No blackout as sellout is achieved

Go ahead and grab that remote control, along with your favorite spot on the couch. The Vikings' playoff game against Philadelphia is going to be televised on Fox affiliate KMSP (Ch. 9).

The Vikings announced Saturday that they had sold the remaining 3,100 tickets for today's game at the Metrodome, thus avoiding their first local television blackout since the 1997 regular-season finale. This came after the NFL granted the Vikings two 24-hour extensions of its blackout rule, which states that if a game is not sold out 72 hours in advance it can't be shown in the local market.

Steve LaCroix, Vikings vice president of sales and marketing, said the team had fewer than 2,000 tickets left Saturday morning and there was a "real late push" of sales in the late morning and early afternoon.

"We're very happy," he said. "It took the full week, and obviously it would be best to get it done the first day. But the key thing is, it got done and the league was very accommodating giving us extra time to work through the holidays. ... I definitely want to give the ultimate credit to our fans for making this happen."

LaCroix said that unlike in previous situations a corporation, or the local station set to carry the game, did not step in to buy a block of tickets at the last minute.

The surplus of tickets stemmed from the fact that only 55 percent of the Vikings' season-ticket holders elected to purchase playoff seats. The Vikings had 20,000 to sell Monday, a day after they clinched the NFC North title with a victory over the New York Giants.

LaCroix said the team added five people to a ticket office that is usually staffed by about 12, and a telephone marketing firm was used to call prospective customers.

The Vikings, who will extend their sellout streak to 115 games, had 14,000 tickets left on Tuesday, 11,000 on Wednesday and 8,000 on New Year's Day. "The big thing was going from 8,000 down to right around 3,000," LaCroix said. "That was big coming out of New Year's Day."

The Vikings are urging fans who have tickets at will call for today's game to arrive early because of "heavier-than-usual demand on those areas."