Russell J. Salvatore, a Buffalo restaurateur (there really is no “n” in there), has saved the Bills from a Week 16 blackout by purchasing the unsold seats for the team’s December 26 home game against the Patriots.
According to Lou Michel of the Buffalo News, Salvatore bought somewhere between 7,000 and 8,000 non-premium tickets.
“The timing couldn’t be better,” Salvatore, 77, said. “It’s Christmas. It’s the last game of the season. What a way to go.”
The tickets will be given to members of the military and charitable organizations involved with young people.
We hope that Salvatore was permitted to pay 34 cents on the dollar for the tickets. That’s the amount the home team may pay for each unsold non-premium ticket in order to lift a blackout.
A couple of weeks ago, Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco said that he planned to do the same thing. We’ve got a feeling that, once he learned how much it would cost, he decided not to go through with it.
Presumably after moping about it.