Vikings Have 3,100 NFL Playoff Tickets Left; Cardinals Sell Out
Email | Print | A A A
By Aaron Kuriloff and Larry DiTore
Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The Minnesota Vikings were granted a final 24-hour extension by the National Football League to sell the remaining tickets for their playoff game this weekend against the Philadelphia Eagles.
The NFL had given the Vikings, as well as the Arizona Cardinals, until 4:30 p.m. New York time to sell out their game or risk a blackout on local television. The league extended the deadline after Minnesota still had 3,100 unsold seats, the team said in a news release.
The Cardinals announced in their own release that their playoff game against the Atlanta Falcons is sold out. The league sets time limits that require teams to sell all tickets in advance of games to allow them to be televised locally.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said that the U.S.’s most-watched television sport isn’t immune from the economic slump. The league said it’s cutting playoff ticket prices in response to an economy that’s been in a recession since the end of 2007.
The Cardinals were successful selling the 3,700 tickets that they said yesterday were left. The Vikings said yesterday they had 8,000 seats unsold.
Enough tickets were sold in San Diego to avoid a television blackout of tomorrow’s wild-card game between the Chargers and Indianapolis Colts, the team said on Dec. 31.
The Dolphins said that their game against the Baltimore Ravens the following day is sold out. It marked the first time since Miami played host to the Buffalo Bills in the American Football Conference championship game on Jan. 17, 1993 that all general seating tickets for a home playoff game were sold on the first day.
Vikings’ Game on Fox
Tomorrow’s wild-card game between the Cardinals and Falcons is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. New York time and will be televised on General Electric Co.’s NBC network. The Jan. 4 game between the Vikings and Eagles will start at 4:30 p.m. and be televised on Fox.
The Cardinals finished 9-7 in the regular season and won the National Football Conference’s West Division, while Minnesota was 10-6, first in the NFC North.
Arizona, hosting its first playoff game since 1947 when the franchise was based in Chicago, has sold out all 30 games played in three seasons at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, according to the team.
Phoenix-based Leslie’s Swimming Pool Supplies also purchased a large block of tickets and is giving some to customers and some to the Boys and Girls Club of Metropolitan Phoenix, the Cardinals said on their Web site.
Since 1997
The Vikings haven’t had a game blacked out since their regular-season finale in 1997, and it’s been seven years since NFL playoff games weren’t shown in their local markets, according to Bob Hagan, a spokesman for the team.
Following the 2001 season, a wild-card game featuring Baltimore at Miami wasn’t televised locally.
Steve LaCroix, vice president of sales and marketing for the Vikings, told the Star-Tribune in Minneapolis that he hadn’t been successful in trying to land a similar corporate buyer for a portion of his team’s remaining tickets.
The NFL said last month that it would cut about 14 percent of its workforce and freeze salaries through 2009. The league also said in November that it would reduce playoff ticket prices an average of 10 percent in response to the “economic challenges facing fans.”
Employers cut 533,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent, the highest since 1993, the Labor Department said on Dec. 5.
Housing prices and sales have plunged. In Phoenix, home prices were down 32.7 percent in October 2008 from the same month a year earlier, while in Minneapolis, they were 16.3 percent lower, according to an S&P/Case-Shiller index.
Email | Print | A A A
By Aaron Kuriloff and Larry DiTore
Jan. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The Minnesota Vikings were granted a final 24-hour extension by the National Football League to sell the remaining tickets for their playoff game this weekend against the Philadelphia Eagles.
The NFL had given the Vikings, as well as the Arizona Cardinals, until 4:30 p.m. New York time to sell out their game or risk a blackout on local television. The league extended the deadline after Minnesota still had 3,100 unsold seats, the team said in a news release.
The Cardinals announced in their own release that their playoff game against the Atlanta Falcons is sold out. The league sets time limits that require teams to sell all tickets in advance of games to allow them to be televised locally.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said that the U.S.’s most-watched television sport isn’t immune from the economic slump. The league said it’s cutting playoff ticket prices in response to an economy that’s been in a recession since the end of 2007.
The Cardinals were successful selling the 3,700 tickets that they said yesterday were left. The Vikings said yesterday they had 8,000 seats unsold.
Enough tickets were sold in San Diego to avoid a television blackout of tomorrow’s wild-card game between the Chargers and Indianapolis Colts, the team said on Dec. 31.
The Dolphins said that their game against the Baltimore Ravens the following day is sold out. It marked the first time since Miami played host to the Buffalo Bills in the American Football Conference championship game on Jan. 17, 1993 that all general seating tickets for a home playoff game were sold on the first day.
Vikings’ Game on Fox
Tomorrow’s wild-card game between the Cardinals and Falcons is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. New York time and will be televised on General Electric Co.’s NBC network. The Jan. 4 game between the Vikings and Eagles will start at 4:30 p.m. and be televised on Fox.
The Cardinals finished 9-7 in the regular season and won the National Football Conference’s West Division, while Minnesota was 10-6, first in the NFC North.
Arizona, hosting its first playoff game since 1947 when the franchise was based in Chicago, has sold out all 30 games played in three seasons at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, according to the team.
Phoenix-based Leslie’s Swimming Pool Supplies also purchased a large block of tickets and is giving some to customers and some to the Boys and Girls Club of Metropolitan Phoenix, the Cardinals said on their Web site.
Since 1997
The Vikings haven’t had a game blacked out since their regular-season finale in 1997, and it’s been seven years since NFL playoff games weren’t shown in their local markets, according to Bob Hagan, a spokesman for the team.
Following the 2001 season, a wild-card game featuring Baltimore at Miami wasn’t televised locally.
Steve LaCroix, vice president of sales and marketing for the Vikings, told the Star-Tribune in Minneapolis that he hadn’t been successful in trying to land a similar corporate buyer for a portion of his team’s remaining tickets.
The NFL said last month that it would cut about 14 percent of its workforce and freeze salaries through 2009. The league also said in November that it would reduce playoff ticket prices an average of 10 percent in response to the “economic challenges facing fans.”
Employers cut 533,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate rose to 6.7 percent, the highest since 1993, the Labor Department said on Dec. 5.
Housing prices and sales have plunged. In Phoenix, home prices were down 32.7 percent in October 2008 from the same month a year earlier, while in Minneapolis, they were 16.3 percent lower, according to an S&P/Case-Shiller index.
