With more than 10,000 unsold non-premium tickets available as of last week for Sunday’s game between the Rams and the Bills, Buffalo was destined to have a second straight local blackout.
Thanks to Russell J. Salvatore, that won’t happen.
According to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, the local restaurant owner bought the remaining tickets, allowing the game to be televised locally.
In 2010, Salvatore did the same thing, buying up more than 7,000 tickets before a game against the Patriots. The specific number of tickets that he purchased this time around isn’t known.
But here’s the thing. Why is a local citizen buying these unsold tickets and not, say, the billionaire who owns the team? Under a little-known tweak in the NFL’s blackout rules, unsold tickets can be bought for 34 cents on the dollar. And while it’s possible that Russell’s Steaks, Chops, & More is turning a hefty profit, few profits are heftier than the profit turned by an NFL team.
Salvatore may get to do it again in a few weeks. The team announced Wednesday that more than 10,000 tickets remain for a December 30 game against the Jets.