As streaks go, the Bengals matched Joe DiMaggio, and they beat him by one. But that’s where it ends.
After 57 straight home regular-season sellouts, the Bengals have failed to sell all non-premium tickets to Sunday’s home game against the Bills. As a result, the game won’t be televised locally.
It’s the first Bengals blackout since November 2003.
“Sales have been slow this week and not a lot of progress has been made,” Bengals ticket manager Andrew Brown told Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “The pace has slowed considerably. There’s not a lot of momentum right now to move tickets in bulk.”
The fact that the two teams who’ll play on Sunday have a combined record of 3-15 may have something to do with that.
It’s unclear how many tickets weren’t sold, but the number apparently is high enough to prevent the Bengals and/or their sponsors from buying the unsold seats at 34 cents on the dollar.