to buy playoff tickets

thats not a good sign for the queens. and might be a final nail in a move to LA

[Rastak]

pft is saying this morning that 45% of season ticket holders past on the option to buy playoff tickets

thats not a good sign for the queens. and might be a final nail in a move to LA

I think San Diego has dibbs.


My wife was solidly against my buying tickets. Christmas drained the wallet, our new health insurance plan sucks as my company tries to offset a shitty economic climate.

This is not a great time to be peddling tickets. That having been said, I did get mine.

[denverYooper]

pft is saying this morning that 45% of season ticket holders past on the option to buy playoff tickets

thats not a good sign for the queens. and might be a final nail in a move to LA

Too bad they can't have more fans like Rastak, a Vikings fan with the allegiance and heart of a Packers fan .

[prsnfoto]

There were between 5-10 thousand no shows at Lambeau Sunday and for a team with such a rich tradition compared to one without I find that equally disappointing.

Congrats to Rastak at least your team is in the playoffs.

[]{ilr]3]

Between 5-10 thousand? That’s a pretty wide margin isn’t it? 5 maybe hard to start judging but if there were 10,000 seats empty it would have been obvious.

Just watching on the TV it appears to me to be a pretty filled out stadium and the announcers were marveling at the fact that it was so full for a late December game when the home team was way out of play off contention and the only thing interesting about the game was the visiting team could be the first to go 0-16 for a season.

I don’t see anything disappointing about that!

[red]

it sure didn't look like it was empty from inside the place

maybe one person per row was not there, allowing everyone else to spread out a bit

but there was no way it was 10% empty

and they announced the attendence at just over 70,000, like 70,035 or something like that. and that would be counting the tickets that pass through the gate, not ticket sales, i believe. which would be about 3,000 below capacity

[SMACKTALKIE]

I just bought 6 tickets, go Vikings!!

[Cheesehead Craig]

From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

The Vikings announced they have about 11,000 tickets left for Sunday’s first-round playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles at the Metrodome. Under NFL rules those tickets need to be sold by 3:30 p.m. Thursday to avoid a blackout of the game, which is scheduled to be aired locally on KMSP (Ch. 9). However, Steve LaCroix, the Vikings vice president of sales and marketing and chief operating officer, said the team already has asked the NFL for a 24-hour extension until 3:30 p.m. Friday.

The request for an extension is usually made the day of the deadline but with Thursday being New Year’s the Vikings decided to be proactive with the league. The Vikings have not heard yet whether the extension will be granted but that likely will be the case.

http://blogs.startribune.com/vikingsblog/?p=2361

They will get the extension but I guess I was wrong that Fox wouldn't have to buy any tickets. Question is how many will they have to buy. From what I've heard is that the magic number is around 3000 for them. If it's less than that, the FOX station will buy them, but more than that and it's dicey if they will.

[Lurker64]

Minnesota isn't the only home playoff team struggling to sell tickets; as I understand it they're facing a blackout in Arizona as well. I wonder if this is just a sign of the flagging economy, and people not willing to pay inflated NFL playoff ticket prices when the game is broadcast for free (probably), or if it's a function of the lack of confidence the people of Minnesota and Arizona have of advancing.

But it's been a while since either the Vikings or the Cards were in the playoffs, you'd think that the fans of either team would be excited about this.

[cpk1994]

I think the balckout rules is stupid for the playoffs. Regular season I can understand, but this is NFL greed at its worst.