The Frozen Half-Empty Tundra of Lambeau Field?
The Green Bay Packers — the venerable franchise known for its diehard fans’ insatiable demand for tickets — is one of three home teams facing the potential of not selling out playoff games this weekend and enduring local television blackouts.
The Packers, Colts and Bengals and Packers received one-day extensions from the NFL to sell their remaining playoff tickets and avoid blackouts.
The Packers (8-7-1) had roughly 3,000 tickets left for the wild-card game Sunday against San Francisco (12-4).
The Colts announced their extension on their website Thursday, about an hour before a previous extension was supposed to expire. Fewer than 3,500 tickets remained for Saturday’s wild-card game against Kansas City (11-5). The team had said about 5,500 tickets were left Wednesday night.
The Bengals (11-5) also had tickets left for their game Sunday afternoon against San Diego (9-7).
Normally, teams must sell out 72 hours before kickoff to have a game broadcast in the local market.
With a long waiting list for season tickets, not selling out a playoff game is an unusual scenario for the Packers. The last time a Packers home game didn’t sell out was in January 1983 when they hosted the St. Louis Cardinals in a first-round playoff game in a strike-shortened season.
The forecast for Sunday calls for temperatures around minus-5 in Green Bay, with the windchill pushing the real-feel to minus-20.
The Eagles, who play host to the Saints, were the only team to sell out their wild-card game in a timely fashion.
With AP