With fewer than 24 hours to go until the deadline for selling all non-premium seats at Paul Brown Stadium in advance of Sunday’s game against the Broncos, roughly 5,000 tickets remain unsold, according to Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Enquirer.
And this means that the game could be blacked out locally.
Typically, extensions of the 72-hour window are made available by the league office, usually if there’s a clear indication that the tickets will be sold. In some cases, the local television network slated to televise the game will bite the bullet and buy the tickets.
The Bengals, despite a chronic history of ineptitude, have sold out every home game since 2003, and they’re riding a Pete Rose hitting streak (hey, I used to follow baseball) of 44 straight non-blackouts.
In this case (as it possibly was in the other), Pete thinks the smart bet is that the string won’t make it to 45.