Vikings do their best to avoid blackout

Vikings players had the day off from football Tuesday, but there was no rest for an organization that is faced with having its first-round playoff game blacked out locally.

While linebacker Chad Greenway and Pro Bowl defensive tackles Kevin and Pat Williams made radio appearances in an attempt to move tickets for Sunday's game against Philadelphia, the Vikings announced Tuesday that 14,000 still remain. That's a significant number given that this week includes the New Year's holiday.

In fact, Steve LaCroix, the Vikings vice president of sales and marketing and chief marketing officer, said Tuesday evening the team likely will ask the NFL today for a 24-hour extension to reach a sellout. League rules state that if a game is not sold out 72 hours before kickoff -- or in this case by 3:30 p.m. Thursday -- that it will not be shown in the local and secondary markets of the home team. Sunday's game is scheduled to be aired on Fox affiliate KMSP (Ch. 9).

Teams usually wait until the day of the deadline to request an extension but LaCroix said that with New Year's falling on Thursday the Vikings might be proactive and attempt to get the deadline moved now. "We would consider an extension of the deadline if there is significant progress toward a sellout," said Dan Masonson, the NFL's director of corporate communications. Masonson refused to speculate on if there was any potential for the Vikings to get an extension into Saturday.

The Vikings have not had a game blacked out since their regular-season finale in 1997, and an NFL playoff game has not been blacked out in a local market since viewers in Miami were unable to see the Dolphins play host to Baltimore on Jan. 13, 2002.

The Vikings had approximately 20,000 tickets left on Monday, a day after a 20-19 victory against the New York Giants gave them the NFC North title. The Vikings have faced local television blackouts on eight occasions over the past two seasons, but in each case they were able to sell out thanks in part to corporate help. However, that was with about 5,000 tickets left in each case the Monday before the game.

It's unclear if Fox would be willing to help buy the remaining tickets if the Vikings can get it down to a manageable number. A network spokesperson said Tuesday that as of right now KMSP is running spots encouraging people to buy tickets, but that is the only step that has been taken.

In addition to viewers in the area served by KMSP, other communities that would not get the telecast include Alexandria, Redwood Falls, Austin, Mankato, Rochester and Mason City, Iowa. DirecTV subscribers in the Twin Cities and these secondary markets also would not get the game.

The number of seats remaining for this game is so high because only about 55 percent of the team's 55,000 season-ticket holders elected to purchase playoff tickets that are priced between $30 and $160 for Sunday. The NFL requires the Vikings to sell 62,000 tickets to consider a Metrodome game sold out.

Mike Nowakowski, a part owner of Ticket King, said his company has been selling Vikings tickets but it mainly has been premium lower-level seats that he has priced between $125 and $300.

"I think where the Vikings are running into issues are they have a lot of upper-level seats," he said. "But I can tell you that I've seen events like this where it seems like no one cares and then all of a sudden people jump on the bandwagon. ... These things have a way of snowballing into being a bigger event than they were at the beginning of the week."

LaCroix pointed to the fact that the San Diego Chargers had sold more than 17,000 tickets as of Monday night for their playoff game Saturday against Indianapolis, and that the Miami Dolphins sold 25,000 tickets to sell out their Sunday game against Baltimore.