The NFL currently has put together an impressive streak, even if it requires the application of an asterisk.
Through five weeks of the 2013 regular season, not a single game will be blacked out locally, according to the NFL. It’s the first time that has happened since 2008, when the season’s first blackout happened in Week Eight. Two years earlier, the first blackout came in Week 12.
Last year, three games were blacked out through the first five weeks of the season.
Making it easier to “sell out” stadiums is the new (as of 2012) ability of teams to reduce their minimum sales threshold from 100 percent of all non-premium seats to 85 percent.
While no extensions of the 72-hour deadline for selling the minimum number of tickets were requested this week, it’s still possible that teams like the Raiders or Rams bought any unsold tickets at 34 cents on the dollar.
Potential hot spots for Week Six include Buffalo and San Diego. Tampa would be a possible blackout location, but the organization announced last week that all home games will be televised, meaning that the team and/or its sponsors will buy any remaining tickets for all home games played at Raymond James Stadium.