The Bengals have 24 more hours to sell all the non-premium tickets at Paul Brown Stadium for Sunday’s game against the Chargers or they’ll face the prospect of a local television blackout.
The team announced that they received an extension from the league because of “strong ticket sales” that occurred on Thursday. The release from the Bengals also mentions support from several local businesses who have bought tickets that will provide tickets to military families through the Armed Forces Ticket Association as part of the reason why the extension was granted.
Unmentioned is the fact that the league would like to avoid the negative reaction that would come with a blackout of a postseason game, especially with two other teams trying to avoid that fate this weekend. The league has not had a postseason game blacked out since 2001.
The effort to keep the Bengals from breaking that streak has involved Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley and the effort will keep cranking through Friday afternoon in hopes of keeping empty seats from being a talking point after Wild Card weekend.