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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.
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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.
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