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

[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 )

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.

[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.

[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.

[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.