Minnesota Vikings vice president of sales and marketing Steve LaCroix said he's "confident" the Vikings will sell out the playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles but that there's still a "big challenge" ahead with 11,000 tickets remaining. Unless the Vikings sell out the game, it will be blacked out locally in the Twin Cities area.
The NFL already has granted the Vikings a 24-hour extension, meaning the Vikings have until 3:30 p.m. Friday to avoid a blackout.
LaCroix said there's precedent for an NFL playoff game to be blacked out locally on TV. The Miami Dolphins had a playoff game blacked out in 2002, LaCroix said.
"We were hoping we'd be a little further along at this point, but we feel good that we're still within striking distance," LaCroix said.
Philadelphia fans have been critical of Vikings fans for not selling out the game right away.
"Well they're not short on opinions," said Childress of Eagles fans. "They have a passion just like the people here have a passion. I wouldn't know what that problem is, possibly it's the holidays, and possibly it's a moot point by the time we get to Sunday."
Asked whether he could gauge how much interest there's been from Eagles fans buying tickets, LaCroix said: "They're promoting heavily in that market to come to Minnesota. We need to remind them that it was eight below this morning, so maybe that will help keep them away. They're promoting 'Come to Minnesota, turn the purple stadium green,' and obviously we want to counter that and make sure we maintain the home-field advantage."
