The Bengals are 3-1 and playing at home on Sunday, but they haven’t been able to sell enough tickets to avoid a television blackout just yet.
The team announced Tuesday that they have received an extension from the league in hopes of selling enough of their non-premium seats for the game against the Dolphins. The original deadline was 1 p.m. on Thursday, but the team will now have until 4 p.m. Friday to move the seats.
Since the Bengals opted not to take advantage of the new NFL rule enabling teams to lower their blackout threshold up to 15 percent this season, they have to sell all of them for the game to get on television. They think the extension is a sign they’ll be able to get it done.
“The extension is a positive sign. We’ve had strong interest all offseason, into the preseason, and now the winning streak has really picked things up the last week or two, so we’re hoping for a packed stadium,” Bengals ticket sales manager Andrew Brown said. “It’s going to be a nice fall day with two young, exciting quarterbacks in Andy Dalton and Ryan Tannehill going at it in a close game.”
There will be a Reds road playoff game at some point on Sunday, something that could limit the pool of ticket buyers, but, as Brown points out, you only have so many chances to see Dalton and Tannehill tangle on a nice fall day. There have been three blackouts so far this season, two in Tampa Bay and one in San Diego.